I have been told that catching and releasing trout in winter stresses them. I kinda thought the colder water would help them more than hurting when catching and releasing compared to the warmer water of summer. Thoughts or studies?
thanks
I have never heard of this, people back home in Idaho and Montana fish all winter long. I am curious to see what others have to say. I would have to agree that as a cold water species that the cold water would in my mind be better for them.
The only thing I could think of would be removing fish from the water into really cold air might be a bit of a shock to the gills. Kind of like walking out of a warm building on a cold day and taking a deep breath. Just a guess as I don’t really know for sure.
BG22 nailed it, the colder it is the less time the fish should be out of he water, anything below - 10c the fish stays in the water and I do the two finger release,slide 2 fingers down the line and release the fish… I only fish below -10c by accident, day started warmer but got colder…
NEVER NEVER PUT A TROUT ON THE ICE UNLESS YOU ARE HARVESTING IT!!!
NEVER NEVER PUT A TROUT IN A SNOW BANK UNLESS YOU ARE HARVESTING IT!!!
I MOSTLY DO NOT BRING MY NET WINTER FLY FISHING, WHEN I BROKE MY FINGER I USED MY NET, THE FROZEN MESH WILL DAMAGE FISH…
Note: I am mostly talking TROUT here, as that is what I know, if we do not take care of the resource we are fly fishing for why are we fly fishing for ???
What flyfishfairwx said. Hooking and fighting a fish in winter isn’t the problem. Cold exposure to air where the temps are below freezing is. Fish swimmimg in water are in temps above freezing. Take them out, even for a few seconds (depending on temps) and damage can / will occur. The gills freeze, as well as the skin, eyes and fins. For the gills this can be equal to you inhaling flames or super heated air. Frost bite does the same damage as flame does, ie a burn is a burn, cold or hot.
Good information to know…
Thank you!
I used to do a fair amount of ice-fishing for perch in Lake Champlain in upstate New Yawk, during the winter. It was very cold and a constant battle to keep the holes clear of ice. When you pulled the fish from the hole and laid them on the ice surface, it was a matter of seconds for the fish to stop struggling. In our case, it was exactly what we wanted to happen. If water is freezing in your guides, do not lift the fish from the water. In all other cases I would just say to keep any exposure to cold air to the absolute minimum. I would not use a net in freezing weather either, although if you dip the net in the water(which you should do regardless of the air temp.) it should thaw out enough to net the fish, but I’t seems like a lot of bother to me to have to mess with a frozen net. The eyes are especially vulnerable on fish. I like to use a lot of barbless(pinched down barb) hooked streamers in the winter, because I can just reach down and grab that long shanked fly, give it a slight twist upward and the fish is gone. No fuss, no muss! LOL!!!
Best regards, Dave S.
For me, fishdog has the same idea i have, long shanked hooks in larger sizes…i use 2’s and 4’s for steelhead…easy to reach down and release most of the time.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
really stresses them.
John
P.S. I think trout, especially wild trout, and especially big wild trout, are a lot tougher than most people give them credit for. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use good catch and release techniques.
Has anyone bothered to ask a REAL official fisheries biologist if this is an issue?
I’m inclined to agree with John.
When you think about all of the things catch & release fisherman are NOT supposed to do to ensure suvival of the species; I wonder why we are fishing for trout at all? If they were as fragile as many think, I would imagine they would be extinct by now!
John, I completely agree. After all folks, we are talking about a cold blooded fish for pete’s sake. Now if you throw the thing on the bank in the snow and oogle and google at it while you take pictures then I would think that might not necessarily be good for the fish. But to hold it out of the water to get the fly out shouldn’t hurt it one bit. And if you are fishing in temperatures so cold that there is instant freeze to anything wet, well then you ought to be indoors and drink single malt and read a good book.
Dave
I think far more harm comes to our beloved trout when we fish for them in water that is too warm - 70 degrees plus.
As it relates to ice-fishing… I’ve heard numerous credible stories from guys about how they would throw their bluegills and such on the ice while they were fishing. The fish would seemingly freeze solid! Then the fish would be put in a bucket of water once the angler got home, so the fish could thaw out and be soft enough to be cleaned/filleted. Lo and behold, the angler comes back 1/2 hour later to see perfectly healthy fish SWIMMING around in the bucket of water!
There’s gotta be some damage somewhere, right? gills, eyes, BRAIN, right down to the cellular level…since cells contain water, and when water freezes it expands…that would/should BURST the cells when they freeze, effectively killing the cell. Right? It would seem so, but…I dunno.
Good point and I would tend to agree with you.
… out of the last NINETY FIVE months that I have not caught wild trout in Idaho and / or Montana and / or Wyoming.
One of them was the month of August '07 when we were in the midst of a terribly long, hot, dry spring and summer in SE Idaho. I figured the water was so low and so warm that it just wasn’t right to be bothering the trouts in the midst of all that stress from their habitat.
John
P.S. One of the best small river trout fisheries in the Central Mountains of Idaho took a real hit that summer. Based on my experience fishing that stream for several years before '07 and over the summer of '08, I can say with certainty that that long, hot summer of '07 decimated the fishery. It will likely be several more years before it gets back to what it was.
Catching and releasing them stressed them a lot less than catching and keeping them!
Thanks for the input. I’ll be sure to keep them in the water when releasing.