Snagging Spawning Kokanee

[BearLakeFishGuy]

I think snagging of any game fish is NOT FISHING.  Its SNAGGING!  I find snagging salmon wrong since many fish are hit by the snag hooks and are not caught and are wounded so bad they die before they can reproduce (and die of natural causes).  When I was a young kid in Michigan the pacific salmon were just getting going big time.  Each fall there were snaggers at the mouths of various rivers where the salmon (coho's first, then chinook and pinks) were trying to spawn.  Since it was something so novel, there were no laws against snagging.  That changed quickly when the "snaggers" started drinking and getting into fights about crossed lines, embedded hooks in other people's faces, eyes, and other body parts.  My father showed me these people doing this.  It wasn't something my father did nor did I.  The people who snagged at that time claimed the salmon would not bite since they were spawning, but of course that was a lie.  People just didn't know how to "fish" for them.  I've caught many chinook, cohos and pinks right duirng the middle of the spawning seasons using yarn flies, spawn bags, and big homemade spinners and none were snagged.  I'm glad Michigan outlawed snagging and I'm glad Utah has regulations against it too.  Any article like the one about snagging kokanee just really gets under my skin.  Usually my skin is pretty thick and I let it go, but I just could not sit idly by this time without calling out snagging as a B.S. method.  Its not "fishing", its "snagging" pure and simple.  Ok, I'll step off my soapbox now.  I just looked at my picture attached to my signature line it is of a snagged Bonneville cisco.  So I need to clarify that snagging of non-game fish and cisco are an exception to the rule and that is clearly stated in the Utah fishing regulations.  Cisco really are not able to be caught using standardized fishing techniques.  Are some cisco hit by snag hooks?  Yes, but they are quickly eaten by other fish or even eagles if they happen to float to the surface.  Salmon in most waters in the western US and even the Great Lakes region need to stocked on top of natural recruitment in order to provide viable fisheries.  Therefore, snagging salmon cuts into the natural recruitment.  It just doesn't make sense why it would be allowed in so many states.  In addition, it makes law enforcement a nightmare (I know several conservation officers who would back that statement too).