Nongame Device - Trotlines
Description:
Two or more hooks attached to a line which is rigged horizontally and marked with a white floating marker. Stainless steel hooks are prohibited statewide.
Permits/Regulations
A Trotline tag is required for each trotline with up to 50 hooks. Trotlines with more than 50 hooks require a tag for every 50 hooks or less. No trotline shall be attached in any manner to another trotline or to the support or float of another trotline. No trotlines allowed within 100 feet of the mouth of any tributary stream.
Area-specific hook and trotline length restrictions:
Hooks used in Lakes Marion and Moultrie ONLY must measure 7/16 inch or less between point and shank.
On the Black, Great Pee Dee, Little Pee Dee, Lumber, Lynches (including Clarks, Mill and Muddy Creeks) and Waccamaw rivers, live nongame fish and bream, excluding redbreast, may be used on a trotline having not more than 20 hooks with a shank-to-point gap of fifteen-sixteenths inches or greater. However, it is unlawful for a person to have in possession more than the lawful creel limit of bream while fishing with nongame devices on these rivers.
No trotlines, traps or eel pots shall be placed within 200 yards of any permanent man-made structure on Lakes Marion and Moultrie nor placed anywhere in the Diversion Canal connecting Lakes Marion and Moultrie, the Tailrace Canal nor the area known as the Borrow Pit (also known as "Bar Pit") in Clarendon County.
Hours/Seasons
Trotlines must be inspected and fish removed at least every 24 hours. From Apr. 1 to Oct. 1, no trotline is permitted in any waters from one hour after official sunrise to one hour before official sunset, unless the trotline is sunk to the bottom or a minimum depth of four feet below the surface. From Oct. 2 to Mar. 31, trotlines may be left in the water 24 hours per day at any depth.
License Requirements:
- Recreational fishing license (Recreational limit is 1 trotline with a maximum 50 hooks).
- Commercial fishing license when fishing 2 or more trotlines or fishing trotlines with more than 50 hooks.
A fishing license is required of all persons who fish nongame fishing devices. Some devices are not permitted on certain waters.
- No nongame fishing devices of any kind may be used in SCDNR State Managed Lakes.
- Nongame Device Limits by Location for recreational fishing
- Nongame Device Limits by Location for commercial fishing
Additional tags and permits required:
An Trotline Tag (PDF) is required (Recreational limit is 1 trotline with a maximum 50 hooks).
