This subject has probably come up before but I'll throw it out anyway. Steelhaed with a intact adipose but a clipped dorsel and crooked rays. The fish was also your normal cookie cutter 6lbs. Do you release or BBQ.

I'd release it because I would not want to explain it to the game warden. But then again I haven't kept a steelhead all year.

Obviosly a hatchery fish,but the rule says missing adipose with a healed scar,game warden will write you up and you won't beat it in court

Rules say gotta release. No worry, you can always catch another one. It's not worth the ticket.

Depends on what river.
Most rivers, yes, definately release.

Yeah, you gotta release. WDFW does not mark all the hatchery fish with a clipped adipose. They want some of their brood stock to be returning to them also, and they figure that not clipping the fin helps it get back to the hatchery.

I just find it humorous though that such a crummy looking fish is actually wanted by WDFW for broodstock.

Seems to me, they would rewrite the law to allow for truly crummy looking fish to be kept by anglers, even if not marked. They might be doing something for the genetics of their brood stock.

This dilemma happened to my grandfather yesterday on the Sol Duc and a fish checker was right there to see this fish and said that he would keep it because its a hatchery that had the wrong fin clipped as a smolt. All fins were intact perfectly he said, but the Dorsal was kinda rounded off and there were only 7 or 8 rays on the fin and there should be 12 or more! It was your typical 6 pound brat-sized hen, Chrome to the bone too and the only fish checked on the Sol Duc yesterday. Needless to say, he kept it. It was his first keeper salmon or steelhead he has caught with me in all the years I have been fishing with him. I got stiffed the whole day and only lost one. Glad to see gramps come out on top this time, on one of my streams even ( he lives on the other side of the big pond)! Chris