And his 35 year old wife doesn't mind a bit.

Good that foul hooked are returned. Was accused of keeping foul hooked fish before. If you have ever hooked a SPRINGER (Spring run Chinook salmon) as I have in pretty fast water using the light gear I described before (9 1/2' rod rated 8-12 LB and using 11 LB test leader) when that fish turns down stream in that rapid water, I had to follow. Those on the other side who saw that accused me of having to follow because of being foul hooked! I confronted one of those guys once, he slunk out of there. really pissed me off! I don't have to cheat. The reason we were accused was because I happened to have a sled to launch about 1/4 mile down stream and to motor up to the fishing area and beach my boat to fish. Those that didn't have a boat were there for envious and complained that everybody on other side were Cheating by snagging salmon. I have told a true story before on here about the game department sneaking into the fishing spot by driving down stream and driving up river and hiking in behind us to catch all of us bad people. That was real interesting, LOL.

Exactly, on gear loss. For my Steelhead/Springer rod, I am using a G loomis blank 8-12 lb 9 1/2' blank rod I made. I am bank fisherman casting with a bait caster reel and drifting. Since there is so many balls of line in the bottom of the river where I fish I have to do something to keep from losing my gear plus a bunch of line, so here is what I use. By the way I am using a very small sinker, maybe 3/4 ounce and a Corkie so don't have a bunch of POP gear to lose a bunch of money. But I also don't want to lose a bunch of line either. So I use 50 lb super braid and 11 lb leader for the "FUSE". The Super braid is about the same dia as 12 lb mono. Now if I ever hang up, I never use the rod to break off, I let the rod just lay on the line and wrap the line around my coat forearm and pull straight away on the line. I may lose my sinker, the corkie, but not the line. When I notice the line starting to get a little fuzzy, I just cut off a couple feet and re rig, but no nicks in my line to cause a failure and loss of a bunch of line. Lost a big Sturgeon once because of a probable nick so changed to braid there too. Hey, I know everybody has different methods and just giving you my method. Also I concluded a week ago that at my age, 8th decade, I no longer try to convince anybody (or care for that matter) that my way is the best, just my way. same as I used to do when teaching fellow rod builders how to weave or do other things building rods. I would just tell them, this is my way and maybe you can pick up something that will help you do your method.

I have fish all my life and have a question that I almost feel silly for asking. I have always use a lighter leader line than my main line, the thinking being that 1- would only lose my short leader line instead of a lot of main line, 2- I use a Caroline Rig a lot and figure would only lose the hook or lure instead of my swivel and weight, 3- if the fish breaks the line he would only have a short leader line to swim around with instead of a long main line. But I see lots of guys on here and you-tube that they use a heavier leader line than main line and was wondering why. Thanks ahead of time for any reason why.