Jeeze, I don't know where to start so here were go.
Riding a bike without a helmet isn't really good analogy. If someone spills without a helmet, the consequences are basically all their own although as someone pointed out, society may pay for their hospital bill.
Snaggers on the other hand damage the fishery for everyone around them:
#1 - Snaggers and flossers pollute our river because they fish deep with excessive weight and long leaders which ultimately get left on the bottom of the river in FAR greater volume than let’s say someone float fishing or throwing a $5-$8 spinner or spoon. The mess the leave behind makes it impossible to fish some runs.
#2 - They snag fish which they know they can't retain, this must cause increased mortality and reduces breeding numbers.
#3 – The way they bomb a hole and rip their lines through the water, more often than not, scares the fish and shuts the hole down…the fish stop biting. This ruins the fishing for people who are trying to get biters.
#4 – in general, snaggers are scum bags that IMO don’t belong on the river. If you don’t respect the rules or the fish then you are more likely not to respect other things like the environment. Look at all the garbage at the cable pool. It’s not there in that volume during winter steelhead when the sportsmen are out. It’s not there when the Coho run is just starting and the first true fishers are finding the run. That garbage is there in disgusting amounts now that the run is chalk full of tomatoes and the snaggers are there.
Snaggers don’t respect the regs, the fish, the environment….NOTHING....these are just a few reasons I call RAPP every chance I get.
To answer “long cast’s” question, my wife is Chinese, my brother in law Filipino, I have an Aunt from Japan, friends from Vietnam and Laos, I traveled SE Asia over extended periods of time on multiple occasions…I can tell ethnicity often by the sounds of a voice or certain physical characteristics. Singaporeans learn English as a first language and I guarantee you I can tell a Singaporean based on how their English sounds (intonation, etc)…this guy was Chinese, no doubt about it. I could post his video on Youtube if you like.
To those of you who think the “no English” is a polite way of saying F. off, I don’t think so. This guys was smiling and laughing, waving back at me…if he hadn’t been snagging fish, it would have been hysterical watching him…he was having a grand old time!
To address another comment, had I been able to communicate with him, I would have politely had a conversation with him about what he was doing and why it is wrong…when I said I “yelled” down to him it was simply due to the distance between us…there wasn’t any hostility.
I like the idea of a test. Ya I would get 100% and probably have to pay an extra $25 bucks or whatever but if it helps stop crap like this and it help people stop flossing and snagging, that would be a good investment for all of us to make.