Handling fish to be released

[Cheech]

[smiley=curtain.gif] ;D ;D ;D

[Cheech]

Have read a fair few articles about using a towel or similar for fish you are about to release. Same or similar articles also say you should not handle fish with your bare hands.

Am I allowed to dispute this????

Bare hands certainly increases the number if cuts and spikes I get from fins, and using a towel certainly reduces them... but what is best for the fish?

Theory apparently is that bare hands takes the slime off. But is this really true? Towels seem to take a heap more off than hands. And usually when fishing my hands are either wet, or at least damp, so wouldn't this be better for the fish instead of a towel that takes the slime straight off?

Interested in opinions.

Cheech

[Fitzy]

Think the issue with dry hands is the acid in out hands. I recon towels, being what they are, absorb alot of the slime off the fish. This cant be the best. But if the towel is wet is shouldn't absorb anything. If your hands are wet the acid/sweat should have been washed off.

I brought a 48cm bass home from a trip once & kept it in one of my big tanks. After 3 days you could clearly see the hand print on its flank where I'd comfort lifted it from the water so even wet hands aren't the best.
BTW- It took 3 weeks before the marks were gone from that bass, even with medication given.

Fitzy..

[SeaSaw]

I usually use a wet towel, but only because I got tired of the cuts from using bare hands.

The correct method to release a fish is 'no hands'. You use a special tool which is basically a long rod with a hooked end and a handle at the other end. You just slide it up the line to the gape of the hook and flick the fish over in a looping fashion and it comes off back into into the water. I must admit I dont actually practice this myself :-X

All this talk of wet towels and slippery fish - I wonder what my wife is up to - back in a minute [smiley=dizzy.gif] [smiley=dizzy.gif] [smiley=dizzy.gif] [smiley=drunk.gif]

[el_carpo]

I usually just put my hands in the water right before I handle the fish. Takes care of the acid problem but you still get scratched up. I know they sell special gloves that are designed to handle fish that are supposed to give you a good grip and won't damage them too much. I don't own them but they are available.

Speaking of getting wounded whilst fishing. Two years ago, my brother had quite a horrible streak going. He caught a catfish and wanted a picture of it. He's holding it up when all of a sudden it starts flopping about. It slipped his grip and started to fall so he grabs for it. Yep, you guessed it--Fwack! He gets a spike all the way through his thumb. The sound that raspy spike made as he pulled it free sent a shiver down our spines I'll tell you! I have no idea how he didn't pass out ;D

Same brother, a few weeks later. He still has the bandages from his run-in with the catfish from hell. He catches a bass. Instead of netting it, he goes to lip it out of the water. Yep, you guessed right again. As his hand gets near the fish, the bass explodes and my brother gets a nice sized trebel hook deeply lodged into his finger. He tries to get it out (the fish is still attached and thrashing around mind you) but to no avail. We luckily had a pair of wire cutters and cut the hook with the fish (which survived) lose. The old use a heavy string around the hook and pull trick failed to remove the hook but did nearly cause my brother to faint ;D so we rushed him to the hospital. He gets there and a very young doctoress (take that women's libbers--I'm kidding ::))waits on him. She doesn't know how to remove a fish hook so she consults with the book of medical knowledge they keep in the dungeons of the hospitals. They cut deeply along side the hook and out it came. A month later he gets a bill--$500!!!! He nearly exploded. The work itself didn't cost that much. What cost him was a "consultation fee" a doctor added. Apparently, the doctor chick ( ;D I really am just kidding) asked another doctor what he thought about it. I can imagine what that was like.--"Doctor Smith, what is this?" "Why, that's a fish hook!" "Thanks doctor." --$500.

So there was my poor brother, both his hands bandaged. Unable to fish. $500 poorer. His brothers all around him having a good old time laughing at his misfortune. For him, it's barbless hooks all the way now for fish he's planning to release. Same with me. After all the kidding I did, I can't afford to take chances! ;D

[Muddie]

#I can imagine what that was like.--"Doctor Smith, what is this?" #"Why, that's a fish hook!" #"Thanks doctor." --$500.


i wouldnt have payed them,its her stupid fault for not knowing.

[Maxg]

That slime on the fish is the first line of its immune system, Its full of fungacides and bacteriacides, all designed to stop parasites and bugs getting into the fish. Its fragile and if you handle it you disturb it, and you hands might just have strange things on them. Ideally use barbless hooks and don't remove the fish from the water. That way it will have a better chance. Also if you take a fish out of the water, it gets a huge light flare, about 50% more light on its eyes than it would have in the water, and it stops breathing, its gills don't work, and when that happens it starts dying, same as happens to you if you got stuffed head first into a 44 gallon drum of water.
Just catching a fish stresses it, how badly depends on how its handled, and the higher the stress level the greater the chances that it might just die no matter how you release it. Max

[el_carpo]

Muddie, I agree with you 100 percent. I wouldn't have payed it either. "Consultation fee" for a fish hook? Holy smokes! I can see asking for advice on complicated open-heart surgery or the likes but, "How do I take out a fish hook?" Wow! That sure sounds like a scam to me. I'd let them sue me or send their collection agencies after me. If I were ordered to pay by the court, I'd pay them in one dollar increments just to tick 'em off. He still goes red every time I mention it.

MaxG, that was a very good post. It's definately important for our fisheries to get them back in, in a manner that gives it the best chance to live. Now if only some of the "experts" on the television would lead by example. The way they hold those poor fish up while they brag about what geniuses they are borders on the absurd. Very irritating.

[jeffo]

i dont even touch most of the fish i am going to release.. just flick the hook with some lon nosed pliers and they are away!

[Maxg]

It is very informative, on the knowledge level of ourTV gurus. Rexie has a nabit of sticking knives into fishes stomachs in the belief that the thing sticking out of the fishes mouth is a swim bladder. He's been doing it for years. But the only way to make TV look good to the masses is show them fishes stuffed halfway into camera lenses. Or the hosts big open gate blabbing on about fish release while killing the thing in his hands. Max

[lordy]

i dont even touch most of the fish i am going to release.. just flick the hook with some lon nosed pliers and they are away!


That's the I prefer to do it if I can. Doesn't always work when they get tangled up in multiple trebles or stuck on two hooks (spinnerbait with stinger), or just to it too deeply.