Catching Steelhead....Without Hooking Them?

[AJFishdude]

Time for another interesting fishing story. Note that I did put up a report about this trip, but I kept it purposefully vague in order to avoid attracting the trolls. Read on and you will see what I mean.

On Monday morning I headed up to the highway side at Reiter Ponds to again try for my first winter Steelhead of the 2014-2015 season. I had been up the Saturday before but had no luck that day. Looking at the forecast and the river levels, it looked like Monday morning would make for a perfect slot to hit the water before the next set of storms rolled in and made fishing miserable and difficult/impossible.

I arrived at the river at about 7:00am and was quite pleased to see that no one had yet taken my favorite rock. I have a favorite rock on each side of the river in this stretch. It is nice to arrive at my rock in the early morning light, or before the sun is up and know what the structure of the river is like in front of me without having to guess. There are other reasons why these rocks are my favorites, but if I divulged that information....well, I might find them not being my favorites anymore.

As the light is coming up I quickly got my pole set up and tied on a standard quarter ounce bead shank pink marabou jig. I was ready to go just as it started to get light enough to see my bobber. It was time to get down to business. I began to work the water, adjusting my depth as necessary and just settling into my fishing state of mind. On a couple casts I let my bobber drift right in close to shore, maybe within 5' of the riverside end of my rock. Well, as it would happen, on one cast as my bobber drifted in front of the rock I unexpectedly saw it go down, however, as it dropped its top had that slight downstream slant and the speed with which it went under just wasn't quite fast enough to make me think it was a fish. I was pretty certain that I had hooked the bottom. Well, whatever, might as well just go ahead and set the hook anyway.

I set the hook, and I could immediately tell that it just didn't feel right, however, I didn't have long to think about how weird it felt because a split second after that thought I felt the headshakes of a good fish and heard the buzz of my drag as a nice winter Steelhead took off from its hiding place. Fish on!

So now I had an unexpected, but nonetheless welcome fish on the line and I switched over to fight mode. As it would turn out though, the initial feelings that I had felt that told me that something just wasn't right when the float dropped and when I set the hook weren't completely off base. As I started reeling in, I noticed that my float was nearly at the end of my rod tip, the fish was nowhere to be seen, but I could still feel it pulling. Something weird was going on. My first thought was that maybe I had hooked the line of someone who was fighting a fish downstream, but a quick head check confirmed that I was the only one in the vicinity with a fish on. I looked back out at the water and I could now see my jig suspended in mid air with another section of line looped through the hook.

Now this next part is significant; I can see that my jig hook is not caught on a swivel, or a weight, or a knot, or another hook, or anything that should have allowed me to keep pressure on the fish, it was simply looped once around my hook. Realizing that I had an interesting situation, I decided that it was time to leave my boulder perch and move upstream to try to get this fish to shore. I skidded off the rock, boots slipping on the slick sides, and bashed my elbow as I landed in the water with an almighty splash. No worries though, I had a fish to fight! So I grabbed my net (which thankful I had already pulled out to its longest length) and headed over to an area where landing will be easier. The fish however had different ideas. This one was a fighter and just refused to come in. It also didn't help that I had reeled my float to the top of my rod and still probably had 15 or more feet of line out counting my leader and the looped line to the fish.

This wasn't my first rodeo though, and I knew that if I could just hold this fish it would eventually tire out and come to shore. So I just stood there for a few minutes, keeping pressure on the fish with my rod in one hand, and the net in the other, poised to make the scoop at the opportune moment. Eventually the fish came in, I slid the net under it, pulled it to shore, did a quick adipose check and upon establishing that it was indeed a hatchery hen (chrome bright and a little under 8#), I moved a few feet away from the water to try to figure out what had happened.

I laid my rod down and took a look at the mouth of the fish to see that it had a little size 1 or 2 hook buried neatly around the jaw bone. I slid the hook out and had now reached decision time (FYI, this is the point at which I would potentially expect the trolls to show up, assuming they have actually read this far without deciding that trolling my post is just too much effort). What do I do with this fish? Well, I figured that I had technically done nothing wrong, as I certainly didn't snag the fish, and I fought it to shore just like any other fish. I made the decision that this one was going home with me and proceeded to dispatch "my first" winter Steelhead of the year.

And now, let us speak of regulations. The arguments against keeping a fish like this that I can think of are:

---Harvesting part of another angler's catch
---Using two hooks in an area where only one is allowed
---Keeping a snagged fish

Lets look at each argument in order. First, I most certainly did not harvest part of another angler's catch. The fact that the fish previously bit another angler's gear is completely incidental to this discussion, seeing as the fish had clearly broken off by the time I "hooked it" (FYI, it had bit what appeared to be a size 12 pearly pink corky with black spots). Second, the usage of two hooks is completely out of the question as well. On the cast that I made where I "hooked" this fish, I only cast one hook. Now someone might argue "ah yes, but you did have to use TWO hooks to actually land the fish." That is true, but the question then arises, "who was the owner of the hook in the mouth of the fish?" It definitely wasn't my hook, and so for establishing ownership of the second hook, I think I would say that by that point it belonged to the fish. Or if you don't want to assign ownership of objects to animals, then it was nothing more than unclaimed garbage. Third, keeping a snagged fish is also out in my opinion because my hook in no way shape or form penetrated the fish. If you really want to go deep with this, then consider the argument that the line hanging out of the mouth of the fish is now just an extension of the fish. So I technically secured my hook around (notice that I didn't say hooked, because I didn't hook it) a part of the fish, which was extending out of the mouth of the fish. Furthermore, snagging is defined as attempting to take a fish with hook and line such that it doesn't bite the hook. Anybody who understands snagging knows that you don't float jigs to snag fish.

