Mishandling Bass

[boostr]

I bet those 2 fish that were flopping in the yard and by the pond were flopping on chemicaly treated grass.    

[CDMeyer]

Fishing is a gift to us from GOD we should treat the fish with respect.  Yes it does harm them, and it drives me crazy to see that as well.

It must be a pretty big deal because in MFL Tournaments they are penalized something around 2mins for a fish hitting any part of the boat (slim rubbing off, and visual damage)

[macmichael]

I am guilty of placing them on the grass but not on gravel, dirt, or concrete. I agree that if this is harmful to  the fish, it shouldn't be done. I have never had a bass die on me because of it flopping on grass or my boat carpet. I have respect for all fish and animals and most allways release bass to be caught again and again. 

 

That being said I find it very diffcult when deer or turkey hunting to shoot and release.

[SirSnookalot]

Saying treating a fish with respect after one has taken it out of it's natural environment in the first place is total hypocrisy.  If we cared that much about the fish we wouldn't fish for them at all, sell our gear and join PITA.  We don't always know what happens to a fish after it swims off, personally I think most are ok but no real way to know about all of them.  As a group of fishermen we handle fish as best as we can so we can keep catching them.  Are we not really putting our priorities first?  I'm not about to torture a fish, keep it out of the water longer than I need to in order to take a photo or weigh a tiny fish.  I'm also not going to kiss or caress it, stroke it with more kindness than I would my wife.  Fishing is a blood activity, some fish will be fine and others not, I don't take it to heart that much.

[RipSomeLips]

Saying treating a fish with respect after one has taken it out of it's natural environment in the first place is total hypocrisy.  If we cared that much about the fish we wouldn't fish for them at all, sell our gear and join PITA.  We don't always know what happens to a fish after it swims off, personally I think most are ok but no real way to know about all of them.  As a group of fishermen we handle fish as best as we can so we can keep catching them.  Are we not really putting our priorities first?  I'm not about to torture a fish, keep it out of the water longer than I need to in order to take a photo or weigh a tiny fish.  I'm also not going to kiss or caress it, stroke it with more kindness than I would my wife.  Fishing is a blood activity, some fish will be fine and others not, I don't take it to heart that much.

You gave an emotional response to this topic and I understand that, but to me emotion doesn't play a role in how we should treat a fish, facts and common sense should. If the facts didn't tell us that fish often die days later from being mishandled, then I wouldn't be writing this right now, but guess what, the facts do say that.

 

What I would recommend is you taking some time to step away from peoples conjecture and opinion, and read a great In-Fisherman book about bass fishing that was written in the 1990's. They have a section of the book that deals with just what we are talking about here today, the proper way to handle a bass and what their studies have show you should and more importantly NOT do to take care of any fish you catch. A few of the rules from this book off the top of my head are as follows:

1) Wet your hands before holding the bass body to prevent the slime coating form breaking down.

2) 30 Sec. is the golden rule, keep a bass out longer and his chance of survival starts to go down, stay inside the 30 sec. and its a 99.9% chance the bass will live.

3) Never hold a bass anything buy vertically, meaning straight up and down, by holding the jaw/lip. You must support the basses full weight with your other hand if you want to hold it horizontally. (Please note this is my pet peeve and also something you see a lot of pros do on TV when they should know better. When holding a bass by its jaw and cranking on it the extra pressure or weight can tear the fabric of their jaw, oftentimes the angler doesn't even know they have done it and in severe cases the bass can no longer eat well and he slowy starves of the next few weeks. So just because you see the fish swim away doesn't mean he is just fine.

4) No face punches....haha. ok that one was just to see if your still reading.

 

All in all we owe it to mother nature, and we owe it to each other to learn the best way to handle and car for a beatiful creature like a bass, so that we can have better fisheries in the future. 

[SirSnookalot]

I would like to think most people already know how to properly handle fish, whether they choose to or not is up to them.  The ones that won't handle them properly will not change what they do regardless of lecturing, people that handle the properly don't need the lecture.  I never said I don't properly handle a fish, I said I don't take a fish's demise too much to heart, If I did I wouldn't be fishing at all.  We have no control of what happens to a fish once we release it even giving it perfect care.  In the case of a gut hooked fish the original intent was to release, with some the hook may be removed safely, again we don't know how they fair once they swim off.  Some of those fish are going to die, it's part of fishing and I understand that.  I just can't get too worked up over a fish that doesn't make it, doesn't mean I'm not doing my best to try and avoid it.

[Lund Explorer]

You gave an emotional response to this topic and I understand that, but to me emotion doesn't play a role in how we should treat a fish, facts and common sense should. If the facts didn't tell us that fish often die days later from being mishandled, then I wouldn't be writing this right now, but guess what, the facts do say that.

