Personally I don't understand why in the heck we have catch and release regulations when most stores don't even carrry knotless nets. The regulation book even says to use a cotton net, but it that is really the case, then everyone with their knotted nets is not in compliance. The only place I have EVER seen a knotless cotton net was at the Hoodsport Hatchery. I'm aware that Frabil manufactures a "knotless" net, but it's really just a plain net coated with vinyl or rubber(pardon me for not researching the material used before making this statement). I would be quite very curious to know of a local retail store where one could purchase a knotless cotton net with small mesh size. Perhaps it is also time that people start contacting net manufacturers and demanding catch and release nets. Salmonids are jewels to be treasured and treated in a royal manner befitting of a king.

Although I'm a relatively amateur fisherman, I have seen lots of atrocious fish handling. When I used to fish the Edmonds pier during salmon season I'd be shocked by the way that many shakers get handled. Trout-sized shakers would get grabbed mid-section and squeezed so that the angler can get the treble hook out of the fish's mouth. It's worse with the smolts which are grabbed such that scale loss occurs do to complete body contact with someone's hand.
However, there is a positive side to this situation. I learned from this very fishing spot from a veteran angler the right way to unhook all undersized salmon. Basically it entailed grabbing the jig and then grabbing the hook and backing it out of the fish's mouth. With this method, little or no contact is made with the fish. The only drawback to this procedure is that the poor smolts get unceremoniously plopped back into the water at least 10-20 feet below.
Drawing on an experience while crabbing at Kayak Point, there it is required that all crabs be released by placing them in a bucket and lowering the bucket to the water's surface. People there can be cited for chucking the sublegal sized crabs over the side of the railing. I figured that the same procedure would work very well for releasing smolts.
Last fall while hitting PNP, I felt pangs of disappointment whenever someone hooked a smolt and mishandled the fish by grabbing it. The pain was even greater when the guy just dropped the fish at his feet and resumed fishing just assuming that the waves would carry the fish back to the sound. It was here that I felt obliged to educate the anglers who did such things, how to properly release baby salmon. At the same time I didn't have enough guts to go up to people and tell them just that.