Releasing Fish

[Dr.J 1952]

The recent issue of Pennsylvania Angler and Boater has an article “Tips for Better Trout Handling”. There have been previous postings on this issue on this site. Monday, I fished the DHALO section of the Neshannock Creek in Lawrence County. A twenty something angler landed an 18” rainbow after a long fight. Upon landing the fish in his net, he lifted the fish completely out of the water, carried the fish several feet to the bank and got out forceps to disengage the hook. Later an older angler caught another large brown. He landed the fish with a net and said he needed to get a picture of the fish. He carried the fish ten feet to the bank, laid the fish on the grassy bank, reached for his phone and then realized he left his phone in the car. He finally put the fish back in the water. Hopefully, both of these fish survived.

 

[BradFromPotter]

I guess they never read the article!

 

[sixfootfenwick]

I guess they never read the article!

Maybe they did, before the article they didn't use nets.
Baby steps.

 

[silverfox]

I wonder if they changed the regulation signs on the DHALO, FFOC&R's, etc. that included graphics and information on fish handling if that might help? Make the signs eye-catching and hard to avoid reading.

Conversely, in these stocked streams where the state WANTS people to harvest them, do the same thing, but maybe put some recipes on the sign and language that strongly encourages harvest.

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

I would have liked to see either of those guys hold their breath that long.

 

[Bamboozle]

Hopefully, both of these fish survived.

Probably not, but many selfishly or ignorantly assume if they swim away they're OK for another day...

I get the camera thing, but I don't get the camera thing...

From about 2003 until about 2010 I carried a camera and took pictures of scenery and every stupid fish I caught. However the fish picture taking added time and hassle to the process of releasing fish no matter what you want to believe...

These days I take pictures of nothing, no longer carry a camera and my phone is in my pocket in case I need to rat somebody out to the PFBC.

But the bottom line is I've been a catch & release fisherman since high school which was a long time ago. From then until the early 2000's, I couldn't have taken a picture of a fish I caught if I wanted to unless I was carrying around a big clunky camera...

...and during all of those decades I never once thought about what I was missing nor did anyone I knew expect visual verification of every single reported catch. Memories sufficed just fine...

Besides, photos take all the fun out of lying...

 

[Silent Ocelot]

These days I take pictures of nothing, no longer carry a camera and my phone is in my pocket in case I need to rat somebody out to the PFBC.

...and during all of those decades I never once thought about what I was missing nor did anyone I knew expect visual verification of every single reported catch. Memories sufficed just fine...

It's all in my head. I have an almost eidetic memory, I just keep logs to reinforce the information in my mind. I don't need to prove anything as an angler as I have a good idea where I stand in the pecking order (it's not very high up on the angling proficiency totem pole). To all those who say "pics or it didn't happen" I invite them to come watch me fish.

I don't like the idea of taking pictures as it's time wasted that could be using to make another cast.

If I wanna look at photos of fish I could just Google them and look at pristine photos of fish taken on much more expensive cameras than my rinky dink Walmart "smart phone". So what's the point other than vanity? If I wanna be vain I could just tell someone I'm fishing with their monthly paycheck. Plus the stockies I have been railing lately should never end up on social media due to how ugly they are haha.

I don't even like having my photos being taken with fish. I can recall an incident last year where I fought an ok sized steelhead downstream about 150 ft. and the people I was fishing with made me get a photo with it. I just remember being terrified that someone was gonna jack my spot and just went off verbally on the person taking the photo as I frantically pointed upstream telling them someone was going to slide into my spot but the only coherent word out of my mouth wasn probably "hole".

 

[hooker-of-men]

I take tons of pictures of fish. I will continue to take tons of pictures of fish. Google Photos does a much better job of keeping a fishing log for me than I ever will. I have tried and failed.

What I rarely do, though, is touch the fish. On some occasions I will one-hand a fish for a quick photo as they're going back in the water, but almost always the hook gets removed in the net while the fish is half submerged, the photo is taken in the net/water, and then the fish is dumped back in.

