When fishing the samish i seem to stumble across alot of dead stinky fish on the banksn, some with there belly gut open, others to far rotten to tell the the hell happened? wtf?

indian's are probably guttin them for eggs. same scene on the elwha right now, under the one way bridge there is about 40-50 dead kings some up to 50-60lbs

Might not be tribal folks.

Could be hatchery fish that have been spawned and the carcasses returned to the river for nutrient enhancement projects.

where the tails cut off? nutrient enhancment fish have thier tails cut off.

Those fish you're seeing are from are white boy brothers that catch them, keep them, then figure out it's too dark and just take the eggs. I've actually seen bucks left behind because a brighter fish was caught and they didn't want to keep old black belly fish in their limit. Not a lot of people do this, but the few who do are helps ruin such a good run of fish up there.

I always have my camera with me and have been looking for good pics for this board, and I think I'll just start taking pics of those who do this and maybe some of the other fine fishing practices that can be witnessed up there and a few other places.

LOL, Kinda like pervertedjustice.org except its for fish. Good idea addicted.

A picture with enough background to identify the area would be an invaluable piece of evidence if there was something that needed to go to court.

thanks for the clarification guys, tails were cut off, good to know the fish were utilized

mreyns, wish that were the case on the Samish. That is definatley not the case there.

I had a thought, what about fileting the fish in the field, and then putting the carcass back in the river in a discreet spot, so the nutrients stay in the system, as opposed to going in the garbage. I checked the regs, and I didn't find any specifics about the legality of fileting in the field. What are your thoughts?

The potential problem with fileting in the field is proving legality if checked. Most folks don't keep the adipose attached to a filet. Filets tend to shrink as the muscles contract and minimum size could be an issue. I think I would council to do the filet at home and take the carcass back the next time you go out. Only downside there is whether or not some over-zealous health dept official would have problems with nutrient enhancement. Also, you should put carcasses back into the river they came out of and not into another river due to potential disease problems. You should call your WDFW regional fish biologist and LE officer for guidelines.

I snagged a fish that was dead and the fillets where gone, i also saw one fish with the tail cut off, and one with its stomach cut open, so i may be true in all cases

stop using treble hooks