Kind of hard to make out where the gill plate is (do they have gillplates?), so I'll leave it up to the armchair game officers in our midst.

Best ****ing run of steelhead in years are finning their way up the rivers right now. Hell, even *I* hooked one awhile back and willierower knows that I couldn't catch one in a hatchery. I can, however, with my 30lb spider line, do some massive river bottom degradation just to get a lure back.

I'm about ready to add pics to an FG photo, so look out. The rest of you? Go fishing. Get your line wet. Connect with the beauty that is nature, to get rid of the ugliness of what many posts have become lately.

I need to hook one of those!

The sheep I mean. (sexy)

Geez Dave. Whats the deal with you and that dead horse pic? Is there an underlying theme here? Let me guess, you dont care much for equestrians?

I'm actively considering creating a login specifically for the dead horse, so he can step in whenever threads get to the point where continued discussion is nothing more than beating the proverbial dead horse.

When given the choice between the dead horse and a singing fat lady, I feel like I made the most stomachable choice.

Come on Dave, dont discredit yourself like that. Its not your fault they just cleaned out the holding tank right before we got to the hatchery with out 5/0 trebles and spark plug wieghts.

I have a couple questions about the horse.
1. What scent did you use on the rag? Alfalfa? Or Molases/grain?
2. What state ws the horse taken in? The WA regs state "a fish must voluntarily take the bait/lure. If the horse actually turned to take the rag and had poor eye sight and misjudged the lures position and the sticky sharp Vision hook got it. Then its not foul hooked or snagged. but, if the horse was minding his own buisness and didnt "voluntarily" go after the rag, I would call it snagged.
BTW. Your spinner is still hanging out in my boat waiting for you to come and use it again.

I was hoping that no one would ask the types of questions that you just presented, Paul. Here's the truth:

The horse was a dead spawner. I stumbled across him while I was out hanging with my yak-herding friends last winter. We had tried a local stream for the hatchery run of ponies and, as normal, I lit up a big ol goose egg. So that the trip wasn't a total waste, I went and embedded my Vision hook into its maw (damn, slid in like butter into that rotting flesh! Those hooks are sharp!) and snapped the photo. I cropped the photo so you wouldn't see its rotting ass.

I'm sorry that I've misled you all into believing that I had caught this horse fair and square. Hopefully with all of your help I'll be able to one day catch my own horse. Thank you for your help in this difficult situation.

Oh, and catch a fish on that lure for me would ya? It shouldn't have to wait on me to be useful. Not that I don't want to fish with ya again, as it was great having you around to unhook that lure from the tree in the water. I'm just going to be buying my license in Washington this year and I'm waiting for April.

Dave glad you didn't name that small stream....otherwise someone would have to bad mouth you :p . My understanding of dead 'orsey fishin rules is it's perfectly legal to hook an *ss from the mouth back....but I'm no expert !

gooose

Hey pimpinshrimp sounds like it's time for you to break out those velcro pants again.

I would swear I have seen that critter out in front of the Sol Duc hatch!Now I know where it went.Used to live right by the adult pomds and the creek hmmm?

Dave,
Dont worry about the WA license. Im not doing that anymore. You need to drive a little south so we can do a summer steelhead trip. There is nothing like floating the river in 75+ degree weather sipping a cold one and checking out the girlies in bikini's

I'm gonna hafta drive a helluva long distance to get to 75 degrees and bikinis this time of year. You living in Cabo now?