Fish Handling and Pictures
 

There's been a lot of pictures of nice trout on the forum lately taken when the fish has been pulled up on the shoreline. This often causes serious injury to the fish and it occurs to me that a lot of people probably don't understand how this happens. I don't want to single anyone out here and I hope everyone finds this informative and tries to keep any comments constructive.

Anyone that has handled a fish knows that they have a mucus coating on them, aka slime. This mucus is very important to the fish's immune system as it creates a barrier that parasites and bacteria can't penetrate. Any significant damage to this mucus layer leaves the fish much more vulnerable to disease. This layer also helps fish move through the water easier so a fish with a damaged slime coat has to expend more energy to swim or hold it's place in a river.

When handling a fish you want to take care to do as little damage to the slime coat as you can. Make sure you wet your hands or net before you touch the fish. Use a rubber net rather than fabric if you can. Handle the fish as little as possible. One thing that you NEVER want to do is put that fish on dry sand or rocks. Bringing them into the shallows where they are scraped against wet rocks is bad enough but dry sand will remove a lot of the mucus layer very quickly.

Most people are unaware of this so again I don't want to single out anyone but if you pull a fish up onto the shore for pics you are doing serious damage to it. I know it's really hard to take safe pictures of your fish without some help, I've decided to confine myself to taking pictures in my net or not at all unless I have somebody else using the camera while I deal with the fish safely. Yes I miss a lot of good pictures but I'd rather that than damage a lot of fish.

With any kind of catch and release fishing you're going to do some damage to the fish. It's something that all of us have to make our peace with. I think however that we all have a duty to keep that damage to the minimum possible. Unfortunately this is just not consistent with getting the photos you might want all the time.

Well put message! :)

:party0052:

Very well said !! The only thing I might add is that if a person is consistently targeting big fish, a cradle is a superb investment, both for the ease of handling fish and for their protection.

Well said. Thanks for taking the time to type this out.

Was thinking the same thing! Great post!

Excellent post!

Good post and well said.

It's nice to see an 'educational' post that doesn't single out or attack somebody for a change :)

I am guilty of this :sign0176:

I did know to wet my hands first, and I did know about the mucus coating, but I need to practice better methods of releasing the fish in SOME cases like when I want a pic and bring them on shore but it can be really tough because I'm by myself most of the time.

I due my best to tire them out before I bring them to shore to minimize flopping around, but I think I can eliminate this all together by buying a decent rubber net and a cradle for bigger fish.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention in a decent way.

This is also far from ideal and tough on the fish...especially in the hot summer months when there is less dissolved oxygen in the water, but even now when it's cooler it's still not good for the fish.

If you want what's best for the fish bring it in quick, and release it quick. :)

x2

Its much better to have them bolt back out into the water on there own as soon as the hook is free then have to support and revive them after a long fight.

for reals? I shouldnt have said "I do my best" very bad wording, but I do usually bring them in slower then is possible, the reason being to tire them out a bit......
Its not like i excessively exhaust them out or anything, to the point where they cant move lol but I thought this would help prevent them flopping around so much closer to shore. Also I should add this is for the bigger fish, a 10 inch walleye doesnt really need to be tired out before I bring it to shore release him ahahah

I am open to this advice though! I strongly dislike doing easily avoidable damage to fish that are released and I will be picking up a decent net and cradle very soon to eliminate this problem all together.

This reminds me of this tough little pike that seems to have set up shop at my favorite spot, I have caught him 3 times in the last 2 weeks or so hahah I know its him for sure because he only has one eye!! I have seen him swim by about 10 feet from shore many times as well. He also chases the smaller eyes I catch hahah

Frabil makes an inexpensive version of the Brodin Ghost net with the thick rubber that I use. I really like this style because you never end up in a situation where a thrashing fish is going to twist itself up in the net. Even spikey stuff like Walleye aren't going to get stuck. Handles up to 24" fish pretty well, the bag is pretty deep so they just fold up in there. It's kinda heavy to carry compared to other styles but it works very well.

http://frabill.com/landing-nets/trout-nets/3404-1.html

If you have a net you like brodin sells replacement rubber bags you can install.

Very well said! Another thing I might add is when you're unhooking a fish in a net, allow the fish to remain in the water. This way the fish is actually recovering from the fight while you're reaching for your pliers and unhooking it, rather than being strained and stressed further. Once you're ready for a picture, only lift the fish out of the water as much as you have to and release right after. People would be amazed at how fast they swim away after when this happens.

I have the brodin tailwater net and its awesome! It's a little big for the bow, But I would rather it be to big than to small and have a fish flop out and fall 3ft and smash its head on a rock.

Well if your refering to my pic of the cutt on the rocks, i had my camera on before he has in, that fish was out of the water for about 10 seconds, i wet my hand before i touched him, snapped one holding him, put him in the water right on the bank. He did a 90* flop and landed half body on dry rocks, one more quick pic and gone. Pictures dont always tell the whole story...

Yeah, I definitely feel bad when I have a fish out of the water too long and they don't take off as fast. However the last walleye I caught, maybe a 15" or so was awesome. Pulled him out, snapped a picture, and as I was about to release him, he literally dove out of my hands into the water! Luckily it was only about 1 foot to the water. He did a perfect dive, no splash, perfect entry, and he was gone!

I think you missed the point of my post, my intent was simply to increase the understanding of how fish get injured in these situations. I'm not at all interested in becoming some kind of censor or the picture police nor do I advocate anyone else doing so. Moreover I'm not foolish enough to assume everyone will share the same values I do.

I've taken a lot of similar pictures. However there came a point where I decided having a pretty photo collection wasn't worth the injury I was inflicting and I decided to stop. It looks like lots of other people make a simliar choice once they consider it that way. It's up to you, all I'm trying to do is make sure people understand what they're doing.

I did notice your picture, while it hardly stands out among other pics that have been posted, IMO it's not an example good practice either.

Informative post but we might as well stop sportfishing all together if this is a big concern, pretty sure setting a hook in the mouth is probably doing some damage to the fish as well. And then dragging it from its home to get the hook out. Might as well take a couple pics while your at it.

All I know is it really bugs me when I see guys hands in gills of any fish. This is a sure way to mess them up. If you are C + R then keep your hands or anything out of their gills, very sensitive...imagine hands on your lungs! Grab at belly and below head if you must.

Totally....Here we go again:sHa_sarcasticlol:

I have a question.. Does giving a big fat P-I-G of a fish a kiss on the head in celebration remove their slimy coating?? :love0025: heheheh

I have the frabill. It is a piece of junk, but better than nothing.

It is insufficient for a 'real' fish. Anything over 20" will happily jump out or avoid being netted with ease.

The net is not really heavy. It is made out of softwood and the twine holding the net bag to the ring is just garbage.

Like I said, it is better than nothing, and has gotten lots of use.

There is no way in he77 I'm paying $100+ for a net like that. If they weren't marketed towards flyfishermen they would be 1/3 the price.