Good catch and release practices

[advTHXance]

May as well get this started, seems more important than ever.

a few to start:
-use small single hooks to avoid puncturing an eye
-leave the fish in the water, release with gaff
-in my experience spoons tend to stick on the lip more often than bait
-hoochies work fine with a swivel and single barbless, tandems definitely cause more damage
-a fish is used to being surrounded and supported by the pressure of water, any time out of water is stressful on a fish. If you ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE your hero pic, preferably take one of the fish in the water. If you do lift the fish out of the water for a pic, make sure everything the fish may come in contact with is soaking wet with salt water. You must also support the fish as best you can as its used to being supported by the surrounding water. That means your hands arms chest legs nuts and even that big barrel you call a beer belly should all be soaking wet, and you shoudl gently cradle the fish under its belly roughly somewhere near the pec fins and anal fin. Snap ur pic quick and gently lower the fish head first back into the water and "tail it" with your soaking wet hand until its ready to kick off.

Feel free to add more, just wanted to get the ball rolling in a more positive direction

 

[Irishwolf]

The smaller the hook the better. I grew up fishing Lake Ontario streams landing 20# plus rainbows and chinook salmon on small #6 wide gap hooks about the size of a dime. Similar to the Gamakatsu octopus hook in shape. The hook would just catch around the upper jaw. Easy to get out with little harm. Never saw blood.

Now I don’t think this size will work on spoons out here, my point more was if you think it’s too small, it’s not.

 

[sam_n_leo]

Good call starting up this thread. I would definitely question the need to fish bait or trebles or tandem hooks in C&R fishery. Also makes sense to go with heavier leaders, 30lb+ to handle gaff releases with teen sized fish. And for bigger one that must go in the net--I invested in one of the small meshed rubber coated nets and have to believe it is much better for the fish than the old nylon mesh nets. I think fishing solo, using the net and keeping the fish in the water is the best way to go for anything upper teen sized or bigger. When you have 2 or more in the boat and have a bigger fish on, why not go for a tail grab. I used to do it when fishing up north and C&R was common on bigger fish. I found the fish would spook a couple of times and I would get the tail on the 3rd or 4th try.

 

[RiverBoy]

When tailing a fish, especially a larger fish do not lift the fish out of the water by its tail, nor return it to the drink in the same fashion. take your other hand and support the weight of the fish. their spine is not designed to move or be stretched like ours can, you could cause serious damage, thereby further feeding the seals

 

[walleyes]

I can see this fishery closure starting a whole load of holier than thow responses on threads of guys preaching what everyone is doing wrong, it’s going to be a real **** show.

I don’t condone being rough with fish but at the same time they are a hell of a lot stronger than people give them credit that’s for darn sure. They aren’t made of glass and won’t die because you touched them for a quick pic.

 

[fishbadger]

But at the same time, if folks educate each other in good fish handling, it'll lessen the impact and make it a viable sustainable fishery. I can see chinook C&R for kicks, but coho mortality might be an issue in lean forecast years,

Good thread,

fb

 

[Prfisher]

I recently saw time lapse video of a salmon that was tailed using landing glove that wasn't soaked immediately before handling the fish. Over two weeks in an aquarium, the caudal paduncle (sp?) gradually turned very dark & started to visibly deteriorate. After two weeks the fish was dead.
It's a personal choice, but I for one, will continue to do all I can to improve the survival rate of any fish I have to release.
I gave up on treble hooks after the first little guy I mangled. I now use a spacer & one trailing hook on hoochies & will get some teaser head wire to put a bend in bait, eliminating the extra hook.
I've used my new cod descender a couple of times now & it's nice to know they have a fighting chance of survival.
I'll be downsizing hooks soon, too. What is a good size to buy? I've been using mostly 5/0.
Good thread. Thanks to the OP.

 

[KCW]

There is going to be some older fishers or boats with higher sides that a net is going to be the only option . A decent catch and release net should be used . Do any of the net manufactures sell replacement bags ?

 

[advTHXance]

Ill most likely be using 2/0 barbless siwashes. You can catch steelhead on a 1/0 or smaller so theres still plenty of hook there.

 

[wildmanyeah]

Going to try and catch fish on plugs when fishing C&R

 

[barkerfam]

Ill most likely be using 2/0 barbless siwashes. You can catch steelhead on a 1/0 or smaller so theres still plenty of hook there.

When we fish in rivers inlet, 2/0 is all we use. Works great even for BIG fish.

 

[The Jackel]

Well i will probably get my butt ripped for this but wtf, at this point i really don't care anymore it got ripped pretty good with yesterdays announcement. I am so pissed off that i think i will be doing hero shots of my catches now, netting the fish i will have to release, f*uck it (by the way i have never done a hero shot and have never netted a fish i intend to release ever) but i think this will change. What release them for them to get caught in the nets in the fraser and no enforcement by dfo in regards to this, no charges, seals out the ying yang eating 50% of the smolts trying to make it to the ocean, wtf 50% mortality by one thing and not a word about it. As for volunteering at hatcheries, helping in stream clean ups, feeding net pen fish, all stopping as of yesterday, no more, flame away, just saw the thread about venting i should have put this in there.

 

[advTHXance]

I realize youre pissed off Mr. Jackal, but thats only going to reflect poorly on yourself and other anglers. Why dont you take a camera up the fraser and document some of the poaching in action if you really want to have an impact.

 

[Whitebuck]

It’s not even poaching, it’s open to netting almost all the time now from end of April til December.
FN are not to blame, DFO is to blame for allowing the netting!

While we are talking about closures..how about a no fishing with salmon parts for sturgeon! This will take away a lot of net caught endangered Chinook and sockeye sales over the next 4months!

 

[Prfisher]

I agree that this is a very frustrating situation & I certainly understand the anger being expressed.
Having taken a big hit, the sport fishing community now has the ammunition to really press for the other changes that must be made. The poorly controlled river net fishing, pinniped population control & severely curtailing the commercial herring fishery are three that come to mind right away.
Have the huge foreign draggers working our northern waters had their season cut back?
How effective is this half assed conservation measure going to be when many of the more serious problems are not being addressed?
We have the misfortune of being an easy & highly visible target. Good enough, if you're a politician where short term thinking & incomplete solutions are an unfortunate product of our political system.
I am old enough to remember the decline & ultimate collapse of the east coast cod fishery. There, the problem was a simple matter of overfishing. We have a much more complicated situation in a much more complicated era. Scapegoating solutions are not going to work, but if our "leaders" grow a pair, maybe they can get to work on the harder targets.
If this is phase one in a comprehensive plan to prevent the collapse of our fishery, maybe there can be some hope for the future.

 

[Ian wagner]

Going to try and catch fish on plugs when fishing C&R

Plugs are good because most of the smaller fish stay away

 

[Oakbayfishin]

There is going to be some older fishers or boats with higher sides that a net is going to be the only option . A decent catch and release net should be used . Do any of the net manufactures sell replacement bags ?

Yes, Gibbs delta. the best catch and release nets

 

[Discus]

Single octopus hook size 5/0 down to 2/0.
We want to save our chinooks in the future.

 

[ryanb]

Fly fishing for steelhead I've always used #2 size hooks (that's 2 sizes smaller than 1/0). The hooks won't straighten or break...sure they might shake the hook more often but we're doing catch and release anyhow right...

Hopefully we can get some modicum of opportunity to keep fish in the spring back in the future. Its always been my favorite time of year to fish.