If it’s okay, I’d like to respond to a couple parts of that deleted comment.

Yes he could have released that fish to die, assuming that it was indeed gill-hooked and bleeding. However, I’m not buying that it was hooked where he says it was for a second. Personally, I’ve never seen a spey caught steelhead(actually lake run steelbow rainhead) get hooked that deep. And from conversations with people who have seen a lot more spey caught fish than I have, you’d be more likely to win the lottery than have it happen.

And yes, it could have swam into a net after being released, but under your logic, every steelhead caught should be kept to avoid eventually swimming into a net. Sorry, but that reasoning doesn’t fly.

Masterometal: Harrison

Or, he could have released the fish and had a reproduction done. That way, [em]when god forbid[/em], he can’t fish anymore; he could look up to his wall and remember one of the best days he ever had and take some pride in knowing that the fish also lived to tell the tale.

if you have a problem with it, you might want to cut this guy some slack and go after the regulatory body that manages the fishery!!

Tom Chandler: @Guido: The circumstances surrounding the fish’s demise have been pretty exhaustively talked about in a lot of other places (I didn’t link to all the conversations about the thing because there were too many).And as Dylan noted, the fish was legally taken, which – in my thinking – is truly the starting point for this whole circus. That fish this big aren’t caught all the time suggests the mess we’ve made of those rivers, and it would be nice to see the venom directed at Mr. Harrison redirected towards those who fail to recover (or protect) our anadramous fish populations.

Seriously the problem isn’t Mr. Harrison and his right to retain this fish, the problem is that there are not more catches like this that could have been let loose safely, or “Legally” retained with out a impact to our beloved river system. If everyone focused half the attention, effort, and trash talking on the true “Eco Terrorists” of our fisheries which is the tribal Indians then maybe this wouldn’t be such a big deal to everyone!! I’ve fished the Hoh and many other coastal rivers for over 18 years and have seen some truly horrible things “sportsmen” have done, BUT add up all those things I’ve seen, and they don’t even equal half of what I’ve seen 1 Indian boat do in a single drift on the Hoh with there net……Nor have have they come close to equal the HUNDREDS of Native Steelhead I’ve seen (many which have been “Trophy Size”) being sold out of huge white tubs as crab bait in La Push for $.12 a pound, yes that’s 12 cents a @#$&% pound. I agree 100% with out lawing the harvesting of Native fish….However when someone does it legally!!!! Until all is stopped I can’t see looking down your nose at Mr. Harrison, I would bet my fishing rights that if the net’s were stopped, hell more regulated, OR EVEN CHECKED!!!!! You’d find that many many more of these wonderful beasts exist and the accidental bleeding which resulted in the harvesting of this fish wouldn’t be such a chance for jealous anglers to bitch!!!!! Congratulations Mr. Harrison on your catch, and I feel for you for taking so much flack from people that are too ignorant to see what the real problem is……..Fish On

I’m frantically preparing to teach tonight’s online marketing boot camp, so can’t respond to all the comments, though a few things occur to me.

1. The conversation here is very different than it is on the message boards, and if you believe people are willing to give Mr. Harrison the benefit of a doubt, a few minutes there will dispel that illusion.

Also, don’t know if anybody noticed, but the “One Year Ago” posts widget to the right of the top sidebar is acting ironic for us – a year ago I posted an article about whether there were enough Atlantic Salmon in Maine rivers to even support an extremely abbreviated C&R season: Enough Atlantic Salmon for C&R

Are we heading in that horrific direction out here?

I wish I could pull in hogs like that once and awhile.