On France Bleu la Rochelle, Bruno Garcia of the Charente-Maritime fishing federation answers questions from “listeners, fishermen” like Thierry de St Germain de Lusignan who shares his concerns with us. He was able to read in a comment on social networks that “catching a fish other than by the mouth was prohibited”. The writer behind this information vehemently asserted that it implied a ban on live fishing.
Thierry would like to have a more formal, more official version of this assertion.
Bruno Garcia: The interpretation of texts is not only something complicated but above all something very equivocal and very dangerous. And then forgive me! I know that there are millions of followers, but don’t take at face value the comments made on social networks… We very often find on the various websites regulatory and legislative texts that have been synthesized, cobbled together, transformed and published with the sauce of the reader. Which empties them of their original meaning. Don’t be naive! before peddling this information educate yourself. That’s what Thierry does and it’s very good
What is it really then?
Thierry alludes to article R – 436-33 of the Environmental Code which says: Any fish caught other than by the mouth must immediately be returned to the water. What does it mean ? Well quite simply that spearing, grabbing the fish is something forbidden. It is a technique which consists in passing under the belly or under the tail of the fish a large treble hook and in sharpening brutally to prick it against its will. This is a practice that we inevitably observe in very clear waters where the fish is easily spotted but also with the help of very specific fishing methods. The line is cast and retrieved slowly, rod down, so that the rig scrapes the bottom and still hooks anything in its path with these big hooks.
So nothing to do with live fishing?
Absolutely not ! When the legislator speaks of capture other than by the mouth of the fish. At no time does he allude to fishing with a live fish. You can therefore calmly continue fishing for Thierry until the last Sunday of January 2023.
Privileged places for this illegal practice?
The capital of “grappinage” is Marans in the north of our department. This technique is already facilitated by the abundance of fish but above all by the presence of locks where they remain trapped in the locks during maneuvers. We also have the Charente-Seudre canal where the high density of zander encourages the use of this technique.
A little regulatory reminder
The number of hooks per line is limited to 2. I wanted to address this subject again for the aforementioned reasons, knowing that spearfishing specialists very regularly use 3, 4 or even 5 hooks to increase the chances of grabbing a fish.