My wife has some arthritis in her hands, plus she is small. When she is out with me I let her catch mostl of the fish, but I have to tend her rod and the downrigger because it is too difficult for her to pull the rod out of the holder. I usually pull it and hand it off to her, then reset everything when she is done.

DFW has observed me doing this, hell we had our licenses checked after they watched us for awhile and never said anything. My wife couldn't salmon fish if I didn't tend her rod.

If what you say is true, that is absolutely wrong. There is the spirit of the law and then the letter of the law. I think it is the spirit of the law that should be enforced as opposed to the letter of the law.