Quote:
Originally Posted by The Spank
According to a biologist friend picking a fish up buy the gill covers or lip such as with the lip gripper has the potential to pull the entrails loose inside the fish as they are not built to hang vertically. He says if you feel the need to remove the fish from the water for unhooking and a photo op then you should wet your hands and hold the fish by the shank of the tail with one hand while supporting the belly with the other especially for larger fish.
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Picking up a fish by the tail is only practical for getting a picture once they are unhooked. You can't safely remove a hook etc while trying to hold a fish by its tail...
The gill plate grab is the best for pike because it allows you to control their head and it also forces them to open their mouths. A neat trick when trying to remove deeper hooks is to push/hold their mouth open with your middle and ring finger when holding them this way. Once you get good at this you will rarely ever need to use jaw spreaders.