Part 5
The Net
Once you have the fish reeled in to within netting distance, grab your net in your stripping hand and place it in the water in such a way that your hand also gets wet. Fish have slime covering their body and this slime is important to their ability to resist injuries and infections. A wet hand and net touching the fish reduces the degree that you will remove this slime from the fish.

If the fish is still feeling strong enough to keep its head pointing down in the water as it approaches your net, there is a good chance that it will bolt away from your net as soon as it sees it. If you are able to lift the fish?s head slightly out of the water, though, it is probably tired enough to net easily.

Guide the fish over your net. Be careful not to bend your rod into a total U while you are doing this or it may break. I find it easier to guide the fish into the net by pointing the rod parallel to the water and then extending my arm and pointing the rod behind me than it is to pull the fish toward the net by raising my rod tip vertically.

Once you have the fish over the net, raise the net so that the trout is trapped in the mesh, but its gills are still in the water. The less time it spends with its gills out of the water, the greater its chances for survival. It is best if you can do the hook removal and release without ever taking the fish from the water. I?ll admit, though, that I usually lift the fish briefly from the water so I can see and admire its colors.

Catch & Release
Now it gets a bit tricky. You have three things you need to do ?hold the net, hold the rod, and remove the hook from the fish --but you only have two hands.

Get your rod out of your rod hand. If you are close to the shore, you might just lay your rod on the shore. If not, tuck your rod under the armpit of your stripping hand. Switch the net handle to your rod hand and, with your hand outside of the net?s mesh, gently grasp the trout with your stripping hand. Having the cloth net between your hand and the trout helps both your grip and the future health of the trout. Be careful not to squeeze the fish, especially at its delicate gill area.

Once you have the trout firmly but gently grasped in your stripping hand, let go of the net handle. Grab your forceps or release tool with your rod hand and use it to remove the hook from the fish. Depending on where the hook is embedded, it may be easier to just use your fingers to remove the hook.

Most hooks tend to come out easily if you can reach them, especially if you have de-barbed the hook. (More on de-barbing later.) In my experience, the exception is a hook caught in the bony area at the corner of the fish?s mouth, where hooks can be hard to pull out.

Be careful not to inflict any more damage to the trout than necessary, but also be fast-- especially if you have taken the fish from the water to remove the hook. If you are having difficulty and taking too long, return the fish to the water and allow it to breathe for a short time before trying again.

If the fish is wiggling too much for you to grasp the hook, try turning the trout belly-side-up. This tends to disorient the fish and to quiet it.

If the hook has been swallowed or is otherwise difficult for you to remove just cut your tippet as close to the fly as you can and release the fish. This sounds cruel, but the hook will actually dissolve quite quickly in the fish. Its chances of survival are better this way than if you try to reach deep inside it to get at the hook.

You should release the fish in an area with a relatively slow current, where it can rest.
When the hook is removed, very gently hold the fish in the water with its back towards the sky and its head facing upstream until it makes a determined attempt to swim away. In some cases, you may need to move the fish headfirst back and forth in the water to get water flowing over its gills and revive it. Try to avoid this back and forth movement, if possible, as it may harm the fish by forcing too much water through its gills.

Be patient in reviving the fish. If it is big fish that gave you a hard fight it could take minutes to recover enough to swim away. It rewarded you with a memorable catch, so you owe it the time it takes to recover from this experience.

The beauty of the trout while in your hand will probably astound you. The feeling you get when it swims away is heart- warming ?much better than the feeling you would experience if you were to kill it, clean it and eat it. Try it. You?ll like it!