Originally Published in Norr'east Saltwater Magazine

In today's world of smaller bag limits, larger size-limits and general concerns as to the future of our fisheries, more and more anglers are releasing fish of all species. Whatever your reason for releasing your catch, you obviously want the released fish to survive. Here are some tried and true tactics to increase the odds of your fish's post-release survival.



One of the keys to increasing the odds of your released fish's survival lies in preparation. You can dramatically increase the odds of the fish's survival by having some specialized tools on hand before the fish is hooked. The most important thing to keep in mind when preparing to release any fish is that the less contact you have with the fish the better the odds of its survival. The only exception to this general rule is for some species caught from deep water when their swim bladder has become distended due to the rapid decompression the fish experiences as it is being reeled to the surface. This phenomenon is called barotrauma and I will talk about it later.



The first factor you should consider if you are intending to release the fish you catch, comes even before you put a bait or lure into the water. What hooks should you be using and how should you modify them? If you are fishing bait, you should consider using circle hooks. Circle hooks are designed so that they normally hook the fish in the corner of the mouth, even if the fish initially swallows the bait. The hook is designed to slide along inside the fish's mouth until the fish turns at an angle to the line. Then the hook will turn as the eye exits the fish's mouth and the fish will be hooked in the mouth. Circle hooks that have the point offset from the shank of the hook are much more prone to hook the fish in the stomach, as opposed to those without the offset. Obviously a fish hooked in the mouth has a much greater chance of survival than one hooked in the stomach or other vital area. Fish are designed with a tough mouth to enable them to eat other fish, complete with spiny fins, as well as crabs and lobsters, which come complete with their own body armor, so a small hole in the mouth isn't going to be life threatening.



If you elect to use the standard J shaped hook with either bait or a lure, you should consider reducing or removing the barb on the hook, to make it easier to unhook any fish that you catch. The barb is on the hook to help ensure that the hook stays in the fish. Unfortunately, it also makes the fish much more difficult to unhook even when it is out of the water. If you grind or file down the barbs on your hooks or simply crush them with a pair of pliers, you will make it much easier to unhook any fish that you catch and thus minimize the amount of handling of the fish, and maximize its chance of survival.



You should also consider substituting single hooks for treble hooks on any lures or jigs. Treble hooks will almost invariably hook the fish with more than one hook point, and make the job of unhooking the fish much more difficult. Single hooks without a barb will hook almost as many fish and will make the task of unhooking the fish much simpler.



Once you have your catch close to the boat or the beach, you have to accomplish the release, as quickly and with as little contact with the fish as possible. First you have to unhook it. The simplest way to accomplish that goal is simply grab the fish, and gently work the hook out of the fish's mouth. This isn't the ideal technique, but it does work. Be sure to avoid grabbing the fish by the gill plates or anywhere near the gills. The gills are very sensitive organs, and any damage to the gills will most likely doom your fish. A better technique would be to put on a wet cotton glove or use a wet cotton rag to grab the fish. Grabbing the fish with your hand, particularly a dry hand, will damage the fish's slime coat, which protects it against infections much like your skin protects you. Using a wet cotton glove or wet soft rag will minimize the damage that you do to the slime coat and help insure that the fish is not infected by bacteria or fungi.



All of this works quite well with smaller fish, but what happens when you hook something much larger? The obvious difficulty with larger fish is controlling the fish while you work to remove the hook. It is generally not recommended that you use any type of gaff on a fish that you intend to release. We have all seen the pictures of Florida guides holding tarpon half way out of the water by a gaff expertly placed through the fish's mouth. Unless you have the gaffing ability of one of those guides and are playing with fish that have mouths the size of buckets, keep the gaff away from the fish. A hole in the fish anywhere other than in the mouth is going to virtually guarantee that the fish will die. For the larger fish a net is a much better choice. The net will do some damage to the fish's slime coat, but it will also do the job of controlling the fish while you remove the hook. For best results the fish and the net should not be removed from the water. Keeping the fish and the net in the water will minimize the damage to the fish. Sand on the beach will also damage the fish's slime coat, so even the surf guys should try to keep the fish in the water.



One of the best tools for controlling a big fish while it is still in the water is a jaw-gripping tool, such as the Boga Grip and its imitators. Once you get the jaws of the tool around the lip of the fish, you can pretty easily control the fish while working the hook free. Another excellent tool for use on larger fish is a hook disgorger, or a tool that allows you to reach into the fish's mouth and grab the shank of the hook to twist it out and remove it from the fish. Although I haven't personally used it (yet) the ARC dehooker made by Aquatic Resources Conservation Inc. of Ormand Beach FL is getting rave reviews from both inshore and offshore fishermen. This tool, which comes in lengths from nine inches to eight feet, can be used to release almost all species of fish without ever having to remove them from the water.



