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[mko72]

To the guys on the Squamish today shouting "Foul hook! You can't keep it!":

Thank you.

There are an unbelievable amount of foul hooked fish being retained on that river and the Mamquam.  You guys shaming people into putting fish back is more than appreciated.

It probably helped that there were four of you and you all looked like you could handle yourself in a fight. Even though some people would just smile and pretend they couldn't speak English, there were DEFINITELY fish put back in the water that were snagged.

Keep up the good work!

[HOOK]

I've been known to "help" them land their fouled fish..............then promptly release their fish LoL

[zap brannigan]

had to yell at more than a few on the mam, if they didnt want to cooperate i'd walk over and 'help' them release their fish.

[rjs]

I woulda just cut there line !

[koifish]

Is this a foul hook fish? Not to sure Hooked under te jaw there's been some fourms asking and I've heard would you keep a fish hooked under the jaw? Just a question since when salmon enter river they stop eating they attack because there aggressiveness lol so ya

[mko72]

To add insult to injury these guys were easily the most productive group in the area.  They had some of first properly hooked fish I'd seen today.

[Dennis.t]

Nice. More self enforcement is needed on our local flows. Great to hear this...

[TheFishingLad]

On the Shuswap river they go by the rule "If its hooked in the head it's legal". So eye, chin etc.. Good to go. Was also what the Conservation Officers would enforce there.

HOWEVER, I do not know the legitimate rule as I'm too lazy to look it up and there's so many Pinks that you're better off just keeping the ones in the mouth.

[Spoonman]

.............HOWEVER, I do not know the legitimate rule as I'm too lazy to look it up.....................................

                         

[skaha]

--so many fish that it is impossible to not foul hook... I move to a different spot or change gear or angle of approach or stop fishing.

[wonder]

Anything above the gill plate is fair game, in my opinion if you're planning to keep a pink anyways and you've already hooked its eyeball out I'd rather see that one kept than released to prob die anyways. Props to the guys yellin at people tho. Seen a lot of foul hooked fish on the squam

[DanL]

On the Shuswap river they go by the rule "If its hooked in the head it's legal". So eye, chin etc.. Good to go. Was also what the Conservation Officers would enforce there.

HOWEVER, I do not know the legitimate rule as I'm too lazy to look it up and there's so many Pinks that you're better off just keeping the ones in the mouth.

From the regs:

snagging (foul hooking)… hooking a fish in any other part of its body other than the mouth. Attempting to snag fish of any species is prohibited. Any fish willfully or accidently snagged must be released immediately

I would not have thought eyes, gill plate, chin, etc are part of the mouth, but like it or not, anywhere in the head area seems to be the commonly accepted standard of 'close enough'. And to be fair, unless I'm standing right next to someone, if the fish comes in head first, it's somewhat hard to tell where it's been hooked.

[andrew5]

i stick right to the rules for two reasons: 1: you never have a guilty concience, and I have bad enough luck that i don't need to be pissing off the fish gods and 2: there's a slippery slope effect to consider...

I have wondered though that if a fish is hooked in the eye, it's technically a foul hook, and therefore not eligible to be kept, but that has to make its chances of surviving to spawn go way down. would it be more ethical to keep it? I guess it's not exactly goignto waste, as the fish does remain in the food chain of the river ecosystem.

Interested in hearing others' thoughts.

[mko72]

I have wondered though that if a fish is hooked in the eye, it's technically a foul hook, and therefore not eligible to be kept, but that has to make its chances of surviving to spawn go way down.

If it's a female, I'm sure it can still find a redd and crap out it's eggs for a male to fertilize.  A buck on the other hand... well, when was the last time ladies found an eye patch and/or missing eye to be all that sexy. 

[kokanee_killer]

Personally, I'd like to see the regulations changed were people who have caught there fish on the Squamish just leave. Instead of watching people catch 40 or more fish, fouled hooked or otherwise, continue to fish. These fish are not that strong and after being dragged onto shore and fought out, I wonder if they have the strength to go much further.  I was there on Saturday and watched some people catch fish after fish for sport and they did released them. Most were foul hooked all over the fish, across the back, on the fins, etc. Are these fish going to make it to their spawning ground or will they die before reaching it since they are so worn out and damaged from being hooked? I'd rather see people foul hook their two fish and leave than to see people hooking 100's of fish and releasing them to die.