Bob, I say meat on the table to that story! The fish was a willing biter to begin with so I would say that is fine.

I guess earlier in my posting I was just thinking about last year on the Dungeness River in Sequim during the silver run. There were lots of hatchery silvers. One time I foul hooked a legal hatchery silver and I kept it. A few days before that I had volunteered at the Dungeness hatchery and hit hundreds of fish in the head that they brought in. There were plenty of fish to meet the needs of eggs for the hatchery. In other circumstances I would probably release a fish like this, but there was no need to on the Dungeness. But going down there early in the season and doing that wouldn't be too good. The Dungeness sees plenty of intentional snaggers......

~ Dr Pepper