Fish grippers on bass?

[Hooligan]

Really?  I mean, sure, Tarpon, or redfish, I get.  Even, maybe, on a Muskie or a pike if you're not familiar.  Bass though?  For serious?

Here's my beef: they damage fish.  Period.  It's been proven time and again that "fish grips" like the Boga or Rapala break or dislocate fishes jaws at a severely high incidence. Why, for Pete's sake do I see people using these things on little dink green fish and brown fish?  It's not like ANY bass is going to do irreparable damage, are you that afraid of them?

Do yourself and the fish a favor.  Learn how to handle fish properly.  Stop using grippers on fish. 

/endrant 

[CenCal fisher]

I don't use mine for landing bass but they are nice on a kayak when I want to put the fish back in the water while I get my phone out for a picture. They are also handy when it comes to putting a fish on a scale 

[jbsoonerfan]

Certainly don't use them to land fish, but use them to weigh fish. I know how to handle fish, but thanks for your PSA.

[Bluebasser86]

I was thinking the problem with certain grippers was the fairly thin or sharp metal variety would tear or gash the fish's jaw? I haven't heard of any issues with the plastic fish grippers I guess. I use them on my scale for weighing, much better than jamming the big hole in their jaw or going under the gill plate imo. I don't use them for landing or holding bass, most bass I catch are swung in and grabbed from the air.

[JustJames]

I use it but only when I want my fish on scale, and only when fish look to be more than 2lb.

4 hours ago, CenCal fisher said:

I don't use mine for landing bass but they are nice on a kayak when I want to put the fish back in the water while I get my phone out for a picture. They are also handy when it comes to putting a fish on a scale 

That was my plan too, to have a gripper plastic type roped to kayak in order to let fish stay in water while I prepare scale or camera.

[nascar2428]

I use the plastic one to assist in hook removal on pike.

[Sam]

I have them on the boat for catfish and bowfin.

 

Never have thought of using them on bass nor would I consider using them on bass.

[J Francho]

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I was thinking the problem with certain grippers was the fairly thin or sharp metal variety would tear or gash the fish's jaw? I haven't heard of any issues with the plastic fish grippers I guess. I use them on my scale for weighing, much better than jamming the big hole in their jaw or going under the gill plate imo. I don't use them for landing or holding bass, most bass I catch are swung in and grabbed from the air.

 

Pretty much this.  Also, I'll net a crankbait fish, and then use the grip to keep the fish still while get the trebles out.

[Hawkeye21]

I only use them when weighing a good size bass but the main reason I bought mine was for taking pike off.  Really don't see the need to get all bent out of shape when people do use them though.

[CTBassin860]

Only when i weigh them

[jr231]

Definitely the best way I know of to weigh them.. I don't fish tournaments so it doesn't matter to me. If it's truly a big bass I have a tape measure. 

 

I don't use them. I keep an old work glove in my bag should I hook a catfish and if I hook a pike I will get it with the needle nose. 

 

I'm not sure why fishermen pack scales... Most of them are lying anyway 

[NYWayfarer]

I have the floating plastic Rapala ones. I rarely use them for bass. When I do it's usually to avoid getting a handful of treble hooks.

 

I have to admit there are days that I don't want my hands to stink like fish. We have some nasty biting flies up here that love that scent. The grips come in handy then.

 

[Turtle135]

I use the plastic fish grip on a 4' tether of paracord. I do not use it to land a bass. I just clip the bass and let her swim while I get my board and camera ready. Get on the board quick, snap the photo and then back into the drink.

[NCbassraider]

22 hours ago, Hooligan said:

Really?  I mean, sure, Tarpon, or redfish, I get.  Even, maybe, on a Muskie or a pike if you're not familiar.  Bass though?  For serious?

Here's my beef: they damage fish.  Period.  It's been proven time and again that "fish grips" like the Boga or Rapala break or dislocate fishes jaws at a severely high incidence. Why, for Pete's sake do I see people using these things on little dink green fish and brown fish?  It's not like ANY bass is going to do irreparable damage, are you that afraid of them?

Do yourself and the fish a favor.  Learn how to handle fish properly.  Stop using grippers on fish. 

/endrant 

 

Noticed nobody "liking" this post. Lol

 

When used correctly, which is almost impossible not to do, they do not damage anything. Ever.

 

It's actually impossible to hold the fish past vertical with them so the angler must support the fish which solves almost every case of dislocated jaws.

 

They are also best for the bass when weighing the fish as you don't have to gill hook it.

 

I almost always use them with treble hooks as I've had a bad experience that I do not want to re live.  

