I came into landing at Anky about 5pm on Sunday and "the man"
sprung from the bushes as he usually does. After a very brief
exchange of pleasantries he inquired about my catch. I slid the
ice chest to him and he opened it and said something to effect
of nice fish but probably illegal.
Now that's my idea of howto begin a conversation with "the man."
I immediately began to inquire about the tail pinching/twisting/mashing/
pulling controversy and he quickly informed me he had already begun
to measure that way. Of course I asked him to show me as I had measured my two trout at 19.5 and 20.5 even after being on ice.
He asked where my ruler was located and I showed him on the side of
boat. He said it was impossible to measure accurately and he would
bring me something suitable. After a trip to his "hidden" truck he returned with a 36" or so ruler with lots of advertisements on it. He laid
it on my gunnel and began to measure the shortest fish from the tail
on 0 and measuring to the head. He began by twisting the tail to where
one tip of the tail was against the 0 line...problem was as he pushed the
fishes head down the tail slipped forward. He proceeded to do this several times and each time I told him the fish's tail was sliding forward.
He finally said he would accept my measurement of 19.5. We went thru
the same thing with the larger fish and couldn't agree as each time
the fish slid forward on the paper ruler...so we agree on 20.5.
I asked him if he thought his technique was legal and repeatable and
he just said he would never pinch a fish's tail to make it illegal.
As they say, "at the end of the day" I remain confused!
Both fish were caught in moving water at creekmouths on Catch Jr's.
Water is quite dark and even though several short reds were returned to
grow both the trout appeared to be quite healthy although a little on the
skinny side. Lots of boats out from Anky on Saturday and Sunday.
Beautiful days on the water although little chilly and breezy at times.
Best report of all: NO LEAKS DETECTED in repaired hull and new
electric Riptide 80# is "the bomb."
Enjoyed meeting TROUTFISHER!
All shorts.