I had never used a net while wading in either rivers or saltwater. I thought nets were cumbersome and difficult to keep out of the way – particularly with a sling pack, which I use.

However, after my last trip to the saltwater, I’ve decided I need to use a net, difficult or not.

Yesterday, I hooked and caught my first sea run cutthroat trout. It was a beautiful fish that was about 11 inches long – by anyone’s standard, a very nice size for this species.

I was understandably excited and wanted a picture.  As I was fishing alone, I had to be the photographer  with one hand at the same time I was trying to control the fish with the other (rod hand)

I had considered backing up to the beach, but I thought the distance (about 30 feet) would have meant keeping the fish too long on the hook.

So I kept the fish struggling on the hook while I got my camera out of my pocket. I then got the fish up and set him in my stripping basket – violating the rule that a catch and release fish should not be lifted from the water. I thought I could do it quickly, but I was thinking more of my picture than the fish.

I got the photo, removed the hook and held the fish in the current of water to get him moving. I thought I held it long enough so he’d swim away – it seemed as if it was ready. But when I released it, it drifted slowly away with the current. Thinking back, I should have given it more time to let the water move over its gills until it began  swim out on its own. I knew it before and I know it now. I don’t know why I forgot it in the moment I needed it.

As I watched it drift away, I felt really bad about that fish.

Hopefully it survived. But I don’t know.

Perhaps the only thing I can do now in addition to carrying a net is to relearn the lesson that our actions have consequences and as such we need to understand the consequences before we act. And protecting the fishery is more important than a photo.

So I will carry a net and focus on the fish I catch – quickly returning them to their environment whether a picture is taken or not.

I owe it to that fish.