Jacob,
I see that your pic post has created a little heat. My post comes in a 2 parter. yes it is a nice slab..But..I was shocked to see the first picture in this thread was a nate laying on the ground out of water for C and R maybe next time you could carry that cam in a breast pocket and take the water shot , and if you were so cocerned about all you had to do while that nate would still be in the water then think of the same events while it layed there on the bank. Great Fish..Poor Pic

Threads like these are what makes these boards get worse and worse. 3 or 4 assholes get on there perch and tell a guy, who may have just got a little excited, that he shouldn't have taken a picture of his first 20lber or weighed it or measured it. But if he posted on here that he caught what he though to be damn near a 20lb fish, everyone would call bull****. These fish aren't made of porcelin. He might as well posted this pic on a P.E.T.A. website. By the way nice fish.

Wow! I guess we just added one more to that fraternity WRO!

If the fish are too tired to swim when you're done, then you need to change your gear and the way you fight fish.

I think the fish is in better shape then this thread

WRO,
As a newbie here this is the second thing I've seen on this thread that I find hard to swallow.

Congratulations on a nice fish. Don't let the bashing get to you. I killed my first 20#. Had it mounted. I think some people get jealous.

Nice fish Jake.. too bad you got caught in a feeding frenzy!

I didn't even finish reading the rest of the posts in this thread.... I've seen enough..... And all I have to say on the topic is "My God, you guys are a bunch of PR!CKS." Here a guy takes a fish out of the water a little too long, and you're all acting like he just admitted to being a Child Molestor or something.... JacobF, Dont sweat the fish, it probably wont die and if it does...... Oh well. You didn't quite do everything by the book, but ya live and ya learn, so it's not that big a deal. Hell, a lot of guys would've bonked that fish, and you did the right thing by letting it go. To Hell with the Naysayers.

Some of you need to lay off the guy. I think he got the point by the first two negative posts. All of us have incidently killed a fish or two. Its impossible to avoid (unless you dont catch anything). Deflate your ego's and stop lecturing.... remember, when you point the finger at someone else, you got three pointing back at you. If you feel that strongly about saving the wild steelhead, put your money where your mouth is and STOP fishing for them. It's pretty obvious the runs are really in trouble. Back up your sermons with some action, or just chill out.

Jacob,
Congrats on a very nice fish. Seems as though a few others are a little jealous. I can remember how excited I was after landing my first 20 pounder. That fish went to the taxidermist. So you sending back certainly has to feel a lot better than killing it.

I don’t know how much, or if any harm comes to a fish on the bank for a very short time, but let me tell ya. I was fishing on a river in Minnesota, for large German Browns, when an explosion of minnows erupted from the water. A few minnows ended up on the gravel bar I was standing on, and much to my surprise, a brown of about 5 pounds or so, leapt onto the the bar, flip flopped over to one of the minnows, and grabbed it in it’s jaws and flip flopped back to the river. I was just wondering if this fish knew how much harm it was doing to itself, by getting sand all over it’s body?

I would venture to say that the fish survived. Mine didn’t. Don’t let the extremists run you off and enjoy your fishing while you still can. Seems that some just want to keep it all for themselves, unless you use the same hook, same bait, same rod, hold your tongue the same way, etc, etc.
I’m not condoning mishandling these precious fish, but what makes some think they should become a fish cop all of a sudden? Isn’t it better to lead by example, than to chastise someone else?

My .02
Catarafter

For what it's worth, I didn't "drag" it on the beach. When it was in around a foot of water, I carefull tailed it with my right hand and put my left hand under it and carefully lifted it out. I then gently laid it on the beach. It didn't struggle, it didn't flop around, it's whole body weight was supported. I didn't have to "fumble" for my camera or anything, it's easy to get to, I just had to take my vest off. I didn't even bother to take the time to wipe the sand off it. As soon as I put it back in the water, it swam off with no revival time at all. There were no scales or blood anywhere.

you got that right.