NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard talks Recent NH Fishing Regs Proposal with Union Leader...
“New Hampshire Fish and Game recently released a sweeping fishing regulation change proposal. Primarily impacting formally designated Trout Ponds, most of which are stocked, the proposal removes protections that could have notable negative ecological impacts. And hardly anything is being proposed that would add protection for wild native brook trout.”
New Hampshire Fish and Game (NHFG) recently went public with another sweeping fishing regulations change proposal. Like the ill-fated 2025 proposal that was shelved due to public opposition, the current proposal does very little to provide increased protection for wild native brook trout, and lots to put them and other native fish at risk.
New Hampshire NFC submitted a formal letter to NHFG in regard to the dangerous expansion of the use of live fish as bait under the proposal. As part of NFC’s analysis, we identified and documented a number of problems with the published live fish as bait data. This includes NHFG’s public statement that all species legal to use as bait in NH are native to the state:
Problems identified by NFC noted in yellow highlighted red text…
“Most concerning is that if enacted, the proposal would remove prohibitions on the dangerous use of live fish as bait from 58 waters, 32 of which are in the wild native brook trout rich Coos, Carroll, and Grafton counties...”
For those who can’t read it online…