ColdBore: The Game and Fish boys report seeing stream side clipping quite regularly. Many, me included, will hang keeper steelhead and let the exterior air dry before wrapping them in burlap and putting them in a cooler. Just seems to keep better without all the exterior slim weeping onto the meat.
The poachers will do a clip and then attempt to manipulate and seal the skin over the wound as it dries. Some look pretty convincing, but a few drops of water will soften the skin and reveal the wound. We've even seen LEO's make fishermen wade out and retrieve a filetted carcass to prove that a fish tagged, retained, and consumed on the river was actually fin clipped.
Can't break our ocean fish down either before reaching shore.
I once removed but did retain a head because the steelhead would not fit in my cooler. The moose and goose boys at the mouth did not like that at all. I did not get ticketed, but I did get a firm lecture.
Last edited by 1minute; 02/15/12.
