Handling Techniques for Fish Caught!

[RoeBaggin]

I wanted to say that I love the posts of successful fisherman and their triumphs on the water with pictures of their fish caught for the day. However I do see a lot of people who post pictures with their fingers crammed in the gill plates of the fish. I know a lot of the members practice catch and release and are concerned about the well being of our fishery as a whole. With the concern of releasing the fish there should also be a concern for safe handling practices to ensure the survival rates of the fish caught. I want to encourage people that safe handling practices dramatically increase the fish's chance for survival! I have always found that handling fish by the tail and supporting their belly with the other hand avoids the possibility of damaging vital organs of the fish. I too used to gill the fish when caught but had been informed on proper techniques to increase survival rates. I hope that board members collectively concentrate on the little things that can help us sustain a great fishery. I hope this information to be contagious(knowledge is power!)

Thanks

Roebaggin.

[jwl]

great post..I pretty much practice 99% catch and release, with lots of fish eg: OOS muskies and stuff I may happen to hook into don't even come out of the water..there are quite a few people on here that are active in conservation efforts including myself, and that care about our fishery in general and would like to see a great future in it for our kids and so on...there has been some great points about this topic brought up before pertaining to releaseing fish/fizzing practicesess/over-playing fish ect...thanks for joining in

[Hellfish]

always a good topic to inform the ppl who dont know yet

[Guest Rockfish]

This topic has come up a couple times about not touching the gills and there are tips on Page 7 of the regs on Live Release. One thing I wondered about under the Releasing part is that it says when reviving fish to move it slowly forwards and backwards ? Another discussion was about not forcing water through the gills of a fish backwards because the gills don't work that way.

I Googled info on it and it confirmed that. I just hold fish close to the tail upright in the water, until it's ready to go when possible except from a pier but still try to minimize the time out of water. I also rarely use a net, saves time untangling lures.