Hyrum / Mantua

[Fishrmn]

The rule is only a few years old, and not likely to change anytime soon. (in my opinion) If you had seen what was going on at Minersville you'd understand why. There were a bunch of guys who were using colored foam on a treble hook. Foam earplugs were very popular. They would soak them in fish oils or crawdad scent. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that some of them were using powerbait scents. They have that in little tubes in a couple of colors. Some for trout, and some for walleye. Anyway these guys said that since the foam wasn't digestible, it was an artificial lure, just like a foam bass bug. They would fish it just like powerbait. Then they would try to take the hooks out of the guts of the fish that they caught and let them go. It was disgusting to see DOZENS of nice fish floating belly up around these guys. ( Notice that I haven't called them any bad names, nor have I called them fishermen) The DWR had to weigh all of the pros and cons about this and the problem they had on the Green and Provo rivers. There they had guys soaking glow bugs (artificial salmon eggs) in Pautzkees salmon egg milk. (I think that's what it is called) Anyway, how do you think that worked? It worked really well. But the fish had a tendency to swallow the glow bugs. It kind of defeats the idea of artificial flies and lures only to limit the mortality of the fish. Doesn't it?
So, while it isn't all black and white, few things are, they decided to err on the side of caution. If you don't have scents or scented lures in your posession you can't use them when no one is looking.

Fishrmn