Catch And Release Tips
Practicing "catch and release" has become popular with most fishermen today. A good rule of thumb is to keep no more than two fish per fisherman. The results have been very positive resulting in increased numbers of gamefish in our fisheries.
When practicing catch and release follow these simple tips to improve the survival and health of the released fish:
- Return the fish to the water as quickly as possible.
- When holding a fish or removing the hook use lip grips to reduce contact with the fish.
- Contact with a fish will damage its protective coating. If you do need to make contact with a fish, use your bare hands; a glove or towel has a greater impact on their protective coating than your bare hands.
- Do not put your fingers in the gills of a fish, this can cause permanent and fatal damage.
- Place the fish back in the water gently.
- If a fish has swallowed the hook, just cut your line and release the fish. Attempting to remove the hook will damage the fish's internal organs; however a fish has chemicals in its digestive system that will dissolve the hook in a couple of weeks.
1 comments:
Vernon, just a couple of additions to your helpful suggestions for anglers on catch and release.
One is that the "lip gripping tools" will help our fish. There is both fact and misnomer in that. Recent studies show that holding large fish vertically - which is what happens with lip grippers - can cause irrepairable and fatal damage. Also, concentrating all of the pressure to one point on the jaw can break the jaw. Lip grippers aren't bad, but fish should be kept partially submerged or supported with a second hand (held horizontally) to achieve the highest poste-release survival rates. Large fish shouldn't be weighed hanging from the jaw, but in a net such as a Frabill Conservation Series net or a rubber mesh net, with a scale on the handle.
Secondly, conventional wisdom among anglers has been since the 1970's that we should cut the line on deeply swallowed hooks. Several studies in the past 5 years (including one by Recycled Fish) confirmed that although these fish swim away, mortality rates can be as high as 100% among certain species. Although we've all caught fish with hooks in them, fish who have hooks deeper than the gullet nearly always die.
The best bet is to fish with circle or cam action hooks when using live or dead bait and set the hook quickly, which increases the chance that the fish will be hooked in the outside of the mouth. Artificial flies and lures tend to have lower rates of deep hooking than live baits, and we recommend using only single, barbless hooks.
If a fish does swallow a hook deeply, it becomes an excellent candidate for 'selective harvest.' If someone prefers to return the fish to the water, it's better to remove the hook. There is information on how to do that on the In Fisherman website.
For more on catch and release and selective harvest fishing, we've got 'best practices' guides at www.RecycledFish.org.
Thanks for helping spread the good word!
Teeg Stouffer
Executive Director
Recycled Fish
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