The following definitions apply in this chapter as applicable:
(A) Equipment definitions:
(1) "Archery equipment" means a bow and arrow, long bow, recurve bow, compound bow, or crossbow.
(2) "Artificial lure" means manufactured or handmade flies, spinners, plugs, spoons, and reproductions of live animals, which are made completely of natural or colored wood, cork, feathers, hair, rubber, metal, plastic, tinsel, styrofoam, sponge, or string, or any combination of these materials, in imitation of or as substitute for natural bait. Lures or fish eggs enhanced with scents or salts are not artificial lures. Artificially produced organic baits are not artificial lures.
(3) "Cast net" means a nonbaited circular webbing having a weighted peripheral line that is thrown by hand and retrieved by a central line connected to radiating tuck lines attached to the peripheral line.
(4) "Crayfish trap" means a device constructed of coated wire with the opening of the throat or flues not exceeding two and one-quarter inches with a minimum mesh size of one-quarter inch bar mesh.
(5) "Creel" means anything used to hold or keep fish while afloat or afield.
(6) "Device" means an appliance or equipment or combination designed or used for taking or attempting to take fish.
(7) "Eel pot" means an enclosed structure used to take eels only and which conforms to the following specifications:
(a) no larger than twenty-four inches by forty-eight inches; and
(b) must be constructed of wire so that:
(i) the mesh size is no smaller than one-half by one-half inch, except for the throat or muzzle and the end opposite the throat or muzzle of cylindrical pots; and
(ii) a throat opening not to exceed two inches measured in any direction.
(8) "Elver fyke net" means a net with wings not exceeding ten feet in length and fourteen feet in depth; the distance from throat to cod end does not exceed twenty feet. The maximum bar mesh for any part of the net does not exceed one-eighth inch square.
(9) "Game fishing device" means a hook and line, pole or artificial pole, or rod and reel.
(10) "Gig" means a device consisting of a staff with a sharp point or points designed for thrusting and used to take fish by hand; to take fish by hand by use of a spear, prong, or similar device.
(11) "Gill net" means a net designed to hang vertically and capture fish by entanglement usually of the head, gill covers, or preopercles.
(12) "Hoop net" means a device in which fish are taken in an enclosed structure which conforms to the following specifications: the maximum size of hoop nets must be sixteen feet in length by five and one-half feet in diameter. Hoop nets must be made of a textile netting (no wire) of a mesh size not less than one inch square nor greater than two inches square enclosing a series of round hoops with two or more muzzle openings which must be made of a netting material. One side of the hoop must be flat to hold the nets in place.
(13) "Jug fishing" means fishing by use of a single hook and line attached to a floating device other than a flotation marker for trotlines, traps, or other devices.
(14) "Minnow seine" means a seine of a size not greater than four feet in depth by twenty feet in length with a mesh size of not more than one-fourth inch square mesh.
(15) "Minnow trap" means a cylindrical device not longer than twenty-four inches and no more than thirty inches in circumference or a rectangular device not larger than twenty-four inches long, eight inches high, and nine inches wide. The mesh must be no smaller than one-quarter inch bar mesh. The throat opening of the funnel of the trap may not exceed one inch in diameter.
(16) "Net" means an open work fabric or fiber woven or knotted at regular intervals; to catch or ensnare.
(17) "Pump net" means a manually operated dip-type net with webbing hung from rigid cross members that form an "X" which are attached to a pole. The pole utilizes a fulcrum to raise and lower the net. The "X" cross members may not exceed twenty feet. The net must be no smaller than one inch stretched mesh.
(18) "Seine" means a net having a stretch mesh of not less than one inch and not more than one and one-half inches which do not exceed seventy-five feet in length or six feet in depth.
(19) "Set hook" means a single hook and line set in or along any of the waters of this State used to catch fish while attached to bushes, limbs, vines, undergrowth, or other parts of vegetation, set poles, pegs, sticks, or similar structures. "Set hooks" include all similar hook and line devices by whatever name called.
(20) "Skimbow net" means a hand operated dip net constructed of wood with wire or textile netting with a mesh size not greater than one and one-half inches square hung within a frame formed by a length of wood looped and attached to itself to form a bow. The bow may not exceed fourteen feet in any direction
(21) "Single-hook artificial lure" means an artificial lure with a single point. A multiple number of single-hook lures (such as dropper flies) fished in a series is considered a single-hook artificial lure.
(22) "Spear" means a device for thrusting or throwing consisting of a long staff with a sharpened point or to which a sharp head is fixed.
