Today, while out on a lake mainly fishing for bass, my Dad hooked into a 3 1/2 lb rainbow trout. After quite a battle we managed to get him landed.
One issue that I had though… in a lake while boating, how do you cleanly release that large of a trout? It was nearly impossible to hold him upright and/or by the tail while he regained his strength. After 2 failed releases, he finally came around, stayed on the surface for another couple minutes before returning to the depths. We were a little worried. Didn’t bring along any “keeper” gear for keeping our catches.
Off topic… After a 2 weeks of having my Dad here, was very happy to help him land his first trout (and at that a monster too!) Likewise, I landed my first trout on a fly last weekend. A wonderful 14" Rainbow up in a mountain lake.
A lot of that answer comes under “depends”.
If you have a “regular” fishing boat, with low free board, don’t remove the fish from the water. The least amount you touch it, the better it’s chance for survival. Get a hold of its jaw to get a hold on it, and remove the hook with needle nose pliers or hemostats. Or you can cut the leader as near as possible to the hook and hope the fish will disgorge the hook eventually by itself.
I have a large pontoon boat we often fish from. I net the fish folks or the Grand Kids catch and hold them in my live well until they are recovered from the fight.
My live well will run for as long as I want it to and I’ve held fish overnight even and released them the next day. They will hide under the stern of my boat and then dart off back into deeper waters. And I’m assured I did all I could for their survival to be caught again another day.
Trout in particular can get a fungus where their slime has been rubbed off by human handling. It’s a slow and disturbing death to see. The warmer waters of summer cause them to get it on the bared skin and it looks like a fine fuzz growing from their injury. It eventually kills them.
Very ugly to see dead fish caused by well meaning anglers. I’ve caught fish with hooks still in their jaws from prior releases, rotting, rusty hooks where someone clipped the leader and let the fish swim away with a steel barbed hook in its mouth.
Those pictures you see of people with their hands gripping the fish fore and aft held high out of the water? I see dead fish. They just died later.
And the angler went on home thinking they had not hurt anything.
Don’t remove a fish at all if you intend to release it. Use barbless hooks and remove your hook with the least amount of touching possible, best is no touching, merely get a hold of the hook with a tool and remove it letting the fish swim away.
That fish has never had hot, dry, rough human hands on its skin before. Think about how that feels.
if you have a net that is large enough (doesn’t bend the fish), keep it in the net and in the water to resuscitate. Otherwise, hold by the tail, supporting the belly in the water and push forward and back to push water through the gills.
Turn the fish on it’s side to check if it is ready to release. If the fish quickly rights itself, and tries to swim, release it. If it stays on its side, it needs more O2.
Yeah the net was large enough. Main problem is that it’s hard to sit over the side of the boat with it.
We did end up using the net to support him for the most part. I’m just used to fish like bass where you can hold em by the lip to help them along if needed.
Overall the two weeks of fishing with my dad turned out quite well. 3 fishing trips, 2 with just us, one with my wife and nephew. Several bass, perch and trout caught on various lakes in the area.
Notables of the trip include my first extended time with fly fishing and managed to catch a nice rainbow as well. I didn’t measure him but judging by a pic I think he was about 14 or 15 inches.
Sunday, going to go back out with the wife (who just started fishing in general this year) and see if I can land a bass or rainbow on the fly at my local lake.
YOu don’t have to 'push back and forth". Fish don’t do this to breath in the first place.
Grab the tail, hold the belly and put him in the water…quickly as you can. Wait a bit and he will be just fine.
Think about the opposite. If you were under water what would be the best thing? Right. To get you in the air as soon as possible. No difference. And we won’t have to shake you back and forth to facilitate your breathing either.
And folks don’t ‘just think about it’. Not knocking the person above that said to do this, just knocking all of us in general for ever thinking about doing that. I have done it. Craziness. Especially if you are in moving water where 99% of all trout are!
Can you provide a reference for that statement? I’ve not heard that before for still water releases.
In regard to you statement that there is no difference between air and water, water is 700 times the density of air. It is easy to move (breathe) air. It is 700 times more difficult to move an equal volume of water.
The original question was specifically for still water where you cannot face a fish into the current to get oxygenated water to pass by the gills.
If your statement were true, you could just put the fish in the net or just put the fish back without any support. How does supporting a fish put more water past the gills in still water?
Pushing the fish back and forth in still water is to push fresh oxygentated water through the gills.
Here is what the Department of Natural Resources of various states say:
“Revive the fish before releasing it. Hold the fish gently with your hands under the belly and slide it slowly back and forth in the water for it to receive oxygen. Eventually the fish will swim away. Simply throwing the fish back in the water without reviving it may kill it.”
"When you revive a fish, make sure you hold it upright and in a gentle flow of water so it can get its gills working and recover oxygen from the water. In still water, hold the fish gently and watch it pump water through its gills, providing much-needed oxygen to the fish. If the gill action is weak, or non-existent you may have to glide it back and forth in the water so the water flows through the gills. "
“Reviving. Some fish, especially after a long struggle, may lose consciousness and float belly up. Always hold the fish in the water, gently propel it back and forth; this pumps water through the gills. When it revives and can swim normally, let it go.”
“In still water, hold the fish gently and watch it pump water through its gills, providing much-needed oxygen to the fish. If the gill action is weak, or non-existent you may have to glide it back and forth in the water so the water flows through the gills. As the fish revives, its gills will work more energetically until it is able to remain upright in the water and finally swim away on its own.”
