If you're buying last-minute Christmas gifts for the outdoors enthusiast on your list, you might want to first peek at state fishing and hunting regulations.

Items sold online may not be legal for use in Pennsylvania, even though some also can be purchased at big box stores in this state.

Trout beads, for instance, are a hot item in the Pacific Northwest, but could land you in hot water on commonwealth streams.

"It's a legal device elsewhere, but illegal here," said Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission assistant northwest regional law enforcement supervisor Tom Tarkowski. "Trout beads hook fish on the outside of the mouth and, in Pennsylvania, any fish not hooked on the inside of the mouth has to be released."

The device works by attracting a fish to a salmon egg imitation on a line several inches above a hook. When the fish eats the bead and the angler jerks the line, the hook snares the fish on the outside of his jaw.

"Apparently, these devices are popular in other states, like Alaska, and we get a lot of questions from anglers wanting to use them on steelhead here," Tarkowski said. "The answer is, you can't."

Snagging hooks are another banned item that periodically surface on steelhead streams. Although these weighted treble hooks are legal for a few saltwater species in some states, possessing one while fishing in the commonwealth is a violation of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Code, said Tarkowski. "You don't have to be actually using it. Just having it with you will get you a fine."

Cabela's retail location in Hamburg, Pa., doesn't sell snagging hooks, but it carries over-sized treble hooks as well as trout beads and trotlines -- heavy fishing lines that can be outfitted with multiple hooks. Trotlines are permitted for catfishing in some states, though not Pennsylvania. With special permitting, hookless trotlines can be used for crabbing in states such as New Jersey. Trotlines are legal for some fresh and saltwater fishing in Maryland.

"Our company regionalizes its merchandise, but only to a certain degree," said Steve Pickett, the Hamburg store promotions manager. "We draw customers from New York, New Jersey, Delaware -- really all through the mid-Atlantic and East Coast, and state regulations vary among the different states."

Savvy customers need to know what's legal.

"A lot of what we carry is what our main office sends us, although we're only going to get a fraction of the walleye gear our Minnesota stores get and none of the gear for redfishing our stores carry in Louisiana," said Pickett. "It's up to customers to know the laws in their state. If a gun is illegal in New Jersey, but someone from New Jersey has the proper paperwork, we'll sell him the gun because he may be buying it to use elsewhere."

Cabela's sells semi-automatic (autoloading) weapons that can be used in Pennsylvania for target shooting, but not for hunting.

Cabela's retail stores in Hamburg and Tridelphia, W.Va., carry "robo-ducks," the battery-operated decoys that the Pennsylvania Game Commission has banned here.

"We get a lot of inquiries about these," said agency spokesman Jerry Feaser. "They're legal elsewhere, but they're not legal here because they could lead to excessive harvest."

Regulated items include salt licks and a mineral blend sometimes known as "deer cocaine," which must be removed from hunting areas 30 days before hunting seasons begin because baiting prey is illegal in Pennsylvania. The Game Commission would rather folks didn't feed deer at all for a host of reasons.

"[Feeding stations] create the unnatural congregation of animals, which increases the potential for disease spread," Feaser said.

Chronic Wasting Disease hasn't been detected in Pennsylvania, but the agency is trying to prevent its spread from neighboring states. Nose-to-nose contact linked to feeding stations could hasten its spread, Feaser said.

"And your neighbors might not appreciate what you're doing," he said, "because once your salt lick is finished, the deer might start working out on their shrubs."

The Game Commission is less concerned about bird feeders -- except in bear country -- but it encourages homeowners to keep them clean.

Feaser advised hunters to know and understand regulations, because even the placement of merchandise in big box stores can be misleading. Buckshot, for instance, is typically stocked beside rifled slugs on the "big game" ammunition shelf, but is not legal for deer in Pennsylvania except in certain units in the southeastern part of the state.

Both the fish and game commissions routinely field calls from folks seeking clarification on regulations, and spokesmen say the agencies are eager to help. Nets are a big issue, according to Fish and Boat's southwest regional law enforcement officer Tom Qualters.

"Seining nets can't be larger than 4 feet in diameter and you can't use them in a special regulations section of any stream, period," he said. "You also can't seine for bait when streams are closed to fishing."

Although cast nets smaller than 4 feet in diameter would probably be ineffective, they're legal on any fishery. But larger ones are permitted only on certain lakes, such as Shenango, Arthur and Raystown.

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