So, as far as I am concerned, the fish was caught in a legal, albeit extremely improbable manner. I feel that in this case, the law is unclear, but that I still followed what could be considered the "spirit" of the law in the absence of better clarification.

And I still have absolutely no clue how that line didn't pull off of my jig hook either, that part makes no sense whatsoever.

[BentRod]

Well it's a crazy story if nothing else. What are the odds that you'll successfully land a fish someone else hooked and lost by snagging their broken line? Pretty slim I'd guess. I've hooked plenty of gear out of the river in the same manner, but nothing with fish attached.
I won't comment on the legality of it nor will I judge you for it. However, you undoubtedly saved a fish from a miserable wasted fate and if it was a hatchery fish then might as well pull it out of the system.
I snagged a 14# hatchery last year in the pectoral fin using a float/jig. I'm still trying to figure out how I managed to snag it, but I released it because it was technically snagged. Many of the guys around me told me to take it as it was a hatchery and should not be put back....conflicting interests for sure. There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, sometimes it's hard to determine what's best.

[natetreat]

It's happened to me several times, I've hooked swivels that were on a fish, pulled in line attached to a fish, one time we got one by the bobber stop yarn wrapping around the hook. The fish was probably hooked by one of the boats side drifting downstream, broke off and continued on its merry way to the hatchery, so the first guy wasn't breaking any rules either.

It's and interesting and theoretical question as to whether the fish "voluntarily" took your hook, but it obviously voluntarily took the hook that was actually in its mouth. Calling it snagging is taking the literal interpretation of the law a bit far, IMO but it is certainly possible that one could call it a violation to keep that fish. Although in practice, I would doubt that the law would be enforced in this situation. Most of the fish that I've caught like this were on the Skok, and were snagged, so I've always thrown them back.

[Amx]

I was fishing along one day, saw a bobber floating and as I got closer the bobber wiggled. I pulled it up and a little bitty blue gill was on the hook. I unhooked it, let it go, and kept the bobber and hook.

Another time last summer I was fishing along a row of docks, saw a rod in a holder, the tip was bent down, the line was going off to the side. I followed the line and saw the line stuck on the piling of the dock next door, and a trout on the hook. It had been dead for at least a couple days and was whitish scum colored. I called the WDFW on that, and happened to see the lake police on the water and told him, he said they would do something about it. For quite awhile I didn't see a rod in the holder, and when I did it was a different color.

[skagit510]

The rule is that of the fish is hatchery and your hook is no further than 22.5" from the hook in the fishes mouth then you can keep it. Any further and it's not legal but the law is loosely enforced.

[obryan214]

twice I reeled in fish hooked on another line. once was a king on the skok, hooked the snag gear with my line and brought it in, let it go since alot of people were watching and it was getting the bronze color. the other was a trout on a pond near sekiu, hooked the eye of a pre tied hook with my spinner, it to swam free, to small for me.

[Mike Carey]

your hook is no further than 22.5" from the hook in the fishes mouth then you can keep it. Any further and it's not legal but the law is loosely enforced.

Fascinating. There's actually a rule in the regs to cover this type of occurrence? Not that I don't believe you, but I'd like to read it. What page is it on? (I was unable to find it) Thx

[skagit510]

I'm just joking around Mike. There is no rule I know of to accommodate such an event. My interpretation says you legally must release it. However, I don't think any harm is done keeping a hatchery fish at reiter caught in this manner. Aj, I'd take it much the same way one would by landing on free parking in monopoly. If I were in a fish eating mood I might do the same. I would likely release it if it were a wild coho or a wild anything. That though would fall under the personal ethics of an individual and I quite frankly wouldn't judge so long as it was a legal fish to take. This same event has happened to me a couple times over the years. Makes one consider their tackle. I always try to rig and fish in such a way to minimize gear left in fish or in the river in the event of a break off.

[bob johansen]

Very interesting conversation. I once caught a bass by just hooking a line that had broken off. The bass was legally hooked in the mouth and probably was happy that I caught him, removed the hook and released him. That happened during a bass fishing trip to Moses Lake. Another time I landed a sockeye in Lake Washington by hooking a dodger that been broken off. I kept the dodger and and terminal gear and won't comment any further on that catch.

[Mike Carey]

I could be scammed so easily....

[gregsalmon]

So....who caught the fish if you hooked it and handed the rod off to a friend and he reels it in?

[AJFishdude]

So....who caught the fish if you hooked it and handed the rod off to a friend and he reels it in?

Assuming that you do the hand off right away, I think it is well understood that the person who fought and landed the fish is the one who caught it.

[hawkoath]

I have yet to see any trolls on this forum (except for friends elbowing friends) but back to the subject at hand. To say the least you put a ton of thought into your actions, even if you did break the law (which you most certainly didn't) I bet a warden would just let you off with a warning max. I have had this situation occur to me and seen it occur to others and haven't given it a second thought about whether my fish was legally caught (maybe I should have lol). If my line breaks with a fish on it I usually point it out to the other fishermen by me and just ask for them to give me back my lure when they catch the fish. I don't think anything you have done anything wrong as you have valiantly fought and landed the fish and the more fish to you.