but they swam away just fine...

[nymphingmaniac]

https://www.ginkandgasoline.com/steelhead/you-may-be-killing-steelhead-and-not-even-know-it/?fbclid=IwAR29KbC6hSEIxs8TDozamEiaDxpbETS_acTv1zRY1pujNE6EVs76TbqNnxE

Anyone aware of a similar study on brown trout. BT are rarely beached or allowed to bang their heads, but it's unclear to me that this explains all mortality or is the only stress fish face. To conduct it looking at other stresses would be interesting, such as BT landed in 68F, low clear water

 

[JeffK]

Ed Van Put, retired biologist for the Catskills argued for a more insidious effect of catch and release fishing. He discovered many poor condition brown trout in the fall in heavily pressured Catskill streams. These trout were unlikely to survive the winter due to insufficient fat reserves. Catskill freestone river winters are long and hard. His theory was that fish that had a tough fight or two might be put off the feed in a critical time when they needed to fatten up for winter. I don't know if anything was published about this.

 

[Tigereye]

Slippery slope fellows. Catch and release or catch and cook. IRT the BT study, I think fish return to eating in a relatively short time. My guess would be within an hour or 2 maybe less. Definitely not long enough to significantly impact fat reserves.
Perhaps something else is in play? I don't know. I need to research van Put and read his theory. I don't want to pass judgement without all the facts. My feeling is rough handling, having fish bounce of rocks, keeping fish out of water a long time, and over playing fish play a bigger role in mortality. This is pretty much confirmed in the article.

 

[ryansheehan]

Please read the comments of the story before passing judgement. There is no study.

 

[Tigereye]

Poor choice of words on my part. I was speaking of Ed Van Pelts theory.

"His theory was that fish that had a tough fight or two might be put off the feed in a critical time when they needed to fatten up for winter. I don't know if anything was published about this"

If no study, then he is speaking of anecdotal evidence, which speaks for itself. If there is a study , then the scientific method is for rigorous debate.

 

[Tigereye]

"Perhaps something else is in play? I don't know. I need to research van Put and read his theory. I DONT WANT TO PASS JUDGEMENT WITHOUT ALL THE FACTS" .


"Please read the comments of the story before passing judgement. "

 

[moon1284]

Native steelhead populations are doing horrible everywhere. The most healthy wild steelhead population in the lower 48 might be in lake superior.

 

[ryansheehan]

I was referring to the article on Steelhead not Van Pelt. There was no study done in 2013 where they caught steelhead on a fly, implanted a GPS tracker, the fish died 2 hours later and then they did an autopsy and found the fish died from brain injuries. I love Louis and his site but this is not one of his better moments. I remember reading this 8 years ago when it was first posted. If you scroll down a little bit through the comments many are worth reading. Someone did add a legit study to the 2021 comments that talks mostly about time out of water and deep hooking.

 

[springer1]

Read ...... https://www.keepfishwet.org

 

[lycoflyfisher]

The study referenced by ryan that was posted in the comments of the artical from the original post highlights air exposure time as perhaps the biggest variable that can increase stress and cause disorientation of the fish.

 

[Mike]

Check out the regulations coast-wide on shark fishing; you would be a violator if you removed some species from the water even to just unhook them.

 

[OldLefty]

I've read every paper on the "keepfishwet" site that may pertain to trout. My take is that, since not one of the papers relates to any studies on trout, the authors seem to go this route: well, this study over here says this, so, since we know that we think this and, based on that here's what we believe should be done.

On the other hand I'm in possession of a piece that was published in a respected fisheries management journal on exposing trout to air. Interestingly, the findings were if an angler is careful and doesn't keep a trout out of the water over one minute there's no real harm done. The authors even state that those who advocate for not removing the trout from the water are not following science; rather, they're going on emotions.

I absolutely agree with the concern expressed that we have to be really careful on this and some other issues that have me emotionally charged right now. There are a lot of folks out there who don't have a very positive opinion of fly fishers. We don't want to give them anything more to support those negative opinions.

You may want to check out my blog at www.therantingangler.com to read some of my old musty opinions on some of what's going on now.

 

[Mike]

I wouldn’t be too quick to be satisfied by the “one minute rule” observation when water temps are in their mid-50’s or so and up. The studies with which I am familiar that were published in the well known fisheries journals and dealt with trout…cutthroat, rainbow, bull…were done out west, which is fine, but because of that were also done in streams that were colder than many Pa wild trout and stocked trout streams in late April and May when most Pa trout fishing takes place. Some studies did not report water temp; others did.

When oxygen supply is artificially reduced in cold water vs warm water, fish survive longer in the cold water. Cold water holds higher concentrations of oxygen than warm water all other things being equal. Likewise, when fish are removed from the water and kept out of the water they live longer when the air temp is colder. So temp makes a difference.

It is my gut feeling and experience from sampling/fin clipping/tagging, efforts where biologists absolutely want handled fish to survive, that when fish are removed from cold, better oxygenated water, exposed to warm air for extended periods, and released back into the cold water they are less stressed and survive better than if the water had been warmer.

I agree with the studies in the temperature conditions under which they were conducted. To find study temps on usually has to read the “methods” sections of the research papers.

To find some of the well known papers on this enter “air exposure and trout mortality” into a search engine. When I did so I found the complete papers, not just the abstracts.