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Essentials

Releasing Fish

Catch and Release Techniques

  • If you know this is a large fish or if it is a fighter and could be a bull trout-plan ahead. Have pliers, cameras, etc. ready to release the fish quickly.
  • Do not fight fish to exhaustion
  • Bring fish up more slowly the last 30 feet to let them “burp”. Watch for the bubbles at the surface of the water.
  • Protect the fish’s slime coating and fins. Use soft nylon or rubber mesh nets. Do not let the fish bounce on carpeting, etc. Wet your hands. Avoid squeezing the gills or soft organs behind the gills. Do not put your fingers in the gills.
  • If you take a picture, hold the fish horizontally with both hands to support internal organs. Don’t put your hands in the gills.
  • Hold exhausted fish in the water by wrapping your fingers around the base of the tail and holding it until they start to struggle. Gently move them forwards and backwards to help them get water moving through the gills so they can breathe.
  • If a fish is bleeding and is legal, keep it. If it is bleeding and is not legal, turn it loose, many of them will survive. On deeply hooked fish, clip the leader and leave the hook in the fish. Hooks will eventually dissolve.

Fish Hooks

“Bloated” Fish Release Techniques in order of Preference

  • Leave the fish in the water. Grab the shank of the hook with pliers, reverse the angle and pop the hook out. Let the fish dive on its own back into the depths.
  • Hold the fish with both hands and vigorously plunge it headfirst into the water.
  • Hold the fish horizontally and gently squeeze from the vent forward. Only go halfway up the belly and do not force if the fish can’t “burp”.
  • Use a 50 foot length of heavy cord or line. And old reel on a sawed-off reel handle will help control and retrieve the line. Tie a large snap swivel on the end to change weights; a large fish may take 2-3 pounds of weight to sink. Tie on several sized hooks inline just above the weights; the rounded bend of an octopus hook fits a fish jaw well. Tie knots at the eye and bend of the hook with the hook pointing down. Blunt the point and pinch the barb down.

To use fit a hook over the lower jaw of the fish and release, letting the weight of the fish freefall to the end of the cord. The change in water pressure will recompress the fish. Let the fish shake free on it own or give a tug to pop the hook free.

IT IS NOT recommended to “fizz” a fish by puncturing the air bladder. There is too much of a danger of puncturing internal organs and causing infection. The hook method is quick, effective, and safest for fish. If you must “fizz” come in from the side rather than the belly where the gut is.

Recompressing inflated fish’s air bladder:

The Shelton Fish Descender™ SFD™

An S shaped wire hook clip to descend bloated fish to recompression depth. The clip is attached inline approximately 1 to 3 foot above your standard weighted fishing rigs. It is always inline and ready for the angler to release bloated fish that need to be returned safely to deep water. The design is simple and has a S shape hook loop that hooks through the fish’s lower lip and holds the fish securely until the line is pulled which turns the fish upwards and allows the SFD™ to pop out. The SFD™ offers minimum recovery time because of the almost immediate attachment to the fish and descent of the fish by the angler while fishing using his existing fishing gear. Lower the fish between a minimum of 33 feet and the bottom before releasing. At just over 30 feet the pressure will change by one atmosphere and will assist in recompressing the fish’s air bladder. When the fish is released the angler is able to continue fishing with minimum loss of fishing time. The SFD™ allows the fish to be lowered in the normal swim position to avoid disorientation confusion by the fish. It keeps the fish’s mouth slightly ajar and the decent allows water to move across the gills to remove oxygen and pass CO2 to aid in quick recovery. It jolts and shocks the fish at the time of the release and surges it forward when releasing to help the fish get safely on its way. It allows a positive finger controlled descent to counter the action of the up and down swells as they move the boat up and down. It allows for the fish to signal you by tugging on the line when it’s ready to be released because it has sufficiently recovered or it senses danger from an approaching predator fish or a jellyfish. Should I reel in fish hooked in deep water quickly or slowly? The longer it takes to land a fish, the more stress it experiences. Quickly landing a fish gives it more energy because of less oxygen depletion which allows quicker recovery time after re-compression and quicker reoxygenation. Slowly reeling in a fish from deep water does not give a fish enough time to compensate for the change in pressure. Compensate for pressure differences requires time for a fish in more than 30 feet when pulled to the surface. Instead, prolonging the time it takes to land and release the fish, increases the amount of stress, oxygen depletion and air bladder inflation the fish will have.