Tim, Wonderful response and hard to refute. This is the best definition of what happened so far. If I did not catch the fish but only the stringer...should I then detach the fish, throw it back, and keep the stringer (assuming it was legal length (it was))?
Also .... good food for thought...thanks for participating. Chris You didn't catch the fish; you snagged the stringer. But what about a fish hooked on the outside of the head? I've watched a trout swat at my bugger 4 or 5 times before it hooked itself on the outside of its mouth. I released it, but I would have anyway. To further stoke the fire, I've seen a bass strike a crankbait (Hi, my name is Tim and I'm a Chunk-and-Winder) and get hooked in the mouth. During the fight the second treble hooked the back of the gill plate, and the original hook came out. The fish was landed on the second hook. Legal catch? I watched an even stranger episode on television. Is was similar to the previous, but went a step further. Shaw Grigsby hooked a bass on a crankbait. Second treble hooked the back of the gill plate. First hook came out. First hook took hold on the back. Second hook came out. He landed the fish on the first hook, but it wasn't in the original position. Legal catch? I'm not positive, but I think it would have been a legal fish in a tourn ament... Timothy
