Given the trend toward conservancy in the moral and ethical treatment of sportcaught fishy's, I figure it's only a matter of time before someone makes it illegal to take fish out of the water *AT ALL*.

OR.....USE A HOOK

Geez Sol, it sure looks like you are disrupting that fish's digestive system by holding him so tight under the water like that. Be Careful or the next reg will include hand placement policy for underwater pictures!
Double

Yep, I can see it now, Sky. Steelheading in the future will consist of scuba diving and photographing fish, hands-off, in there natural environment.

Sky-Guy, Seems like that "hand placement policy " rings a bell from my dating days. But long enough ago, I'm not sure.

Open circuit scuba, aka "scuba diving" has the release of loud bubbles after every breath of the scuba diver. These bubbles will spook, therefore, "harm" a wild steelhead in it's natural environment.

I'm sure that will be outlawed as well. I'm going to guess that only closed circuit scuba, aka "rebreathers" will be allowed.

Oh yeah, and no flash photography, either! The flash spooks the fish. Or damages their retinas - right Doc?!?

Missed this one Parker, found it while searching for something else.

For the record, the bright flash photography has no lasting damage on the retinal photoreceptors, just bleaches them out temporarily. I do it repeatedly on a daily basis on human subjects.... burn an entire roll of 36 exposure B/W film plus 8-10 color slides in about 10 minutes for one patient each time I perform a fluorescein angiogram to evaluate retinal disease.

Sportfisherman in the year 2010...........

every time you what?

Doc, I'm not sure what that is but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't admit to it even if I did.

I think a buddy of mine tried that maneuver when he was in his thirties...twisted his back up so bad he couldn't fish for weeks. No comments from his wife, but he was in the doghouse for weeks afterwards.

Mike

I hope you check their ID to make sure they're at least 18 if you're taking pictures, and please, wash the sheets when you are done....