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[UFV_Poor_Fisher]

Would you kill it and then throw it back or.........

drop kick the sea lice off of it, back into the place it came from. Hopefully doing some good.

LOL!!! nice...

I think we pretty much have an overwhelming majority on the issue...Mans law over Natures law...haha
I would release it and hope for the best, as pointless as that may sound...

[VAGAbond]

Fish are tough.   I have caught a number of shakers that have had most of their face ripped off when shaken loose by commercial fishers, at least that is the most probable cause of their incredible wounds.  The wounds had healed and they were feeding and growing.  Ugly fish!

Release them and hope for the best.

[maverick]

My worst was a 38.5" Thompson River steelhead. I caught in on the cribbing run with a Kitimat spoon, it jumped four times and cartwheeled three times. While my dad had it tailed in the water I measured her length and noticed she was bleeding heaviliy out of her mouth. I opened her mouth to remove the spoon and saw I hooked her just in front of her gills and the inside of her mouth tore for almost two inches from the fight. I have caught several steelhead on the Thompson over the years with spoons and I noticed they almost always took a spoon deep and it was bad for causing bleeders. This one being the worst I also knew it would most likely die from blood loss. I held onto her tail untill she swam out of my hand and I never fished with spoons on the Thompson River again. It was all I could do to prevent causing the loss of another steelhead from such a precious stock.

I have since starteed flyfishing for steelhead on the Bulkley and I would say that the closest thing to a steelhead hitting a spoon is a steelhead hitting a swung fly. I have hooked several Bulkley steelhead deep but have only had one bleeder so far which I believe (hope) lived. I have started to fish more dry flies on the Bulkley and the problem seems to be taking care of itself. It is disapointing letting a bleeder go but the regulations are the regulations.

[Whitedevil]

I will release it and most of the time it will recover by itself..

[Eagleye]

If the fish is hooked deeply it is usually best to just cut the line.  The hook will dissolve eventually.

[odesseus]

Definitely look at the fishing practices; cutting the hook saves fish no question. However once the damage is done; do you have to throw it back? I think so, the law being the law.

[funpig]

You have to release.  And I would not underestimate the toughness of the fish.  I have caught salmon with bites taken out of them by seals.  One time I went fishing with a newby.  I went down river while he was fishing a popular hole.  I came back an hour later.  He told me he caught a salmon and bonked it about 30 minutes earlier.  It was bagged in a garbage bag on the rocks.  I went and took a look.  It was a wild unclipped coho.  I told him his mistake.  Well, we put it into the river, holding its head and tail facing the current.  Surprisingly, it revived after a few minutes and swam off.  Got lucky on that one. 

[janders]

Ive definitely had a few times where i had to spend 5 to 10 minutes holding and moving the fish back and forth in the water wondering if it was going to die or not and watch it eventually bolt down to the depths of the lake.