Dave, obviously you are looking at this situation thru a very narrow and self serving lens. I will copy your latest post above here and will use [these square parathesis] to interject my thoughts between your paragraphs - in hopes of coming to a better understanding of this important issue.

Your above post:

"I don't get it though. I'm not keeping more than my limit of fish, and I'm not trying to snag the fish. If I were trying to snag the fish, and/or keeping more than my limit, then I would understand the strong feelings.

[First off it's the law not to keep fish that aren't hooked IN the mouth. This law has to be in effect, adhered to, and enforced; or our fisheries would quickly go to chaos, lower runs, and close rivers! You are NOT privilaged to be above this much needed law Dave! And because your snagged fish aren't intentional, that does not justify breaking the needed law and keeping them just for you - or all the others that do this. And spare us the "I don't get it though" - you are plenty intelligent to "GET IT"; so quit insulting our intelligence and playing head games with us.]

Either I misspoke my situation or it was misunderstood. We are not destitute by any means, but at the same time it's difficult to let good food go back simply because I accidentally foul-hooked the fish.

[OK - it's difficult for you to let go of what is not legally or rightfully yours. Too bad you have such a selfish mindset. If you can't learn to hook fish properly - something that's not that difficult - you are just going to have to learn to deal with the difficulty of "doing the right thing". It's unfortunate that's so difficult for you. I would bet that you would be adverse to all people keeping all fish that were snagged - but not adverse for yourself to keep them! What made you so privilaged within your twisted mindset?!?]

I will say it again: accidentally. Keeping my limit of three fish is no different than anyone else keeping their limit of three fish. I would have liked to have hooked all the fish in the mouth, but a couple of adipose hooked fish made it into the bag because I didn't want to waste food.

[No different?!? Bullsh!t. Huge difference between legally kept fish and keeping illegally snagged fish, which often ruins fish number harvest management tools! And because of snaggers us sportfishers have curtailed seasons - so you ARE stealing our would-be legally caught fish.]

The hatchery got their fish, and then some. Upstream folks surely did well too from what I heard. My limit of fish did not threaten the run. If it would have, then they would have closed fishing the run long before my line went in the water.

[That excuse doesn't wash either; particularly in light of what I've already tried to bring to light for you. Excess hatchery fish are used very importantly for many things. The edible ones are sent to public food banks to help feed the needy (to which you wouldn't qualify for Dave). And the non-edible graded excess fish are used for such as 'salting' the watershed for their extremely important ecosystem nutrient supplying decay factor, which they now know is a major factor in trying to save native fish runs and to help the entire ecosystem; including tree growth in the raparian habitats (latest studies have proven these things). Any left over from that may be sold to pet food companies and the much needed revenue helps the very underfunded WDFW programs.]

I'm not up on Memaloose spotlighting the few deer that are up there. I'm not killing the alpha bull from a herd of elk on a game reserve. I'm fishing a legal stream using legal tackle and legal methods and keeping my legal limit. Accidental snagging does blemish the issue, but it does not make me an abuser of the resource."

[We are glad to hear you haven't yet typically evolved into an animal poacher too Dave; as many snaggers likely are. When you keep a snagged fish you are not keeping your 'legal' limit. Besides, you said you have only fished 5 times this year, keeping a couple of snagged fish - so now you are saying you are keeping limits?? And as clearly demonstrated above, you ARE contributing to abusing the resourse! The only way we can get around that is for society to ONLY allow Dave Jackson to keep snagged fish. Nobody else. Which in your narrow thinking somehow is the only fish you are considering as an insignificant impact on fish runs. How utterly crass and self-serving that mindset is. This wrong doing involves a lot more non-sportsmen than you. Give up the ghost!] >

With that all correctly clarified now, I still figure there are plenty of good guys on here that would be willing to show you how to catch fish legally. And in the actual case of lack of enough food, you have already received plenty of offers of food for you and your family.

RT