Personally, I think what matters most is if you *intended* to snag the fish. If you have on 8/0 hooks, 40 pound line and 2 ounces of lead in the river, then yes, you should be busted. But if you were fishing legally, and the hook happens to catch the fish somewhere else in the body, then it's a legally caught fish.

I happened to catch a silver once off the Dash Point pier casting a double hook mooching rig with a herring, and managed to lasso the fish around the back. No hook in him, the bottom hook was looped around his middle and snagged on the top hook. I managed to steer him over a net, and we hoisted him onto the pier, and I kept him. I don't think it was illegal or unethical. I was fishing legally, and I caught him legally.