I caught a rainbow trout yesterday at Wolf Creek dam. Beautiful fish, awesome iridescent colors, strong fighter, and fat as I've ever seen. He was 19 inches long which put him in the slot to immediately release, which is fine I wasn't going to keep him anyway. Not, at least, until I saw the pool of blood in my boat and discovered that he was hooked in the gill. I was careful with this fish but sometimes it just happens. I let him go, I had handed him a death sentence with that injury but I know the regulations so I let him swim off to meet his maker. Now I'm having a moral issue with it. Next time, I think I'll roll the dice, take the ticket. It just isn't right to put a dead fish back in the water when it could be food on the table.

Now I know some unethical folks might cut the gill on an otherwise healthy fish and put them on a stringer if this was allowed, but I am ethical and that's why I'm having a problem with it and why I'll probably break the rules next time it happens.

anyone else?

Steve