Trotline

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Trotline" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A trotline is a heavy fishing line with shorter, baited branch lines commonly referred to as snoods suspending down at intervals using clips or swivels, with a hook at the free end of each snood.

Trotlines are used in commercial angling and can be set up across a channel, river, or stream to cover an entire span of water. There are many ways to set a trotline, with most methods involving weights at the end of snoods to keep them neatly below the water surface. They are used for catching crabs^[1] or fish (particularly catfish^[2]). Trotlines should be used with caution as they are deemed illegal in many locations.

Trotlines are similar to a longline, but longlines are fixed to a surface vessel at only one end and usually towed along the water, while trotlines are fixed (usually stationarily) to the surface at both ends via anchored boats, buoys or structures. It is also contrasted with droplines, as a trotline's mainline is laid horizontally across water with a series of vertically suspended snood lines, while a dropline's mainline is suspended vertically (using a weight) from a floating bouy with a series of side-branching snoods.