As per CO fishing regulations [1] a single line may have 3 hooks --> "Each line shall have only three common hooks attached."
As fly guy, I found a 3 hook rig does increase catch rate, but it does so at the expense of more foul hooked fish.
What I see happen is when fish take one of the top 2 offerings, they often become foul hooked by the one (or both) of the other offerings during the fight or when getting them into the net. This happened frequently enough to me that I completely stopped fishing 3 hook rigs (long ago) and now only use 2 hook rigs. With a 2 hook rig I rarely ever get a foul hooked fish, even when they take the top offering.
While I'm sure most fish survive a foul "body hook", many folks are still using barbed hooks which don't pull out so nicely and can damage trout.
With that in mind, I'd be all for a 2 hook limit on CnR only sections of CO water.
I'd even support barbless only on CnR sections
Any thoughts?
[1] https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/RulesRegs/Brochure/fishing.pdf
As fly guy, I found a 3 hook rig does increase catch rate, but it does so at the expense of more foul hooked fish.
What I see happen is when fish take one of the top 2 offerings, they often become foul hooked by the one (or both) of the other offerings during the fight or when getting them into the net. This happened frequently enough to me that I completely stopped fishing 3 hook rigs (long ago) and now only use 2 hook rigs. With a 2 hook rig I rarely ever get a foul hooked fish, even when they take the top offering.
While I'm sure most fish survive a foul "body hook", many folks are still using barbed hooks which don't pull out so nicely and can damage trout.
With that in mind, I'd be all for a 2 hook limit on CnR only sections of CO water.
I'd even support barbless only on CnR sections
Any thoughts?
[1] https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/RulesRegs/Brochure/fishing.pdf