There's a million variations on how do to this ethically. I'm not sure how you communicate this to every casual angler, though. I'm sure as hell not going up to anyone to explain. Maybe a personal failing...

 

[Silent Ocelot]

Last year on the Little Lehigh I witnessed some locals tossing pellets in the artificial only section. I witnessed one man hook a presumed 10lb. brown that rocketed vertically when hooked. It eventually got tangled into someone's else's line and broke off less than a minute after it was hooked.

Next another person had his girlfriend toss pellets into the water while he tossed either a hatchery pellet glued to a hook or a pellet fly. He eventually go into and landed a fish, a nice 16 inch brown. He played the fish horribly and landed it in a mesh net (those should be banned!). Of course the hook somehow got tangled up in the mesh which became an ordeal lasting several minutes before this punk had the audacity to take it out and hold it high in the sky for his girlfriend to snap a photo (this ordeal lasted minutes too). As the dude was posing with his suffocating fish a nice gentlemen downstream of where me and a friend were fishing who was throwing some seriously fine casts on what I think was an old SAGE ZXL called out to the dude holding the fish saying "hey chief, let's get him back in the water". The dude holding the fish almost jumped at that and made his way back to the creek to put the fish back in. I know that fish died as it was out of water for longer than 5 mins. I felt bad because I didn't intervene. If ever see those kids again I will just tell them they can go home or go for a swim while I break their gear. For now on I keep a phone capable of taking video so I have evidence to show to the game warden. I'm typically vehemently opposed to involving the law, but I'll stick up for nature.

Also hope I run into "hey chief guy", he was a cool person.

 

[Swattie87]

Rule #1 about releasing fish. The only rule really…

You are always better at releasing fish than the guy you’re criticizing. I think there’s actually a mathematical proof for this. One of the few times you can get away with using the word “always”.

 

[jifigz]

I have seen some horrible fish handling regarding pictures. I have fished with a guy that wants to balance the rod on his back and make it look like he is looking at the fish while holding it in some dreamy stance. It all seems pretty stupid to me. Sure, I get pictures of fish sometimes and pictures of me holding fish, but they are never great because I am valuing the life of the fish more than my photo shoot.

 

[Bamboozle]

Last year on the Little Lehigh I witnessed some locals tossing pellets in the artificial only section...

I assume you meant the lower Fly Fishing Only Section (Section 8) because there is no Artificial's Only section on the Little Lehigh...

That being said and detailing the reason I gave in my earlier post for carrying a phone... you should have ratted them out to PFBC Law Enforcement for chumming which IS illegal in a fly or artificials stretch.

I once ratted out a "sport" on the Run who was throwing bread in the stretch by the pipe. The WCO appeared out of nowhere in about 10 minutes and cited him!!

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I have fished with a guy that wants to balance the rod on his back and make it look like he is looking at the fish while holding it in some dreamy stance.

How many minutes does that ordeal take?

 

[Bamboozle]

It's all in my head. I have an almost eidetic memory, I just keep logs to reinforce the information in my mind. I don't need to prove anything as an angler as I have a good idea where I stand in the pecking order (it's not very high up on the angling proficiency totem pole). To all those who say "pics or it didn't happen" I invite them to come watch me fish.

I don't like the idea of taking pictures as it's time wasted that could be using to make another cast.

If I wanna look at photos of fish I could just Google them and look at pristine photos of fish taken on much more expensive cameras than my rinky dink Walmart "smart phone". So what's the point other than vanity? If I wanna be vain I could just tell someone I'm fishing with their monthly paycheck. Plus the stockies I have been railing lately should never end up on social media due to how ugly they are haha.

I don't even like having my photos being taken with fish. I can recall an incident last year where I fought an ok sized steelhead downstream about 150 ft. and the people I was fishing with made me get a photo with it. I just remember being terrified that someone was gonna jack my spot and just went off verbally on the person taking the photo as I frantically pointed upstream telling them someone was going to slide into my spot but the only coherent word out of my mouth wasn probably "hole".

In this day with the Internet, blogs and people with 5000 fish pictures in their phone to show you (if you let them) folks like us are in the minority, however...

