Thanks for your replies and stories. I've been giving this a lot of thought the last two days. I admire those of you who release all spawners -- even those caught by others -- but I don't think it is right to unilaterally decide that the regulations are wrong and release even legally taken fish like that hen. Instead, we need the fish and game people to do one of two things: (a) ban leaders longer than 'X' (say, four) feet and (b) make certain streams C & R only after a given date.

I was wrong to let the second fellow keep that buck. I had the fish in my hands and I should have carried him back to the shallows and revived him. He deserved better.

Yesterday, I enjoyed some wonderful guided fishing on the Feather for 1-5 lb hatchery steelies. I had the honor of catching the largest squawfish the guide's ever seen. (This beast now sleeps with the fishes.) I also had the honor of catching a 5 lb native steelhead -- the first one the guide's ever seen. The fishery is 100% C & R (I believe) and is in wonderful shape.

For all of this -- plus the four steelies I managed to land today in the American at the Snag Hole -- I was using a beautiful GL3 STR 1263 (6-12lb line) float rod built for me by TH. The weapon was a single 8 mm Cabela's fluro bead half-milked w/ pink nail polish and toothpicked 1" above a #8 hook dead drifted under a float w/ light weight. With the steelies eating king spawn, this single egg (w/ and without a nymph trailer) did the trick.

I'm really impressed with the quality and quantity of fish (shame about the size but the summer runs are small -- I'm told the winter fish are 6-12lbs) around Sacramento. The regulations do need fine tuning, though as does my willingness to 'get involved' to protect the fish -- native kings in this case.

[This message has been edited by Snagly (edited 11-18-1999).]