RECKLESS ABANDON
Derelict fishing lines foul Texas freshwater fisheries and leave lasting impression
The river’s water level finally had fallen after weeks of being above flood stage, and the current in the old slough carried green water instead of the sediment-saturated, chocolate-color sludge that had inundated the bottomland.
Fishing likely would be good. The scenery certainly was, with cypresses and tupelo, ash and willows in full blush, and patches of lizardtail with their sassafras-like scent bursting from the newly enriched black soil — all accented with songs and flashes of color offered by a world of birds.
There were so many reasons to be looking forward to poking the boat into the slough, probing the buttonbush clumps and cypress knees with lures and live shiners, anticipating hook-ups with bass ,crappie and catfish and maybe even hard-fighting a grinnel, gaspergou or red-eyed warmouth.
But a bothersome sense of dread based on history leavened that anticipation. And with good reason, it sadly proved.
Two bends up the waterway, I saw the first one. A strand of brown cord hung from a cypress branch. At its end, a single bare hook dangled barely in the water. Another one hung just a dozen yards away, its (thankfully) empty hook a couple of inches above the water surface.
Limb lines. Texas fishing regulations term them “throwlines” — single fishing lines tied to a limb or other suitable fixture hanging over the water. Anglers attach them to the limb, bait them and leave them, returning a couple of hours — or a couple of days — later to see if a fish has taken the bait.
Limb lines can be very effective, especially when rivers or stream or other waterways rise and put water under shoreline vegetation. When this stretch of river rises, limb lines often sprout like a riot of vines along the slough’s borders, targeting the blue, channel and occasional big flathead catfish that take advantage of the rising water to forage in newly flooded hunting grounds.
Legal means legal
Limb-lining is a traditional fishing method and perfectly fine if practiced legally, honorably and ethically.
It too seldom is. And the consequences are disturbing, dangerous and can be horribly injurious to fish and more.
The same often applies to trotlines and jug lines, two other forms of “passive” fishing in which lines are set, checked hours or days later by the person who sets them and, far too often, simply abandons the inexpensive fishing gear.
Trotlines — a single main line as much as 600 feet with as many as 50 hooks hung from dropper stagings along its length, secured at both ends and submerged — are the most common such “passive” fishing gear.
Jug lines — a single line with as many as five hooks suspended beneath a float and allowed to drift in the water — are a freefloating version of throwlines.
The three types of passive gear can be used to legally take only channel, blue and flathead catfish and non-game fish such as buffalo. Any gamefish taken must be released alive.
The limb lines in the slough — there proved to be a half-dozen of them on this day — were abandoned, left by whomever put them out weeks or maybe months before. They were illegal, too. Not one of them had the gear tag that state regulations require on the three types of passive fishing gear used in freshwater; that gear tag is required to include the name and address of the angler who set it and the date it was set out.
This was far from the first such abandoned lines I had encountered on this stretch of public water. Over the years on this water and others across the state, I have found scores of abandoned limb lines, trotlines and a few jug lines. Not one of them was legal; none had the required gear tag. Worse — much worse — was what some of those lines held. I have found countless fish, almost all of them dead, on the derelict lines. Lots of catfish, the primary target of these lines. But largemouth bass, buffalo, gar and other species, too. Valuable resources wasted.
Sadly, fish have been far from the only things I’ve found impaled on the abandoned lines. There have been birds. Lots of birds. Owls and hawks, egrets and heron. They had flown into the lines and been tangled or snagged, left hanging there until they died.
And there have been other wildlife claimed by these abandoned trotlines, limb lines and jug lines. Alligators, otters and raccoons. And dozens of turtles, probably the most common victims other than fish.
Humans also fall prey to these derelict lines, too. Boaters whose outboard motor encounters a submerged abandoned trotline often have, at best, a mess on their hands trying to remove the resulting ball of hook-studded line wrapped tightly around their propeller. If they are lucky, that line hasn’t worked its way behind the prop and torn into the lower unit seals, causing expensive damage.
Toll adds up
And these lines don’t quickly disappear or rot away. They can remain effective at catching fish (yes, fish will bite bare hooks) for months or weeks or maybe years if they are fit with stainless steel hooks that resist deterioration.
It is hard to qualify just how common these abandoned lines are across Texas’ inland waters or quantify their effect on fish, wildlife and boaters. And their presence is a challenge to address.
It would seem a logical thing for anyone encountering an abandoned trotline, throw line or jug line to simply cut or pick up the line and properly dispose of it. But that is not an option; at least not legally.
