Cowie's Biggest Steelhead

[The Chosen one]

Anyone holding a fish like that should be very ashamed of themselves. If you know the physical make up of a steelhead you'll know that if you're holding it like that and it kicks once it'll tear the tissue right at where the gills join the lower jaw. Death for sure!!!!!![xx(]Please if you're gonna release a fish hold it under the belly and push the pec fins forward and hold it by the wrist of the tail. Porcupine how do you know those two fish were the same ones that you saw the next day? And please dont hang steelies on your scale!!!

 

[porcupine]

That steehead I released was back in the early eighties and I would definitely not handle it like that today. I actually used a tailer on it so that really dates me. Nowadays I use catch and release nets or release the fish in the water and that's mostly for salmon and trout as I don't do much steelhead fishing anymore.

The fishing for those two big steelhead was in late April in low, clear water conditions. If you ever fished that section of the river back then (it's illegal to now), you know it's not very large, smaller than Harris Creek. The markings on the fish were unmistakeable.

I had been a freshwater fishing guide for a couple of years before then, as well as having received top honors in post graduate level fishery courses at UVic. In other words, they weren't the first two fish I'd ever seen!

Lastly, no, I don't suggest that is the best way to handle a fish and did not mean to suggest so.

 

[The Chosen one]

Please hold them like these fish and release them quick after a couple of picshttp://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p213/pookshui/nickswinterfishing005.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p213/pookshui/nickswinterfishing009.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p213/pookshui/nickswinterfishing014.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p213/pookshui/nickswinterfishing016.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p213/pookshui/nickswinterfishing025-1.jpg

 

[Blackleech]

Don't take this personally Porcupine, but my guess is that they closed the upper San Juan because guys like you were chasing paired up spawners in the shallows! We've all learned alot since those days.
BL

 

[porcupine]

Blackleech, I'm sure that they wanted to protect some of the spawning sections on the rivers and the top end of the San Juan, Harris, and Hemmingson Creek were closed. There was no hatchery steelhead program then. Eventually they got smart enough to intitute catch and release only. It was a good move.

Incidentally, my wife used to give me heck because I would go years without killing a steelhead as she loved to eat fish while I didn't. Since that time, I've become a salmon angler and mostly leave the steelhead alone. Some years I might go out once, then again maybe not. They are a great fish and the wild ones are a treasure. And it's a great thrill to release a big one unharmed!