Take a look at the picture and article on page 76 of the latest STS by Bev Wilson.

If you read the article, on this day of fishing, she caught and released her first steelhead of the day.

Take a look at the photo of the nice little nate. Nice fingers in the gills, huh?

What's up with that? Why would you publish that photo with the caption of "Bev Wilson's first steelhead!" Especially, when she goes in to a nice "happy moment" and explains how important C&R is? Apparently she was "blessed to have had this exerience." Yeah, so was that gill mollested hen. "Blessed."

I guess my whole gripe is just the editing of that article. I'm not starting a C&R or bonk nate thread, but if you're going to go out of your way to talk about your "blessing", don't show me pictures of you gill-raping a nate!

Sometimes, I wonder why I even read that magazine.

Parker

parker,

I've noticed that keeping your hands out of the gills of a fish you intend on releasing hasn't caught on much in the midwest. I see show after show where folks are releasing bass, pike, musky, trout etc. , but don't keep their hands out of the gills. I'm wondering if this is commonplace back there.

Hey, hawk, you got any feedback on this?

Fish on.........

I am sad to say that putting your fingers in the gills is a very common practice around here. I talked to about a dozen guys this weekend, who held them up by their gills before letting them go. The other move is to drag them up on the bank, take the hook out, and then kick throw them back in the water. If I get nothing done in the next two years on the river, it will be discretely showing guys how to release fish properly. I made a trip out to Washington last fall, and learned a lot about the "correct" way to release fish. Thanks.