A coupla comments.

I was not implying FishinfellaS comments were inaccurate, not so. What I was saying was everyone makes statements based on their particular point of view. That's what "SLANT" is... a comment based on your particular point of view. I'm leading up to a couple of my own iif you continue on reading.

Now I wasn't comparing lake fish to steelhead.. but I would like to see someone go out and catch (and release) a 7 pound lake fish. Seems to me that's a big trout from a lake.. but if it's a steelhead.. sorta on the small side if you think about it. Don't read anything into this as me saying that Andy's steelhead was small. It was a nice fish. But people catch steelhead into the "20's" every year. When's the last time you heard about a trout in the "20's". Other than that oddball triploid.. biggest I've heard of is a 17 pounder from up in BC. Wanna try something like that on a 5 or a 6 wt rod. Oh.. the 17 pounder.. I believe it was caught on a chronie fished deep. A friend of mine caught a 9+ pound fish during a traveling sedge hatch.

Now to the guy who said native steelhead should be fished for with barbed hooks...?????????? Did you think that through before you wrote it? If I have it correct, wild steelhead are to be released and it so, why would one want to increase the chances of "hook mortality" by using barbed hooks. Seems like kind of a dumb thing to do.

Now for more of my opinion. Anyone who thinks fish have an easy time of throwing a barbless hook... take the time to give a fish some slack and see if it can get off. My experience is (and I've been fishing barbless for 15+ years) that fish don't throw a barbless hook. It gets a deeper purchase than barbed and is just as hard for a fish to throw. I've given fish slack on a fly line.. let them tow the line around in hopes they would come off and I wouldn't need to bring them in, net them and take the hook out. NOPE!!! didn't happen. Hook doesn't come out even on slack line Now.. if you're fishing barbless and a sinker (I'll save the remark about that being an oxymoron).. that sinker flinging around can lead to the hook coming out on slack lines as the sinker can act as like those old dent pullers that used to be used for body work on cars.

Like I said in another post.. there's a few people on here that I wouldn't care to fish with. Some of you have strong opinions... and your opinions aren't based on experience, just personality. Take the time, listen to others, even if you don't agree with them, and you may learn, Grasshopper. You can always pick up a nugget of truth somewhere.