I would say that all this stemmed from a chat awhile ago. I had said that I remember in regs that there used to be a "gill plate forward" rule in the regs. SInce I don't hord my reg books, I'm going off memory. I asked quite a few people, and even emailed the state just to ask if there was a rule at one time. I had recieved the response from Evans I do believe. Have I ever kept a fish not hooked in the mouth? Nope. I've released all that's hooked outside of it. But I base my info off old regs I've read, and from my parents/grandparents who've fished here since turn of century. Now this blows up to a "I've talked to gamies" BS. Well, guess what? I've talked to gamie's as well and i've heard opposite. Plus, there's the legalities of setting presidence. If this has been a "general rule" and been overlooked in the past, then these gamies have set themselves up for some lawsuits for harassment and "profiling" if any of these guys decide to hire a lawyer. I could care less what the rules say in regards to lures. All the fish I KEEP are caught legally, hook in mouth. If they want to drop the rules to just in mouth I'd be more then happy with it. I just get damned tired of the "little boy" menality I've read and seen lately. I really don't feel like going to the law library and pulling out the RCW's to find the law. I am almost 100% sure it's in the RCW's, not in the F & G area. This was set back in the days when you had law enforcement making busts. I'm not 100% sure, since my grandad started fishing back in about 1910 around here, and never really had long discussions on who wrote tickets and EXACTLY what the regs were. Just that it was a rule that gill plate forward was in the books when I started fishing steelhead in the 70's. And even recently about 1995 I was asked by an officer why I released a nice steelhead brat that I had hooked outside the mouth on the Hoh. I said "It wasn't in mouth" and he had said "Gill plate forward was legal". Also had a real you know what Gamie on the Puy years ago say same thing as well. So go figure. I'm just relayed what I'd learned/saw over the years.

So, now the rivers are full of fish, let's let this stupid ass thread die and go fishing.