With the disturbing number of people who post pictures of their fish laying in the grass or on marine carpeting, it's hard to take this thread seriously.

[bassh8er]

On 5/15/2017 at 10:33 PM, Hooligan said:

Really?  I mean, sure, Tarpon, or redfish, I get.  Even, maybe, on a Muskie or a pike if you're not familiar.  Bass though?  For serious?

Here's my beef: they damage fish.  Period.  It's been proven time and again that "fish grips" like the Boga or Rapala break or dislocate fishes jaws at a severely high incidence. Why, for Pete's sake do I see people using these things on little dink green fish and brown fish?  It's not like ANY bass is going to do irreparable damage, are you that afraid of them?

Do yourself and the fish a favor.  Learn how to handle fish properly.  Stop using grippers on fish. 

/endrant 

 

Thank you and I totally agree.

 

To me, it's a lot of these wannabe tourney or YouTube guys showing what their best 5 weigh.

 

I weighed my PB Bass that went 8 lbs 1 Oz and haven't weighed one since.  Just my opinion.

 

 

[Hooligan]

23 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I was thinking the problem with certain grippers was the fairly thin or sharp metal variety would tear or gash the fish's jaw? I haven't heard of any issues with the plastic fish grippers I guess. I use them on my scale for weighing, much better than jamming the big hole in their jaw or going under the gill plate imo. I don't use them for landing or holding bass, most bass I catch are swung in and grabbed from the air.

 

I get that, but even in the instances I see the plastic ones used, I see them used in a manner that has, without a doubt, caused injury to the fish.  And, it generally used to land, handle, weigh, photo and release fish.  That's the kind of stuff that I see as completely out of line. 

[Hooligan]

3 hours ago, NCbassraider said:

 

Noticed nobody "liking" this post. Lol

 

When used correctly, which is almost impossible not to do, they do not damage anything. Ever.

 

It's actually impossible to hold the fish past vertical with them so the angler must support the fish which solves almost every case of dislocated jaws.

 

They are also best for the bass when weighing the fish as you don't have to gill hook it.

 

I almost always use them with treble hooks as I've had a bad experience that I do not want to re live.  

With the disturbing number of people who post pictures of their fish laying in the grass or on marine carpeting, it's hard to take this thread seriously.

Hard or impossible to hold improperly?  Wrong. The issue that I see more than any other is people use grippers on the lower jaw, and the gripper then comes back under the fish, almost guarantees a dislocation.  

The reason this thread comes up, and the reason I DO take it seriously is that in the past month I've witnessed people using them improperly, and have seen a number of pictures here on the board that show them being used improperly. At a couple of lakes I fish that they're inordinately popular, I've also seen a direct correlation to 3# or better fish dead of dislocations or  as a result of lacerations from fish grips to the tongue and soft tissues.  I get using them as an aid  with treble hooked fish, for the same reason I wear a glove when dealing with Muskie. 

I disagree with your assertion that it's the best for fish when weighing. A vertical, unsupported hold of any sort is not good for fish.  Period.  If you wish to debate that fact as well, please.  Lead on.

[JustJames]

So what different holding a fish with thumb and plastic gripper in vertical position?

why don't you show us a proper way of using gripper for bass instead of bashing everyone.

5 hours ago, bassh8er said:

 

Thank you and I totally agree.

 

To me, it's a lot of these wannabe tourney or YouTube guys showing what their best 5 weigh.

 

I weighed my PB Bass that went 8 lbs 1 Oz and haven't weighed one since.  Just my opinion.

 

 

May be because you catch too many giants so you don't care anymore, but to some of us it is an excitement and to weight and taking picture to be a memorable not tourney wanna be. Every once awhile I will open album and I can tell story of every fish I caught.

[J Francho]

I don't get landing with grippers?  I guess I don't watch enough YouTube.  It seems like it would be inefficient.  Just net the thing, or belly land it.

[toni63]

Why? I never used to. Until I did this. Now, I use them all the time and a pliers to manipulate hooks out of them. I have also heard that your hands brushing the slimy layer of stuff off the scaly side of the fish leaves it vulnerable to parasitic infections that can also kill the fish.

 

So whatever you do, if you have set the hook (in most cases hard enough to rip its head sideways in the water) then landed it (another fight as you rip it through weeds, over timber, through water as it thrashes about getting drug along by its mouth with big hooks jammed into its flesh to keep it coming your way) then flip it out of its environment into the air and onto your boat or into your hands or into a net, sounds to me like the fisherman has already given that fish a lot of "trauma" already. Getting the hook out and securing it with a plastic utensil is probably the LEAST brutal thing you are going to do to that fish while interacting with it, unless you put it in your live well and drive around all day keeping it in Fish jail.

