Thursday
Feb232012
Feb. SOTM Submission: O.P. Steel
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 12:04AM 
Aaron O'Leary.
Game. Set. Match.
tagged slab of the month, steelhead in Contests
slab of the month, steelhead in Contests
Reader Comments (40)
I am filled with admiration for anyone who can land monster fish like that on what appears to be an electric power cable for line.
sorry guys this ones shopped...Look at the size of the fly line...its like power cable...and the net...I think he could fit in the net.
Learn to take a photo...why the magic tricks? This photo is misleading. It is clearly warped/stretched from the pectoral fin to the caudal fin. Also look at the lines in the water just below the caudal fin, they don't line up and are very blurred near the fish. Also why only three fingers?
SHOPPED!
Try better next time.
so, the guy can fish and take photos, he is the total package all you haters to busy hating need to go go fishing or a least learn to use your camera, or barr that go to the doctor and get longer arms.
I hate to join this arbitrary discussion about AO's fish (it is a damn nice buck, and it's not photoshopped idiots, just a flattering shot) but I have to ask.....Do you even fish PNW Miner? Or do you just wait for people to post SOTM entries so you can post the same garbage about how you never take pictures of fish. Fuck yourself pal, nobody cares.
"I'm as guilty as anyone of the long arm, but lately find myself enjoying pictures showing fish held close to the angler straight broadside over a well executed long arm."
Andy has a Facebook stalker and he is illiterate. I know that's a BIG word for you, but try hard!!!
We did shoot it with a fish eye lens. The length of the net inside the basket is 37" long, so a small family could fit inside. We lasso steelhead with electrical chords square knotted together out here in the west.
DSO Show. I fish all the time. Have been for as long as I could. I have caught lots of nice steel big and small. That is precisely the reason why I don't take hero shots like this. I don't know anybody with any long term fishing experience who takes long arm hero shots and posts them on the Internet. It doesn't happen, it is a sure sign of a newbie dumb ass to do these things.
Well you must know all of the cool steelheaders out there. Most of the guys that you talk shit about have been at it their entire lives as well. Furthermore, I do not think that any of the steelhead conservation organizations share your zipper-lip sentiment towards these waters. If no one knew that the Elwa historically recieved massive native runs of salmon and steelhead, then hatchery influence would have no resistance right now AT ALL. Yvon Chouinard does more for conservation than any other person that I am aware of on this planet. Yvon Chouinard takes pictures of/with steelhead (in fact there have been some on this very site, see: http://moldychum.typepad.com/moldy_chum/2009/01/steve-perih-photography.html). What are you doing to help these fish? Flaming SOTM entries isn't doing it, guy.
I don't care as much about the zipper lip rivers as I do a culture that wants to catch steelhead and brag about it all day. Steelhead are not doing well, I don't understand the hypocrisy of posts like yours. Arguing that these guys do more for steelhead so they should get to do this steelhead hero shit. I am a fisheries biologist and dedicate my life to working for this fish. So that is clearly not an accurate portrayal of my stance in this fight.
Nothing is ever going to stop us from fishing, it is in our genes. That doesn't mean we should be wearing "Hero Cams" and catching everything that swims than posting it to the entire world to see on the WWW That Patagonia guy is a hero of mine. I don't think he takes hero shots as much as you think. He has caught as many steelhead as anybody and cherishes it but I highly doubt he sets up hero shots like this for his fish. A steelhead like this deserves better than to be a "Slab".
I think it is clear my posts hit nerves. Good. Feel it. That is life. People disagree all the time. I want you all to see how some people like me disagree with this type of thing. I don't even have a problem with Moldy Chum, it is just this silly "Slab of the Month" thing.
Also, most of my silly posts don't make up here anyway. The internet is constantly censored. The real voices that discourage and chastise usually go silenced. That is sad to me and it should be to you. The internet is going to be a tragedy of the masses.
Cheers to all you dumbasses. Have a beer a bitch about guys like me and keep telling yourselves I am the one with the problem.
Why can't we all just get along?
Why blast people on here? That is my point. If you would spend the energy that you use being an ass on here to amicably communicate your point of view, maybe people would shift their perspectives on the whole thing. You only struck a nerve in the way that you troll this site like an asshole. I don't think that our points of view are all that different. I choose to take my angst out on magazines that pump out destination articles for our rivers out here, without mentioning the state of each fishery. If you are a biologist I applaud you and I am sorry. I am sorry because I am sure that has made you very aware of the current state of things (do not assume that I do not, because you simply do not know me), and thus, very bitter. I understand. But, do you really think that your snide comments are convincing people to stop taking pictures and posting them on the internet? Also, I don't bitch about you, guy. You may think I do after you say the incendiary shit you say on here, but that just isn’t the case. You blew me up over a fish that I sent in to SOTM. It bugged me for about five minutes, mostly because you claim to know who I am and what I am about. That was just ignorant, and stupid of you to assume. I have different beliefs than you do on what is helping and what is hindering. There are much bigger issues than SOTM concerning the state of steelhead in the U.S. Right now you are acting like Bill Mahre, and I feel the same way about him. Good message, dumb shit delivery.
DSO,
You are my hero. When are you doing an article for the drake with GPS information included?
That big fish... definitely a spawner. How many pictures did you have to take before you got this godly given gift of an image? If that fish was out of the water for 90 seconds or more you immediately increase it's chance of mortality...
I'm glad you got your 5 minutes of fame on moldy chum at the expense of this wild fish. You are a true HD Hero. I want your autograph.
The hell is wrong with you guys? What ever happened to camaraderie and high fiving each other?
Aaron is a hell of an angler. Most of you dipshits have nothing on this guy.
Pimping the OP deserves no high fives....
This would win spawner of the month for sure! High five BRO!!!!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=511428157103&set=a.585905928053.2125182.39204852&type=1&theater