we go through this pretty often but here it is again, it is clear by the regulations printed in the WDFW pamphlet that any fish hooked anywhere but inside the mouth is illegal to keep. Also the hook MUST have gotten there by the fished own deliberate actions! Anything else is illegal. Any gamewarden not citing people for fish hooked elsewhere is failing at his job. During the fall salmon season there should be (in my opinion) a zero tolerance policy even for fish caught and released! As snagging is the attempt at catching a fish where the fish does not volentarily take the lure/bait or fly. No where does it say anything about harvesting so keeping a snagged fish is not what should evoke a citation it is the act of snagging that should.
After 20+ years of salmon/steelhead fishing and only having foul hooked one fish i feel confident in saying that if a person commonly or even occasionally foul hooks a fish then there is something wrong with that persons method! It should almost never happen!
Also there is no such thing as too many gamies on any river. I would not cinsider getting checked twice a day every day excessive if it kept snagginf idiots away from the rivers.
I also think that instead of a non-bouyant lure restriction for salmon there shoule be a bouyant lure ban except for plugs.

Spinner fishermen don't snag, plug fishers don't snag, bait fishermen don't snag. The people who are snagging are using corkies and /or yarn. Sure maybe there are legit corkie fishermen for salmon but I have never seen one.