Since you are new to salmon catching it is understandable that you would think the fish might not make it, but over the years I have have caught fish with various states of damage that were quite healthy and had the strength to put up a heck of a fight. This year alone I have seen fish with their cheek missing from the hook tearing it out to bent and cracked gill plates(not to mention seal bites & net damage) I once caught a hatchery steelhead that had a whole gill plate missing just miles downstreem from the hachtery! MY point being that these are hardy fish and just because they go away limping, it does'nt mean they are going to die out there.

Just out of curiosity D Kid. Do you know if the canadians cut back on their silver harvest this year? They did this 3 yrs ago I believe and we ended up with record runs that year.