One thing to keep in mind most of the members posting on this board are pretty die hard steel headers.

When I first came to this board I had been steel heading for many years but had never heard the term flossing. I had steelhead fished with only one partner at that time. Now I am a whore and fish with many people. My fishing buddy and myself learned everything on our own, or by a conversation with another angler on the river.

At that time during low water conditions I used to use a six-foot leader, size one hook and a single small corkie. If I did ever floss a fish I had know idea because I had never heard of that term and thought the fish just got hooked outside the mouth during the bite.

I posted a question on this forum about leader length and stated that I used a six-foot leader during low water conditions and was informed about flossing. Now during low water conditions I use a maximum of a four-foot leader.

Anyway the entire point is I am not defending flossers I am just saying maybe some of them do not even know they are flossing fish. Thus they have heard through the grape vine “anything in the head is legal” and now they get stopped by an officer who is about to write them a ticket for something they thought was legal.