Under Texas law, all trotlines, throw lines and jug lines — even those obviously abandoned or those without the required gear tags attached to them — are considered private property. Removing them is illegal for the average citizen. Only law enforcement officers have authority to remove the illegal lines, and even they face a considerable hassle getting rid of them.
Texas game wardens, who remove derelict and illegal trotlines, throw lines and jug lines they encounter are required to treat the items as the private property the law says they are. Wardens who collect derelict and illegal lines must store the items, and post notice of their confiscation at the county courthouse in the county where they were found describing the gear and asking anyone who want to claim them to do so. If no one claims the confiscated lines within 10 days, a judge must hold a hearing to determine if the gear is unlawful. If the court rules it is, only then can wardens destroy or dispose of it.
“To my knowledge, we’ve never had anyone claim (confiscated trotlines, jug lines or throw lines),” Jarret Barker, assistant commander for fisheries enforcement with Texas
Parks and Wildlife Department’s law enforcement division, told the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission last week.
Commissioners had asked Barker’s input during a briefing on the vexing issues of abandoned trotlines, jug lines and throw lines.
TPWD seeks answers
TPWD is trying to learn more about those issues, including the negative effects the derelict gear has on fish and wildlife and possible ways to address them.
TPWD is conducting a research project looking at trotlines, the most common form of passive gear used in freshwater. That research project, which is not yet completed, has yielded some insights, Craig Bonds, director of TPWD’s inland fisheries division, told the commission.
Agency staff have conducted three trials involving trotlines, some set in TPWD-controlled ponds holding channel catfish and others set Sam Rayburn Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi. The study looked at effectiveness of trotlines at catching fish when hooks were baited and not baited, the effectiveness of standard “J” style hooks and circle hooks, escapement of hooked fish and the effectiveness of the lines over long periods.
Early results showed that bare hooks do catch fish, showing “ghost fishing” can persist with the abandoned lines. Many fish managed to escape after being hooked, with fish staying hooked much longer during winter than summer. More fish died when caught on “J” hooks than on circle hooks, but the circle hooks had higher catch rates. And the effectiveness of the lines — the number of fish they caught — declined over time as hooks deteriorated and algae coated the lines.
The research is ongoing, with more field trials involving longterm monitoring of trotlines and analysis of data to come, Bonds told the commission.
How to reduce the number of abandoned trotlines, throw lines and jug lines in Texas public waters?
Options are relatively limited and apply only to anglers willing to abide by the rules already in place for use of the gear. The TPW Commission could opt to modify current regulations requiring gear tags to be valid for less than the current 10-day period, Bonds told the commission. That would force anglers using the gear legally to vist the lines and remove them or replace the gear tag with a new one more often.
The commission also could require floats be placed at the terminal ends of trotlines, enhancing their visibility for law enforcement and boater safety.
TPW Commission chairman Ralph Duggins, who previously has voiced his concern about the issue of abandoned lines in the state’s public waters, urged agency staff to draft proposed regulations to mandate enhanced visibility of trotline markers.
The agency has imposed recent changes aimed at both issues. This past year, the commission adopted rules mandating gear tags on throw lines (they previously were exempt from tags identifying the user) and reducing the length of time gear tags were valid from 30 days to the current 10 days.
Waiting game continues
Those rules are good ones but work only with anglers who abide by them. And, anecdotally, many users of these passive fishing gears don’t bother abiding by the gear tag rules which could identify them should they chose to abandon the lines. That truth can be seen in some areas where spiderwebs of abandoned trotlines, none with required gear tags, vein the water.
Another option to reduce the number of the derelict lines — allowing anyone to remove illegal abandoned lines — would require legislative action, Bonds told the commission. The Texas Legislature would have to change current statutes that make the illegal gear private property, designating such lines as “litter” that could be removed by anyone.
Such legislation was passed almost 20 years ago to deal with the issue of abandoned crab traps in Texas coastal waters. That legislation allowed TPWD to temporarily close all bays to crab traps for a 10-day period during which any crab trap in the water is considered litter and could be removed by anyone. Over the last 17 years, Texans have removed more than 36,000 derelict crab traps from Texas bays.
But any legislative action allowing anyone to remove abandoned lines could come no sooner than 2021, the Texas Legislature’s next regular session.
Until then, Texas anglers encountering one of these illegal lines have a couple of options. They can note its location and report it to a game warden, or they can take a knife and matters into their own hands, understanding that doing the right thing is always worth the consequences.