Careful with the salmon

[The Hairy Beast]

I didn't mean to get my back up either, but the keep/vs/release issue is sore spot in the angling community and provokes plenty of real flame wars on fishing forums across the Interwebs. Careful release of fish does improve their chances of survival and it does give other anglers a second or third crack at them, all of which is good. If you're not going to keep one you should release it quickly with as little handling as possible. There's nothing wrong with posting guidelines, for example, for soft release.

But the tone of your post was critical, and that's going to provoke reactions. For example, you wrote:

I wish people would be less concerned with the trophy photo with both hands wrapped around the fish and more concerned with releasing a healthy fish that can be caught again, still healthy. Take the picture with the fish either lying on the dock or even better dipping in the water as you hold its mouth and remove the hook

I took that personally because I have posted several pictures of myself or my buddies holding fish. Now, the vast majority of fish we catch we soft release, but occasionally we do hold one for a good shot, as I mentioned in my prior comment. Apparently you don't actually have a problem with that, but your first comment suggested you did.

I guess I can only suggest from bitter prior experience that a post designed to be helpful would be less likely to upset people if it's written in a helpful tone, rather than critical. I understand now that you didn't mean to single anybody out and I was wrong to get a bit hot in my response,