(23) "Trap" means a device in which fish are taken in an enclosed structure which conforms to the following specifications and includes fish traps, baskets, and like devices:
(a) a trap must be made of:
(i) wire or textile material and be cylindrical in shape not more than six feet in length and not more than three feet in diameter or width;
(ii) the mesh size must not be smaller than one inch by one inch and there must be only one application of exterior wire to the trap; and
(iii) the muzzle must have one of the following designs:
(1) a trap door on the second muzzle or catch muzzle which remains in a closed position and which only opens for the entry of fish into the trap; the trap door must be constructed of the same material as the trap; or
(2) construction of a netting so that the opening of the small end of the second muzzle or catch muzzle is held in the shape of a slit and the trap configuration constructed such that as the trap rests on the bottom the slit must be oriented horizontally with the greatest vertical opening being no greater than one inch; or
(b) a trap must be made of:
(i) wood strips or slats and be cylindrical or rectangular in shape. The length may not exceed six feet and the width or diameter may not exceed two feet;
(ii) the throat opening of the catch muzzle in a resting position may not exceed three inches measured in any direction; and
(iii) the sides, top, and rear of the trap must have a minimum of one inch openings between the slats;
(c) eel pots, minnow traps, and crayfish traps are not included in this definition.
(24) "Trotline" means a device consisting of a horizontal common line with two or more hooks suspended from it.
(25) "Yoyo" means a device to which "set hooks" are attached which is activated by spring-like devices.
(B) Miscellaneous definitions:
(1) "Bait fish" means a fish allowed to be used as bait in the freshwaters including: Asian clams (Corbicula spp.), crayfish, eels, herring, shad, and fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas), and goldfish, including "black salties" (Carassius auratus). Except for bream (other than redbreast), no other game fish is allowed to be used as bait, provided, trout are allowed to be used as bait only on Lakes Hartwell, Russell, Thurmond, Tugaloo, Yonah, Stevens Creek Reservoir, and the Savannah River.
(2) "Commercial purpose" means:
(a) being engaged in selling fish; or
(b) taking or attempting to take fish in order to derive income or other consideration; or
(c) fishing more devices than allowed for recreation.
(3) "Day" means the twenty-four hour period from one-half hour before official sunrise of one day to one-half hour before official sunrise the following day.
(4) "Freshwaters" or "freshwaters of this State" means all waters of this State from the saltwater/freshwater dividing line inland to the jurisdictional limits of this State and those naturally occurring freshwaters seaward of the saltwater/freshwater line, but does not include private lakes or ponds which are entirely segregated from other freshwaters.
(5) "Fish" means finfish and shellfish, including mollusks and crustaceans.
(6) "Fishing" means all activity and effort involved in taking or attempting to take fish.
(7) "Hand grabbing" (noodling) means taking nongame fish by hand without the aid of hook, snare, or artificial breathing device. A stick, pole, rod, or PVC pipe must be used to dislodge the fish.
(8) "Land" means take and retain possession while afloat or take and bring ashore.
(9) "Limit" means the number or size of fish one person lawfully may possess in any one day while afloat or afield.
(10) "Night" means one-half hour after official sunset of one day to one-half hour before official sunrise the following day.
(11) "Possess" or "possession" means to take and retain.
(12) "Striker" means a person other than a licensed freshwater commercial fisherman, who under immediate supervision assists a licensed commercial freshwater fisherman, but does not use separate nongame fishing devices from the vessel engaged in commercial fishing. A striker is not required to have a commercial freshwater fishing license.
(13) "Snagging" means pulling a device equipped with one or more hooks through the water in an attempt to impale fish. "Snagging" does not include using lures or baited hooks designed to catch fish in or about the mouth.
(14) "Take" means to catch, capture, gather, wound, kill, harvest, or remove, but does not include a catch and immediate release.
(15) "Total length" means the length of a fish laid flat and measured from the closed mouth (snout) to the tip of the tail fin when pinched together. It is a straight line measure, not over the curvature of the body.
(16) "Unattended" means the device operator is not in the immediate vicinity.
(C) Species definitions:
(1) "Black bass" means largemouth (Micropterus salmoides), smallmouth (Micropterus dolomieu), redeye (Micropterus coosae), and spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus).
(2) "Hybrid bass" means those fish produced by crossing striped bass (Morone saxatilis) with white bass (Morone chrysops).
(3) "Striped bass" or "rockfish" means the species Morone saxatilis.
(4) "Trout" means rainbow, brook, brown, or other species of cold-water trout of the family Salmonidae.
HISTORY: 2008 Act No. 237, Section 1, eff May 21, 2008; 1976 Code Section 50-13-5; 2012 Act No. 113, Section 1, eff July 1, 2012; 2013 Act No. 6, Section 1, eff March 22, 2013.
Editor's Note
Prior Laws: Former Section 50-13-10 was entitled "Lawful methods of catching game fish" and was derived from 1962 Code Section 28-571; 1952 Code Section 28-571; 1942 Code Section 1768; 1932 Code Section 1751; 1952 (47) 2179; 1977 Act No. 190, Section 1; 1978 Act No. 559, Section 2; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 1263.
Effect of Amendment
The 2012 amendment renumbered and rewrote this section.
The 2013 amendment, in subsection (B)(1), added the second sentence.