La jolla 10/27/13

[Aaron&Julie]

Originally Posted by Ggiannig89

yea the sand dabs are pretty good. i believe if you're specifically targeting them you can use as many hooks as you want.

I won't doubt you, because I haven't read the regulations. I know it's okay to use more than 2 hooks for sabikis when specifically targeting baitfish, those being mackerel, sardines, 'chovies, squid maybe even smelt, tomcod(queenfish), etc. And even though sand dabs have no limit I'm not sure that qualifies them as a baitfish, even though they are great lingcod bait.
Suppose you're fishing more than 2 hooks on the bottom for sand dabs but hooked a big halibut instead. Legally it would seem you could not stick a gaff in it, nor keep it. And I suppose that would further apply to sabikis for baitfish, when dropping down to the halibut zone. If you could keep so-called incidental catches of that nature, there would seem to be no way to enforce the 2 hook rule, and many would use more hooks when fishing for rockfish, and just claim they were fishing for sand dabs, mackerel, etc.
It will be interesting to hear if others have a better insight to this question of how many hooks for sand dab fishing. There are other species besides sand dabs that have no daily bag limit, so it will be good to know where the 2 hook rule applies.