For those of you so ecstatic about the new two year moratorium on wild steelhead retention take notice of DJFISHS2EXS post on 'nate caught on trout gear.':
DJs friend Rob fights his nate for 25 minutes and 1/4 mile. After Rob lands his fish in the mud, DJ (I assume) takes a pic while standing over this nate whose pectoral fin is full of mud and eyeball is rolled into his mouth. Wanting more pics, DJ then gets in position away from the fish and aims his camera again (second pic). DJ notes that the nice nate was then 'released ever so gently'. How do you think this nate fared upon his gentle release?
Note also that fishermanjosh makes comment only that this was a 'beautiful fish'.

I spend considerable time on the OP rivers in the winter and I see this CNR/WSR mentality all of the time. How do people, so ardent about wild steelhead protection, continue to simultaneously CNR/WSR similar to DJ/Rob (and obviously fishermanjosh) and criticize those who choose to take a few fish home each year.

Any damage done by the 'average' (the average license purchaser gets out a few times per year and has hardly any punches on his card) fishermans retention of a couple of native fish per year pales in comparison to the above mentioned CNR/WSR practices of a person who fishes 4 or 5 days per week with two dudes in the bow.

The present arguing on this board about WSR is a good one but the hypocrisy is running 'wild'.

There is not one person on this board that is not concerned about the future of wild steelhead.

Well said!!

So you have the people that when you bring up rule changes that force people to handle fish better they b!tch because THEY know how to CNR fish. Then in the other thread about the 2 year moritorium on wild steelhead people complain that people mistreat the fish and the 10% mortality on CNR fisheries is wrong because of the mishandling. I'm confused.

You pointed out that the steelhead's eyes where rolling down into the head. That's a good thing! When a fish's eyes are down like that, that means that the fish is live and well. It's when the fish is staring strait out that it is brain dead and near death if not already dead.

I cringed a little when I heard 25 minutes and 1/4 mile on trout gear.

I cringed more than a little... Steelhead need a little respect. The eyes down statement made above is true by the way.

I too think it might have been better if they had quickly broken off the steelhead. But, how many of you have ever had something like this happen to you. I know many of us would have been so excited with the UNINTENDED hookup that we might not have given any thought to how stressed the fish was. Heck, I hear that in some places it is legal to KILL a wild steelhead.

I have landed and or photographed literally thousands of steelhead and my guess is that the fish in the photo would recover quite nicely. The very pronounced eye down is a very good sign the fish is healthy and still has its equilibrium. Many magazines will not accept a steelhead photo unless the eye is looking down like that.

Should it have been played that long? No!

Did it survive the treatment it got? Probably.

Would it have had any chance of survival had someone bonked it? No!

I can guarentee that this fished lived the fish never left soft water and only was held via the line until we could move down the river to a spot where we could gently remove the hook. I couldnt even fathom the thought of hurting a nice fish like that. there are people on this board that well vouch for that. I even went out on limb to run off snaggers in a so called meat river, and for those who said I should mind my business about that, if you think snaggers only snag in a meat river think again when they are someplace and dont have a clue on how to leagly catch a fish, as soon as know ones looking that well poach again. the pic above was taken secounds after it came up a gentle bank ( the water was high and thats someones back yard where the grass and water meet. the back half of the fish is in the water) the hook was removed and rob placed it back after a quick pic.....the quarter mile was thrown into the mess just to keep people off track of where it was caught. there isnt a quarter of mile on this creek that a guy could follow a fish...as far as sparkys law, for all of you guys who have caught hundreds of steelhead offcourse you could care less for the pics but for us that are new and dont have the pics that ALL of you have we need our chance to bring home memorys. In fact there are some houses that are close by, I can stop by and get the couples phone number and email it to anyone that would like to call them they even made a comment on how we babed that fish and thats how it should be done. I can kinda agree with the law Ive seen people just kick fish back in the water, swing them up onto the bank, throw them so they splash their buddies, land them with a net when snagged, so in someways I support the law but I still am big enough to take the lumps if I am ticketed, Ill bet a game warden would not have said a word (he also has that choice you know) that fish was handled very gently. .the sign on for this board even has a beauty holding a beauty next to bob (I think) so if your so heck bent on not taking pics of wild steelhead you shound be ashamed for lowering your morals to belong to a board that has such a pic I here the purest fly rod club is looking for new members take your bobbers I mean strike indicators and they might let you in. I think when sparky seen some of the same stuff as above he wanted to do something so he did, its just to bad he doesnt take up watching the gill netters, and the snaggers...he looked at the smallest percentage of people who dont respect fish and made it hard for the guides, clients and people who love the sport to bring home pics, that by the way my 7 year old daughter just loves to see. it has nothing to do with being a hero I have tons of pics that I keep and look at and can tell you 99% of the places and how each fish was caught. its my business... next time you exceed the speed limit just keep in mind that it was your choice. I bet I can even come up with a pic of sparky holding a fish out of water....the glass house and stone thing comes to mind, but I have no ill feelings for people who mean well so Im off the soap box, but this is what people get ugly about,

I have to wonder what this board would be talking about today if the nets had not been stripping the rivers of everything that swims for the last 20 or 30 years, or is this all our fault
Just a thought.