“Place the fish in current so water can pass into the mouth and through the gills of the fish. This helps to oxygenate the fish and reduce the build-up of the acid in the muscles. Fish cannot breath without current flowing through their gills.”
"Does the fish you just caught appear to be in shock? If so, hold him in the water in the position he would be in if he were swimming. Gently move him from side to side until he recovers and swims on his own. "
“When you are about to release a billfish if it’s not struggling to get away, is not lit up and has a copper color, grab the fish’s bill holding the bill and the fish’s head under water then put the boat in gear so water will run through the fish’s gills. Once the fish starts to kick on its own or starts to struggle, gently let go of the bill and let it swim free.”
"Does the fish you just caught appear to be in shock? If so, hold him in the water in the position he would be in if he were swimming. Gently move him from side to side until he recovers and swims on his own. "
“When you are about to release a billfish if it’s not struggling to get away, is not lit up and has a copper color, grab the fish’s bill holding the bill and the fish’s head under water then put the boat in gear so water will run through the fish’s gills. Once the fish starts to kick on its own or starts to struggle, gently let go of the bill and let it swim free.”
Unless you want to go swimming, how do you push water forward without then pulling back. I suppose you cold start rowing the boat, but how do you do that when you are alone in a boat?
Secondly, show me that water going in the reverse direction thorough the gills does not oxygenate the blood.
Thirdly show me that it damages the gills. “May” be detrimental is a cop out. Is it detrimental or is it not, and is it more detrimental than letting the fish go when it is in oxygen deprivation? That is what inquiring minds want to know.
The bottom line is not whether resuscitating the fish damages the fish in some way, it is whether resuscitation damages more than it saves.
An intubation and a ventilator is not “physiologic” either because it uses positive pressure to force air into the lungs rather than negative pressure in the lungs to draw air in. It does damage the lungs if too much pressure is used for too long. But it works, and it saves way more patients than it hurts.
Please provide references that counter the references I posted and the readers can decide what is correct. Saying it is not so will simply not do and so far you have provided nothing to convince me otherwise.
Sorry, Silver, your “references” are not studies they are just statements…"Saying it is so will simply not do…perhaps quantity not quality…
I can’t tell you how many things have been repeated in medicine and eventually proven to be myths.
Sometimes intuitive logic comes into play…I 've never seen a fish swim backwards…seems to me the gills are designed to work facing forwards.
Thinking about it…if the fish when suspended works it’s gills sucking or forcing water in from both directions you may well be right…so if that has be studied let me know.
The trick is (with a bill fish) to keep the boat going forwards so the water is going in the mouth, if you move any fish backwards in the water the water will come in through the gill plate and the fish will have trouble breathing and may die. The same thing applies when moving a trout back and forwards the trout can only breath on the forward motion, when you move him backward he can’t breath as the gills only work one way! I know that the Department of Consevation here in NZ did a study on Trout mortality after catch and release by different methods and found that the very best way is to release the trout without touching it at all if possible. But they recomend if you do have to revive a trout hold it gently upright in the water untill it is strong enough to swim off on its own. Do not move it backwards and forwards in the water as this increases trout mortality post release.
I have had a quick look for the study but cant find the link, I do believe it was published in the Target Taupo magazine a couple of years ago.
Hope this helps some.
Al the best.
Mike.
700 times more difficult for WHAT? These things LIVE in water. And we were talking trout not some other type of fish.
I agree with the guy above. I’d bet fish don’t breath when moving backward. Totally unnatural to them. Kind like you trying to breath with your head hanging out a car window when it’s going 60mph. Try it some time.
The next time you catch a trout just hold him in water and watch him breath. Those gills plates are gettin’ after it.
Thanks for all the comments. Didn’t mean to stir up any controversy.
I know about holding them up, and handling them as little as possible, which we did. We just found it very hard to hold the fish from our boat. And how to tell when the fish was really ready to be let go. In the end, we ended up supporting him with the net and then letting him free that way. We hung the
I’ve released trout into streams or on the shores of lakes, but the boat provided a new challenge I never had before.
Thanks for the advice. I think I’ll be more prepared the next time I land a large trout.
I would be interested if that study was done in still water. The propronents of holding the fish still seem to ignore the fact that the question was specifically directed both in still water and after just releasing the fish had failed twice.
In moving water, I do agree it is best to place the fish in a relatively quiet but moving water facing up stream. But that was not the question.
700 hundred times the mass means 700 hundred times more difficult to move water past the gills than air into the lungs. I was responding to the contention that there is no difference between breathing air and “breathing” water.
I think the reference in Fly Fisherman is for trout. Look at the reference. The title is “How to Release a Trout”.
Hi Silver creek, sorry, I should have made it clear the DOC study was done in Lake Taupo, from memory I think all fish were caught trolling not fly fishing and then handled in different ways before being released into holding pens in the lake and then monitored for a few days to see how many died. The fish released with no handling had the lowest mortality rates, but even they had some die off after a day or two. The next best were fish just held gently upright untill they revived with no moving back and forward. I wish I could find the study but I never keep the Target Taupo DOC magazine longer than it takes to read it. So all of this is from memory only, but it did cause a bit of a stir at the time the study was published.
I am not convinced that there would be very much difference between just holding a fish before release and moving the fish backwards and forwards, after all I think we need more than one study to go on.
All the best.
Mike.
