Are Sabiki Rigs still legal in Wa.?

WanderingRichard has brought the latest Wa. DF&W clarification of the new Wa. anti-snagging rule to our attention over on another thread, and there is one line in that new rule that makes me question whether or not we'll be allowed to continue to use sabiki rigs in Wa.  That line reads like this: "Weights may not be attached below or less than 12” above the lure or bait."

At first glance, I was thinking that the gear rule that restricts floating anglers to only 2 hooks on one line would make a trimmed down sabiki (trimmed down to only two hooks) a futile effort at best (provided that the weight at the bottom was not an issue), but I've noticed that there is a SPECIAL rules section specifically written to deal with catching "Forage Fish".  Those rules say that either 3 treble hooks or as many as NINE single point hooks can be used, and that TWO lines can be fished at one time in areas 5-11 & 13.

Since this section of special forage fish rules is written to carefully give dispensation allowing many more than just two hooks when specifically fishing for "forage fish", I suspect that the weight at the bottom of the line will ultimately be allowed too.  I'll be calling the Wa. D of F&W tomorrow to see what I can find out in that regard.  I'll certainly post something back here when I have some sort of definite direction from them.

Fishin-T

All,

Okay, I called WDFW and put the question to them.  Short answer:  Sabiki rigs are definitely perfectly legal on the sound.  I was told that the new anti-snagging rules apply to the rivers and not on the sound.  Oh happy day.


Fishin-T