Catherine creek and the Salmon River

[Nymphmeister]

"Lining" is a huge problem on the Salmon River and in many other Great Lakes tribs. It is easy to take the running line and really abuse it in an unethical way. Unfortunately, even using "traditional" techniques people can line the snot out of the Steelhead too. You can run a 10' leader on a fast sinking Teeny line and swing it down and across and line/snag the daylights out of them. It's not so much the method, but who is using it and how they implement it. Float fishing with bait is probably the most ethical method- if done properly, you almost never foul or line a fish. But, it you know what to do, you can snag/line them even with that rig. Once again, it's the ethics of the fisherman that is the single biggest determining factor. Part of it is the "I have to catch fish no matter what" mentality, and part is just pure ignorance/misunderstanding- some people lining fish don't even know they are doing it. They see the hook in the mouth, but fail to see that it is on the far side of the mouth, hooked from the outside in. They actually believe that they need to keep their weights 4,6,8 even 10 feet away from the flies so as not to spook the fish. Funny though, these same guys will nymph heavily fished C&R educated trout back home with the weight 12" above their nymphs and still catch trout.

[trout5]

Well said. Stupidity will never be eliminated, but ignorance can be through education. Hopefully some different regulations will enlighten more people, but I doubt it. :-[