That is an interesting point as we also caught Rockfish and Ling close to the bottom off that Rock Island Reef using jig type lures which is to be expected for that location. So it would seem to me that it comes down to your state of mind and what was your intention. As that fishing method and bottom location is perfect for fishing bottom fish which is legal with barbed hooks and that was your intention then one would think you are perfectly legal with Barbs. If you intention was to catch salmon off the bottom in that same location which does happen then you would not be unless the hooks were not barb.
What happens if you catch a salmon on a hook with a barb while jigging for bottom fish in a location suited to Bottom fishing for Rockfish and ling etc. and catch a Salmon. Should you throw it back? One would think there is a case to be made that you can keep it as incidental catch. Still, what would DFO Enforcements position be if they happen to show up just as you were netting that Chinook with a barbed hook jig in its mouth. You would probably have some “splaining to do Lucy” especially if you had just bonked it.
To be honest I don’t know the answer to this; would you be required to release a Salmon caught accidentally and incidentally while fishing bottom fish with a barb hook using a fishing method and location suitable to bottom fishing. I have even heard of some (rarely) catching a Chinook on bait with a barb hook off a Halibut fishing spreader bar and my guess is they did not get released. To be on the safe side I guess you could always use barbless hooks for all fish species but that kind of defeats the purpose of being permitted to use barbs for fishing Rockfish Ling and Halibut etc. Why do I even think about things like this, it just gives me a headache.
