What an amazing specimen!!

How sad the retard killed it!!

In the lower pic you can see ripped gills hanging out..That was a survivor..Its hooked in the freekin nose for shiit sake!!!

Musta had a rough journey upstream.
Looks like he bashed his head on the rocks trying to reach the spawning grounds....

I often wonder what makes this disgusting.....



And this acceptable.....

What a magnificent fish! It breaks my heart knowing that it's dead.
I don't know how anyone could justify killing it even if it was his first.
Saying it was a bleeder is a crock! The fly is clearly in the lip.
Sooooo sad!

My guess would be that the fish was bleeding from the gills as a direct result of the way it was handled, not from the hook.

I've heard that sometimes when you bash their heads with rocks then rip their gills out...













...they bleed.

You can't believe everything that Superfly says.

Much of the banter on this issue has been emotionally inspired, as steelheaders we are passionate about "our" fish. From a logical standpoint, there was NO reason to kill this fish for a trophy mount. Dave Campbell, among other talented artists currently have molded replicas of the EXACT dimensions of that fish. That fact he was not aware of available replicas in that size range when he put the tape measure on it only speaks to his immaturity as a steelheader. I surmise it was bonked before the tape measure was even extracted. Based on his tale about bonking it because it was bleeding from the gills, after a 45 minute battle, while posting photos with the fly visible firmly tucked in the fishes lips..............?

BS.

You're a liar, Pete. May God have mercy on your soul. From the looks of your photo you're going to meet him SOON!

Bonky woulda had a better defense if he'da stuck with the "it's my legal right" argument (as lame as that is), instead of making up some bull$hit story that many of us know FOR A FACT isn't true...


Dear Bonky: You coulda been just an ill-informed fisherman (or some such nonsense), but now the whole interweb world knows you are an a$$hole and a liar. You deserve every page of this...



Enjoy your trophy, dickhea.d...

I had an opportunity to fish an extra day on the Hoh last spring with a Guide.
He says, would it be OK if one of my buddies tags along? Sure, a little company would be great. Oh but there's more.

I had one take me into the wood first cast of the day and that was it.
My boatmate mentiones he'd like to take a fish home. Hmmmmm Ok with me I think.
Then he ties into a nice big buck, lands it and straightens it's eyes out with a rock. W T F !!!!! Needless to say, it was a rather quiet boat ride the rest of the way down.

Threw it on a scale when we got back and it weighed 20#. Granted, it was a legal fish for him to keep, no question. BUT...... Just because its legal, doesn't make it right!!!!!

Unbe[sensored]lievable. Someone who would post that on the internet with their face uncesensored... makes you really believe that this dipshit really doesn't know any better. Go back to England you old British Fag.

I'd like to take this line of thought a bit further; let me step on this here soap box...

Those who live and breathe on internet fishing boards and post away on threads like this don't really live in the real world. They take for granted the concepts that are preached and pounded into the collective conciousness of the PP membership--one of those being the notion that native fish have intrinsic value above and beyond the dinner table. The general public has absolutely no concept of this, and the general fishing public is only a little better. Thanks goodness the Northwest salmon/steelhead fishing community knows better... Oops--our apparant "truth" about the unmistakable value of native steelhead is not even close to understood (or at least practiced) in our own backyard.

From the WDFW weekender report:

" Cooper said that during these conditions anglers tend to fish the Hoh River, where a Feb. 13-15 creel check showed that 200 anglers on the lower portion came up with 32 hatchery steelhead and 30 wild (eight released). During the same time period, 33 anglers fishing the Sol Duc caught three hatchery steelhead and 9 wild (two released)."

Roughly 75% of steelhead anglers are exercising their right to keep native steelhead. Apparantly, most of the WA state licensed anglers have not been educated at the University of Piscatorial Pursuits. If the native steelhead philosophy asserted by the moral majority on this thread is not placed within the context of sound science and filtered of its emotional attacks, it is little better than cult mentality.

Also, in the fairy-tail world of a steelhead lifer, wouldn't there be rivers capable of supporting harvestable numbers of wild steelhead? Not saying that we're anywhere near there, but if that's not what we all want, then what exactly is it that a steelhead lifer dreams about? Are we not angered by the kill of this unique fish most of all because we'd like the opportunity to catch one ourselves (or for our children)? If the answer to that is yes, then our motives are selfish as well--albeit much less so--but certianly not beyond reproach. Unless you're one of those that is most angered because fish are meant to swim entirely unmolested in rivers (translte to PETA), you're guilty of exploiting the resource--I know I am.

My point is that we speak of native steelhead retention like it's a despicable act--no matter what the context--yet under better circumstances, wouldn't we all like to have such an option? I'm a lifer for sure, and that's what I dream about, but until the numbers support the dream, I'll keep on pardoning the natives that find their way onto the end of my line. In fact, before I knew the scientific differences between hatchery and wild fish (a nuance that science is still trying to fully unravel) I used to let lots of brats go too, mostly because whether born over gravel or concrete, just beating the odds and making it back home is worthy of respect, and for that, it was fun to watch them swim away.

-GF

Adding my two cents

Though I prefer that this fish would have been released and my take is that the bleeding from the gills was a direct result from the fish being lifted by the gill plates ( that is a lot of weight to support). I can only bitch a little about it because the angler was with in his legal rights to harvest that fish. What really bothers me is the fact that if we remove the right to harvest native steelhead from that river by the sport angler, the sport portion of the "harvestable" fish by treaty rights would be harvestable by the native americans ( and would be). So even if we choose to do what we (sport angler) can the boost the native steelhead by mandating release, we and the fish are still screwed.

I think it's a valid point that some folks have no idea how valuable a wild fish is to the future of our sport, or how badly treated the Hoh run is in particular...but the fact that the dude felt the need to lie about it being a bleeder shows that he knows damn well it wasn't cool, but did it anyway.

He did it to have his name in the books, period. I hope his dick doesn't fall off from stroking himself too hard.

On a related note, I contacted the IGFA today about the procedures for recommending the removal of a fish from the list of potential records...haven't heard back.

I sure hope I do hear back soon, and a bunch of letters/emails from concerned citizens around here will help. I'll let you all know.

Fish on...

Todd

If you thought killing that fish was sick, I just read "his" post on another board where "he" didn't have a spot to store it and after 4-days feed it to his dogs....

Justr because something is legal doesn't make it right. Just because WDFW and the Tribes say there is a "harvestable" number doesn't make it so.

What were the salmon and steelhead runs like in 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s? In every case, those resposnible for the resource told us therer were harcestable fish. If this wewre true, why are the runs continuing to decline? I know habitat is a problem but the Columbia was overfished before dam 1 was built.

If habitat was such a huge problem, why are Puget Sound cutthroat and char showing nice population rebounds. They spend yttheir whole lives in eoither a PS river or the Sound itself.

The ocean is the problem, you say. The pinks and chum should be crashing. If we want stromng populations of wild anadromous salmonids into the future we have to simply stop killing them. Wuth better habitat protection, where it exists, and restoration where it is logical, we ban get back to some pretty strong runs. To keep them that way kill will have to severely limited.

CDR, that thread is a joke...unless you already knew that. That fish was caught on the Kispiox this fall, and the dude took 61 photos before releasing it.

Fish on...

Todd

Gotcha... That's what happens when you're away for too long...

You're joking right ?

Saw it with my own two eyes... Unless you're referring to me not knowing about the joke...

Still posted.. I guess someone just wanted to stir the pot.. Had me going!