Carp fishermen in the U.K. and musky fishermen in the U.S. use another ingenious device to control fish while they are being unhooked. The device looks like a miniature stretcher, made out of coated canvas or plastic. The fish is led into the device lengthwise and then the angler folds the canvas around the fish and lifts it slightly out of the water. Then, with the fish controlled by the canvas sling, the angler can work to unhook the fish. This device has the added advantage of supporting the fish along its entire length, and therefore preventing damage to the fish's internal organs.  

Circle hooks reduce released fish mortality because they usually set in the jaw.

One thing to be avoided with bigger, heavier fish is lifting them out of the by the mouth and not supporting them from the underside. The poses we have all seen of a happy angler holding a nice-sized fish by the mouth with the rest of the fish hanging down are to be avoided at all costs if your intent is to release the fish. Some Australian researchers have come up with some very interesting findings on released fish mortality. Alf Hogan, a senior fisheries biologist with the Queensland Government, found that when he weighed larger (over about 20 lb.) barramundi, a fish not unlike our striped bass, by hanging them by the head on a scale, the fish suffered almost 100% mortality! Later, when he weighed similar fish in a sling, to support their body, almost 100% of the fish survived! No fish destined for release should be permitted to hang vertically. When a fish is allowed to hang vertically out of the water, the resulting strain on its internal organs is often too much for the fish to bear. While the fish may swim away when released, it will most likely die from those internal injuries at some later point in time. If you must weigh a fish before releasing it, the fish should be supported along its entire length while being weighed. A sling, like that described above can do double duty in this regard. You can weigh the fish while it is still in the sling, and provide the required support while the fish is being weighed. Boga style grips, while very useful for controlling larger fish while they are in the water, should never be used to weigh a larger fish that is to be released. Alf Hogan said to me "I personally wouldn't use Boga Grips. The temptation to lift fish by the jaw would be too great. However, I could see that the grips would be useful for controlling a fish left in the water while the hooks were removed, and I'm sure there would be other good uses, e.g. weighing a fish in a landing net. The task is basically, to educate anglers in the proper use of Boga grips." Another prominent fishery biologist, who wished to remain nameless, said to me the; " The Boga [and similar tools] could have been one of the best tools ever invented for catch and release fishing, if only they left the damned scale out of it!"



Another interesting finding by the Aussies, is that, knotless nets do a lot less damage to a fish than a knotted net does. The knots in a knotted landing net rub up against the fish, damaging the slime coat and removing scales. A knotless net acts more like a slippery rag, minimizing damage to the slime coat and scales. The Australian Government sponsors a very interesting website that deals with the best practices in releasing Australian fish. The site can be found at Http://www.info-fish.net/releasefish. The site is run by Bill Sawynok, another Australian fishery biologist who has lots of tips on how to increase the survival rate of released fish. If you visit the website most of the fish species will be unfamiliar to you, but one species called "tailor" in Australia is our good old friend the bluefish. Also, you should pass on the DVD offered on the site since it is in the PAL format and is not compatible with most American TV sets.



Earlier I mentioned Barotrauma. That's the condition that sometimes happens when we pull fish up rapidly from deeper water. The fish's swim bladder expands as the water pressure decreases, displacing the fish's internal organs, often to the point where the fish's stomach will be forced into its mouth. We often see this when fishing deep water for sea bass and ling. This condition, in and of itself, is not usually fatal to the fish. But if the fish is released without some sort of intervention by the angler, it will not be able to swim back down and thus become very vulnerable to sea birds and other predators.



There are two ways that an angler can improve the odds of a fish with barotrauma surviving the release. The first comes from our friends in Australia and it's called a release weight. The release weight is simply a barbless hook weighted, where the eye would normally be, by a chunk of lead. A snap swivel is crimped on between the point of the hook and the lead. The hook is placed through the lip of the fish and the fish and the weight are lowered back down to the bottom by a line attached to the snap swivel. Once the entire thing is back on the bottom the fish can be shaken off the barbless hook, with its swim bladder fully recompressed.


Originally Published in Nor'east Saltwater Magazine

The second method of dealing with barotrauma is much more complicated than the release weight. It requires that a hollow needle be inserted into the swim bladder to vent the gas. This is a procedure that falls into the category where a picture is worth a thousand words. You can find instructions as well as an instructional video at http://www.flseagrant.org/program_areas/fisheries/venting/index.htm. Attempting this procedure without a detailed understanding of how it should be done very well might puncture other internal organs and make the fish unlikely to recover from its injuries. A research paper by Mark Collins and John McGovern published in 1999; found that a "significant" reduction in mortality of black sea bass suffering barotrauma could be achieved by venting the fish with a hypodermic needle. The study was published in the Journal of the American Fisheries Society. A subscription is necessary to access the online version of the study, which is available at http://afs.allenpress.com, but your local library may have a subscription or be able to access the printed version.



Taking good care of what you catch is a must for any responsible practitioner of catch and release fishing. While this article is by no means an exhaustive explanation of the techniques necessary to minimize all mortality of released fish, it is a start. If every fisherman followed these practices we could significantly reduce the mortality of all the fish that we release.