"barbless" area

[R. Miller]

Can someone clear something up for me? On rivers like the Whitewater, where certain areas are barbless hook only, can you have a full assortment of flies on you, with the fly on the end of your line being barbless, or do all flies in possession have to be barbless?

[uwecsteeple]

I am almost sure that you can have them on you, just don't use them. I have thrown barbless spinners on these sections and don't bother to take the barbed spinners out of my box.

[R. Miller]

Thanks for the reply. I hope that's the case. I was down there scouting for turkeys last weekend but left a lot of my flies in the box for that reason. It'd be nice to carry them with you and if you "match the hatch," crimp the barb at that time, before you tie the fly to your line.

[Nymph]

You can have barbed flies on your person on a barbeless stream,I also think that they changed the barbless to the winter seasons only. Someone could jump in and correct me but I think it only implies to the winter seasons now.

[DinkADunk]

You can have barbed hooks on you, just pinch the barbs down before you use the fly

[WxGuy]

There are no streams in southeast Minnesota that are under barbless regulations during the regular season. Barbless applies to winter season only, and that regulation may be short-lived. These regulations are posted at every access point in SE MN except for a few where signs have been stolen.

There are only a few C&R streams, and a handful of artificial only streams. Here's the break down...

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/regulations/fishing/trout_se.html