- Before even hooking a fish, debarb your hook. Barbless hooks are easy to remove which reduces handling time and results in less tearing and damage to a fish. A common misconception of using barbless hooks is that they will result in more fish lost. This is not the case as in my experience, most fish are lost due to poor hook ups and NOT the result of a fish ejecting a hook, barbed or otherwise.
- When playing a fish, bring it in as quickly as possible to avoid excessive exhaustion, especially in warm water conditions and conditions of low oxygen content. If you are having difficulty landing fish in low oxygen water conditions and exhaustion is a concern, beef up your leader to allow you to bring them in faster. From a conservation standpoint it is better to catch fewer fish as the result of a heavier leader than to inadvertently kill fish through excessive exhaustion.
- When landing a fish, minimal handling is the key. All fish have a protective slime layer on their skin and it is important to ensure that your HANDS ARE WET before handling a fish. For small fish, it is often possible to grasp and invert the hook to return the fish to the water without touching it. If a fish must be landed, use a soft cotton mesh net as hard nylon and mono nets can damage a fish?s protective slime layer. It is always best to leave a fish in the water as much as possible when handling and preparing it for release. If it is necessary to move the fish out of the water, ensure that the fish?s internal organs are well supported. The easiest way to do this is to the tail the fish and GENTLY support and lift the fish directly behind the pectoral fins.
- Unhooking a fish is usually straightforward if barbless hooks have been used. Large fish, however, can sometimes be difficult to unhook due their large size and wild behaviour. For difficult fish a good tip to try is to tail and invert the fish (belly up) in the water. This will disorient and pacify the fish long enough to remove the hook.
- Know when to leave a hook in a fish. For deeply hooked fish is better to cut the leader as close to the hook as possible than to tear flesh in a critical spot by removing the hook. After awhile, hooks that are left in will rust and fall out. Avoid using corrosion resistant hooks such as stainless steel. Also avoid using treble hooks as the extra two points increase the chance of hitting blood vessels and require more handling to remove.
- Often anglers will want a picture of their trophy catch before release. For large fish, tail the fish and gently support the internal organs directly behind the pectoral fins. Keep the fish in the water and only lift it out when your camera operator is ready for the photo.
- Some fish fight to the point of exhaustion and may need to be revived. If adequate time is not spent with them, they may float belly up after release or, even worse, sink like a stone to the bottom where you cannot continue to revive them. To revive a fish, tail it and gently support it behind the pectoral fins. Gently move the fish back and forth in the water (stillwater) or point the fish up stream. If the gill plates are not moving you may have to open it?s mouth. Make sure the fish is revived and ready to go before release.
- In areas where loons are working fisherman instead of fishing for themselves, try to be as quiet as possible when playing a fish. One loon trigger that I have noticed on many lakes is that a screaming fly reel is like a dinner bell to the loon. I have encountered situations where loons hang around waiting for a fish to be released as these fish are an easy meal due to their tired state. To avoid feeding loons, play fish as quickly as possible and make sure your catch is fully revived before being released.
- Stomach pumps in the hands of the inexperienced can be LETHAL for some fish. I do not recommend that any angler stomach pump an already stressed fish. Stomach pumping is not a good practice for small fish less than 13 inches as the excessive force of water exerted into their intestines can result in death. If you feel an absolute need to use a stomach pump, I would suggest that instead spend 15-20 minutes looking for aquatic invertebrates on the body of water you are ABOUT to fish. Take a walk around the lake, turn over some stones, check out the trees and vegetation around the water. When you are on the water look around you, pick up hatching insects and adjust your fly selection accordingly.
Catch and Release Tips and Techniques
by Robin Pike
Catch and Release Tips and Techniques
As the number of anglers that enjoy Vancouver Island's great fishing opportunities increases, more and more anglers are conserving their catch and realizing the importance of catch and release fishing. However, simply "catching" and "releasing" a fish does not mean that the angler is practicing proper catch and release techniques nor does it guarantee a fish's survival once released. There are two factors that influence a fish?s chance of mortality once caught:
- how the fish is hooked and
- how the fish is handled after being landed.
How the fish is hooked depends upon a myriad of variables that can include fish species, fish size, aggressiveness of strike, hook size, angling method used (fly, bait, lure, barbed, treble hooks) and chance. These factors combined determine where a fish will be hooked in the mouth and this is critical as different hooking locations carry different mortality probabilities. For example, in a study of Coho and Chinook hooking mortalities it was found that, on average, jaw hooked fish had a 0.7% chance of mortality whereas the mortality rate of gill or major blood vessel hooked fish was at 75% (BC Outdoors Jan/Feb. 1996, pg. 35). Thus, anglers could expect that lures that encourage a fish to ingest (bait) will carry higher mortality probabilities than angling methods that make a fish reject and expel the lure once in their mouths (flies and some lures).
Properly playing and handling a fish is the second factor that can influence it's survival after release. The following are some catch and release tips that can help you handle fish properly and, subsequently, reduce adverse landing and handling mortalities.
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