Have you ever looked a bunch of old school class photos from the era when you went to school? You know the type I mean, the collages of everyone's school picture along with your teacher??

I don't know about you but they're interchangeable to me; all the kids from the same era look alike no matter what school or class they attended...

The same thing goes for pictures of little bookies in someone's hand or a 12" fish in a net or lying on the grass...

They all look the same so why bother??

 

[jifigz]

How many minutes does that ordeal take?

Too long. I only fished with that guy a couple times. I remember saying something like, "Jesus man, put the fish back in the water." I mean, if you're gonna harvest and eat the fish that is one thing, but for C&R.....

 

[Bamboozle]

I take tons of pictures of fish. I will continue to take tons of pictures of fish. Google Photos does a much better job of keeping a fishing log for me than I ever will. I have tried and failed...

Without trying to sound smug or holier than thou like them thar "brookes über alles" blokes...

...if a photo is your log, does that mean you take a picture of EVERY fish you catch regardless of what amount of time or extreme it takes to get that photo, less your count is off...

...or do you bag the photo for the uncooperative fish?

 

[Wild_Trouter]

For me, it's barbless hooks and a simple twist out while the fish is still in the net or water. I rarely take any pics anymore because I have enough pics of pretty gemmies of all sizes and cookie-cutter wild browns and some bows for you, me, and Dupree. It's a rare occurrence that I take photos unless it's a very deserving fish, and even then, it is done with the utmost respect and least amount of stress on the fish. If it is Summer, I don't even bother with elevated water temps.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I assume you meant the lower Fly Fishing Only Section (Section 8) because there is no Artificial's Only section on the Little Lehigh...

That being said and detailing the reason I gave in my earlier post for carrying a phone... you should have ratted them out to PFBC Law Enforcement for chumming which IS illegal in a fly or artificials stretch.

I once ratted out a "sport" on the Run who was throwing bread in the Run by the pipe. The WCO appeared out of nowhere in about 10 minutes and cited him!!

I was fishing the hole called the "Kiddie Pool" right by the hatchery. I could have sworn it was an artificial only section as I read a sign somewhere that said so (I think). I could be wrong.

Heck yeah chumming is illegal. I am ready now. I don't want to witness something like that again. I will say that I have tunnel vision and when I am in fishing mode it's hard to get me to do anything else. Scarlet Jo could probably walk by me in her birthday suit while I was fishing and I doubt my eyes would leave the water.

 

[Bamboozle]

For me, it's barbless hooks and a simple twist out while the fish is still in the net or water. I rarely take any pics anymore because I have enough pics of pretty gemmies of all sizes and cookie-cutter wild browns and some bows for you, me, and Dupree. It's a rare occurrence that I take photos unless it's a very deserving fish, and even then, it is done with the utmost respect and least amount of stress on the fish. If it is Summer, I don't even bother with elevated water temps.

This may sound nuts but I HATE playing fish... All I want to do is fool them and get them off my line as fast as possible.

I rarely use a net as it is something else I have to extract from wherever it is to release my fish and there are MANY times when a fish is "misbehaving" that doing that would mean having to play the fish longer.

If I added taking a photo, the camera needs to be ready meaning more time playing the fish just for the photo op...

For me it is get 'em in fast, bend down, hold/steady the fish in the water, get the hook out and get on to the next fish.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Without trying to sound smug or holier than thou like them thar "brookes über alles" blokes...

...if a photo is your log, does that mean you take a picture of EVERY fish you catch regardless of what amount of time or extreme it takes to get that photo, less your count is off...

...or do you bag the photo for the uncooperative fish?

So far in life, a photo of one fish is enough to jog my memory of the day, where I was, what else was caught, etc. Pictures of the woods, creek, etc. also kinda do this, but I'm not on a walk to grandma's house; I'm fishing. The fish is the memorable part for me.

If the catch/fight/etc. in any way goes sideways, I'm not taking extra time for a photo to torture the fish. Maybe as I get old (40s now), the fish photos will all blend together, but right now I have years of photos that I can still place when I scroll back through (which I do often to revisit fishing pics, kid pics, dog pics, etc.)