dbadger you have got to be the biggest FOOL EVER TO POST ON THIS BOARD...YOU NEED TO BE TAKEN BEHIND THE BARN FOR A GOOD WOOOP A$$ING,STAY AWAY FROM HERE YOU ARE NOT WANTED.....12LB ANDE LOL

B dodger, you are wrong about one thing. You haven't released more native fish than days I have been alive. I am 38 years old, and have been fishing steelheads since I was 15. I catch more steelheads in a single year on Midwest rivers than you can possibly catch in 10. It's not be cause I am the greatest steelheader in the world, it's just a whole differnt world out here. Sorry to inform you that I'm not some snot nose 16 year old computer geek. If it wasn't 5 below zero, and the rivers weren't completely iced over, I would be fishing, rather than arguing with you. You flat out don't have the numbers. And you never will. The biological conditions and survival rates, and return rates between saltwater steelies and lake dwelling steelies don't even compare.I too pick up trash, travel 5 hours one direction in order to steelhead fish, and contribut time to youth angling, and hunters education. Perhaps, if you would have explained who you are, your views on native fish, and that bonking a nate was a rare exception, rather than the rule, guys wouldn't be riding on your as* about what you did. You certainly don't have a very low opinion of yourself. It doesn't pay to be perfect bdodger, the last guy that was, ended up hanging on a cross. Pretty crappy way to go, if you ask me.

Bdodger, what's the point of starting a tread like this here. Could you have possibly missed that this site is the origin of WSC and one of their main objectives is to promote release of all wild steelhead? If you disagree with that objective, let's hear some facts and resonable arguments. If you just want to start a tread of name calling and trash talk you should take a look at nwfishing.com, it might suite your purpose better than this site.

Bob - the Big One,

Please remove this thread. It's totally counter-productive with its name-calling and unknowable allegations. Not likely any good will come of it.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Hey Salmo G. I agree 100%, I should have never gotten this wound up. Sorry

Would I have bonked this fish?
Honestly?
Probably, I have only landed one steelhead and knowing that the Q is an Indian river.
But your bragging and your bad attitude has led me to compile this list.

Why I see this post as BS!

1. Your wife states that she "knows nothing about the fishing arena" but in another post she uses the term "12lb Ande Monoline".
(I have read alot of posts and I think the "wife's" posts are actually yours just by the style and terms used, unless she is very manly)

2. If you had 4 buddies with you then who cares if "No one would believe" you.
(I have shot some of the largest blacktailed deer that my taxidermist has ever seen, my buddies know and I can care less if you or anyone else believes me)

3. If you really had caught this fish you would have had it officially weighed so you can have the record.
(I have not heard or read about a new record and by your bragging here it is obvious that you are an egomaniac)

4. Where are the pictures? You state that you "harvested it last week". what does that have to do with anything?
(Last year I shot a bear, had the photos developed and then had a 8x10 blowup done all on the same day)

5. The grammar, typos, and juvinile remarks.
(Very indicative of a juvinile posting a hoax)

If you caught this fish, then congratulations and put up the pictures or shut up and go away.

HERE COMES THE SHERIFF!

Not going to delete the thread, just going to lock it. Why? Despite a need for a wrist slapping for a few here, it brings up a point that anglers need to consider when you catch that fish of the lifetime and I think it's important to pass the message along, but I'll put an end to the crap.

DBadger ... glad to hear you let almost all your wild steelhead go ... perhaps someday for the sake of the fish you'll let them ALL go.

This is a time when are fish (wild steelhead) are under lots and lots of pressure ... doesn't matter what river you are on, it's there everywhere, just to varying degrees, and basically going downhill all the time. Nets, a doubling of the state population and subsequent angling pressure increase, pollution, stream warming, and so on, you get the picture.

SO, you catch the fish of a lifetime, a thirty pounder ... it's a great feeling, I know. (A little sidebar- I've landed one on gear, lost a couple of others close to that size, landed some nearly as big on the fly, and lost one that made the thirty look puny on the fly ... but that one fish is a great memory. And it swam away, and it's perhaps the most rewarding moment of my steelheading career).

Back to the lesson here .. that thrity pound fish. Perhaps a one in a thousand fish, 0.1% of the population in general? Probably! So here you have one the rarest genetic makeups of the steelhead population ... a fish that either spent four years at sea or spent three years with a longer freshwater residence to begin with. A nearly unique individual on his way to pass these special traits along to the next generation ... and you have the opportunity to allow it to do so with no loss to your memories of the fish ... pictures, artificial mounts will last much longer than your skin mount, especially if you didn't spend the $30-35 an inch to get one of the state's real artists to do it.

Your reasoning is backwards here, if you're ever going to kill a wild steelhead - the best bet is to take an average member of the population ... odds of hurting the run's makeup are the least. So, tell us all about how many other fish you've released, you killed the one that the stock needed the most