I wanted to find out how the other board members here felt about the dorsal fin rule this year on some of our coastal rivers.I was fortunate enough to hook and land a real
nice ten pound chrome bright hen a few weeks back,It had all it's normal fins in tack but the dorsal measured in at two inches.Myself and the other two that were with me all agreed that it was most likely a hatchery fish so I bonked it.Whether it was hatchery or native it was legal to harvest.But I'm not one to bonk nates.After eating one fillet of it that night and curing the awesome eggs from it,It's been kinda eating at me whether it was the correct thing to do.I'm not meat hungry and or egg hungry at this point and time off my life.Would like to know how others view this "RULE".
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

My first steelhead lacked a dorsil and had a scared up nose, but a full adipose, I bonked it, I was 14 and it was my first fish man, there was no way that fish was going back in the river. Since then I've had several i've wondered about, but in the end they always swim away. I woulden't lose any sleep over it if I were you. And if you were on the river I think you were, it was a hatch most likely. MY rule is if there is any doubt let them go. good luck to all, Brad

Frankly ... I don't even measure them. The height rule comes from an old study from many years ago and is inexact at best. Many smaller wild fish will come in at under 2 1/4 inches and will be whacked on the noggin because the dorsal fits the requirments. While I like to see all the hatchery fish out of the river, I guarantee you that a number of wild fish are being killed in the process of measuring that goes on ... while most do it carefully, I've seen some AWFUL handling of fish during these measurements.

I look at the dorsal and it's usually pretty easy to tell. Steelies nip at one another quite a bit in pens and the dorsal almost always shows some deformation in hatchery fish ... look at those rays, especially those at either end of the dorsal ... if they're straight, it goes back period!

I figured someone might ask about this, so I've got a couple of pictures of dorsals on unclipped fish that we've kept ...

The fish that I had mentioned in the above post had one plaw in it.The dorsal had one split in it, right in the middle and was approx 1 to 1 1/4 inches long.Myself and two fishin buddys were 80% sure it was a hatchery
fish.Judging by the stream that we were in it had to be a stray.I to bonked my first nate.But that was 15 years ago,And haven't bonked one in the past 10 years.Thanks for the reinsurance guys. Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE