Chris, good point. I fish hootchies a lot and there is no reason one hook won't work as well. The two hook thing is insurance for a good set. Back in the good old days when keeping any fish was ok, that worked fine.

It can be a little maddening to release a nice fish. But, It is a good rule in my opinion and should be kept to help the future runs. Who wants to ruin a good fishing day with a big fat ticket?

You might want to look at this from a management perspective. The managers have opened a recreational selective fishery with retention of only marked coho; all chinook and unmarked coho are required to be released. Sounds like a high risk fishery with regards to impacts on non-targeted, most likely listed stocks. Then the recs start keeping (poaching) illegal fish. I don't care how you justify it, your just forcing an alternative management strategy. Get it?

Don't justify yourselves right out of your opportunity.

I kept an elk once.

Watched these idiots shoot a cow and let her lay. We tooke her out of the woods based on the statement in the books about no game is to be wasted.

Luckly we never had to explain our theory to the MAN

Being new to this fishing as well, decisions out in the water can be difficult. Do the fish have fight left after injuries, sure they do! then you get into statistics and areas that are out of our realm. You have to live with the dicisions you make, and pay the concequences wheather legal or moral. Can we change our fishing techniques, sure! But if we do that, then we will boil it down to fishing with safety pins and using the force all in an attempt to save the fish. If it was in the river, I could see letting it go, it might make it. But out in the salt water, I don't think it's gonna happen. I believe you did the right thing.
Just becuase everyone says somethings right, that don't make it right. Laws are in place for anglers that don't give a hoot. You appearantly do. It's all good in my eyes, I would have done the same thing.

This is an easy one.

The sportfishing rules and regulations are for everyone. It is your responsibility, and mine, to know them.... and then to follow them. This is the way it works folks. Having some of us follow some of the rules some of the time, no matter how inexplicable they may seem, is a recipie for conservation concern.

Our resources are managed based on the assumption that fishermen are FOLLOWING the rules, not breaking them. If we were managing based on the assumption that the rules were not being followed our seasons would have to be more limited than they already are.

This is an easy one.

The sportfishing rules and regulations are for everyone. It is your responsibility, and mine, to know them.... and then to follow them. This is the way it works folks. Having some of us follow some of the rules some of the time, no matter how inexplicable they may seem, is a recipie for conservation concern.

Our resources are managed based on the assumption that fishermen are FOLLOWING the rules, not breaking them. If we were managing based on the assumption that the rules were not being followed our seasons would have to be more limited than they already are.

Simply by asking the question, I suspect you know what the answer ought to be.

The problem with taking it home, justifying your breach of the regulations, is that there is no way for an officer to know whether the fish was really hurting when he checks you at the dock. If it is important enough for you to take the fish home, that you are willing to accept the ticket uncomplainingly, then perhaps you did the right thing. If, on the other hand, you had been checked and ticketed, would you have been complaining here about the injustice of the ticket? If so, then you have your answer.

The enforcement folks have to force release of fish, even if mortally injured, because there is no other way to keep Gap Tooth Charlie and his friends from bonking everything they catch, claiming that it was bleeding. Sadly, if it were acceptable to allow keeping of mortally injured fish, the percent of mortally injured fish would skyrocket overnight.

If you think that it is worthwhile and good for the fishery for us to have game regulations, then it was harmful for you to keep this fish. If you think game regulations are simply obstacles to be surmounted in your quest to kill every fish that you can, well, no amount of sermonizing will convince you that there is a valid reason behind the law. I happen to think there is a reason, and a good one, for requiring that even mortally wounded unclipped fish be let go.

Nah, Kid, that's his good looking cousin. The girl that is. They have two kids together now, but the state won't let them get married.