 

What I would recommend is you taking some time to step away from peoples conjecture and opinion, and read a great In-Fisherman book about bass fishing that was written in the 1990's. They have a section of the book that deals with just what we are talking about here today, the proper way to handle a bass and what their studies have show you should and more importantly NOT do to take care of any fish you catch. A few of the rules from this book off the top of my head are as follows:

1) Wet your hands before holding the bass body to prevent the slime coating form breaking down.

2) 30 Sec. is the golden rule, keep a bass out longer and his chance of survival starts to go down, stay inside the 30 sec. and its a 99.9% chance the bass will live.

3) Never hold a bass anything buy vertically, meaning straight up and down, by holding the jaw/lip. You must support the basses full weight with your other hand if you want to hold it horizontally. (Please note this is my pet peeve and also something you see a lot of pros do on TV when they should know better. When holding a bass by its jaw and cranking on it the extra pressure or weight can tear the fabric of their jaw, oftentimes the angler doesn't even know they have done it and in severe cases the bass can no longer eat well and he slowy starves of the next few weeks. So just because you see the fish swim away doesn't mean he is just fine.

4) No face punches....haha. ok that one was just to see if your still reading.

 

All in all we owe it to mother nature, and we owe it to each other to learn the best way to handle and car for a beatiful creature like a bass, so that we can have better fisheries in the future. 

 

Prior to making any recommendations, I would suggest that you research the untold number of threads in the history of this forum.  It isn't very hard to find them, nor is it hard to see that many of the members here are very emotional about it.  Snook's post made complete sense to anyone who isn't emotionally involved in the subject.

 

My opinion on the subject?

 

You have to understand that are many of us that have lived long enough to remember the days before the idea of catch and release was even thought of.  We fished in the days where you brought home for dinner whatever you caught.  We witnessed tournament weigh ins when anglers brought their day's catch to the scales on a stringer. 

 

Ray Scott had a great idea.  You start a policy to keep those fish alive and you put them back into the lake where they were caught to swim away.  But what many people don't understand that it wasn't just about saving the fish.  You have to understand it was also about saving the sport.  Locals didn't like to see the pros come onto "their" lakes and catching/killing hundreds of "their" fish.  Not that many of these locals didn't kill their own catch, that was beside the point.

 

Every good deed do not go unpunished, and so it is with today's view of catch and release.  You don't need any more proof than to read some of the posts on this forum.  There are people who became so upset that they just couldn't fish anymore that day.  Why?  Because they hurt a fish!  I have no idea how so many people came to the conclusion that the act of fishing could be accomplished without having an impact on the fish, but many feel that way.  And they are wrong. 

 

The same goes for today's crop of tournament fishermen.  Take those bass for a boat ride, weigh them in, toss them back, and go home.  They're aren't there when a portion of them float to the surface the next morning, and they don't see the locals fishing retreads they helped stock at the landing. 

 

In short, for many fishermen, Reality Needs To Rear It's Ugly Head!

 

It's hard to reply to an emotional response without using emotion.  The thing that's really missing from many of these original posters is logic.

[Glenn]

Two things:

 

1.  We  have A TON of information on this site about proper handling for catch and release.

2.  Too much catch and release is a bad thing, and will harm the fishery just as much as too much harvesting.  Limits are there for a reason - as a management tool.  They don't work if people don't harvest every now and then.  Hunters understand this concept moreso than bass anglers.  We also have a TON of information about pond and lake management using limits and harvesting.

[McAlpine]

You all are worried about a fish laying on the grass, what about Zona playing a big bass like a guitar and rubbing him all over this pants and sweatshirt?  Now that is completely uncalled for and irresponsible.  Especially for a guy who outside of this type of idiocy is a great icon of our sport.

 

Ugh.

[bigbill]

Relax don't do it.........

[John G]

I see all these pictures of people who lay a bass down on the ground and take a picture with it on the grass or whatever it is on. Do people not realize that the reason bass are "slimy" is because they have a protective layer on the outside that fights off bacteria and viruses in the water that without it could kill them, and when they lay it on the ground that rubs off? I know it sounds a little extreme but I've done a lot of research on this and it can be very harmful to their health. I don't know, maybe it's just me being over worried about bass populations. What do you guys think?

 

Have you ever given any thought that the slime on a bass may grow back if it's rubbed off?

[OntarioFishingGuy]

I have seen people swing fish from the bank onto concrete and let them fall on it and sit there while they take their merry time taking a picture, and then put them back in the water and act surprised when they dont swim away. If you are going to release fish, please do it properly.