 

 I am not going to get too sentimental about God's precious creature when I set about handling it to get the hooks out and get it back in the water. I love bass FISHING, I don't worship "bass." That thing has survived everything else I just put it through to get it into my hands, it will survive a plastic grip in its mouth (which has to be a darn sight more pleasant than the HOOK I just set into it minutes or seconds before), it will make it through the last minute or two of me getting it released back into the water.

 

To me, the LMB is not an endangered species, it is a game fish, it kills without hesitation in its own environment, it is a predator in the food chain, it lives by the kill or be killed survival of the fittest mentality, so I'n not too hard pressed to treat it with kid gloves.

 

It's a bass, not a Faberge' egg.

 

Now I have zero tolerance for flippant disregard for the thing, or abusing it, or using it as a football for sport or whatever, but there are 100's of thousands more where the one I am currently holding with a gripper to remove a hook from its mouth without impaling myself came from, and its not made of fine spun sugar. It will live. And I doubt it will go off into the wild thinking "man, I didn't mind that big hook driven halfway through my skull, or that dragging me across the lake through the moss and over that log by my face, and even the getting hauled 6 feet into the air wasn't that bad, but those darn plastic grippers! Those things just irritate my jaw, that smooth plastic is like chalk on a chalkboard! Whey can't they just manhandle me with their big fat fingers squeezing me tight over my back scraping against my skin!?"

 

So anyway. That's my take on pampering the catch. No need to be cruel to the thing, but no need for kid gloves either. The best thing to me is to get it off the hook and back in the water as fast as possible. That is what that fish wants most of all. To be back in it's own environment and away from you. So if grippers make that a faster and smoother transition and enhances my safety from getting hooked again, then grippers it is.

[NYWayfarer]

9 minutes ago, toni63 said:

So whatever you do, if you have set the hook (in most cases hard enough to rip its head sideways in the water) then landed it (another fight as you rip it through weeds, over timber, through water as it thrashes about getting drug along by its mouth with big hooks jammed into its flesh to keep it coming your way) then flip it out of its environment into the air and onto your boat or into your hands or into a net, sounds to me like the fisherman has already given that fish a lot of "trauma" already. Getting the hook out and securing it with a plastic utensil is probably the LEAST brutal thing you are going to do to that fish while interacting with it, unless you put it in your live well and drive around all day keeping it in Fish jail.

 

Ouch! that looks like a nasty wound.

 

Your point is well made if you think about the hypocrisy of a fisherman ripping a Bass out of its natural environment then complaining about using a fish gripper. If we were that worried about damaging Bass it would be better not to fish for them at all.

 

 

 

 

[toni63]

It's kind of like starting a thread that implies we should set hooks gently so as not to harm the fish. Seriously? I get the points made about no using the tool correctly and hurting the fish that way, but I have also seen many fisherman holding fish in their hands in ways that are also damaging the fish. Like the two hand hold, one under the jaw, one under the tail end, grip and grin for the camera. The more contact you have with the fish, the more damage you are doing to it. Keep your paws off it, it wasn't made to be held, it was made to live in water. Your hands are just scraping away it's natural layer of defense, the slimy outer coating, from parasites. 

 

My philosophy is it was fun catching it, but the quicker I get it unhooked and back in the water with the least amount of contact between my hands, boat, net, etc with it, the better for that fish. Grippers go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

[Choporoz]

9 hours ago, Hooligan said:

The reason this thread comes up, and the reason I DO take it seriously is that in the past month I've witnessed people using them improperly, and have seen a number of pictures here on the board that show them being used improperly.

If your true intent was to educate on the proper use, perhaps that would have been a better way to begin.  I'm afraid that your OP comes off as a scolding, if not an insult, to all who do use them.  I won't hesitate to land treble caught fish in my kayak with fish grips.  In fact, the smaller the fish, the greater risk to me, IMO.  I'm more likely to use them on a 14 incher caught on a DT6 than I am on a 5 pounder.  The larger the mouth, the more room there is for error in lipping them.

[Darren.]

I disagree with not using grips on bass. I use bogas and

will continue to do so. I teach my sons to properly use

them. On the flip side, here's an old pic I recently posted

of one of my boys holding a 4lb bass - his first drop shot

bass on first cast.

 

The (not boga) is dangling from the mouth. This is NOT

good, and an example, IMO, of improper use of the grip.

It was released immediately after the pic. He's 17 now,

doesn't hold like this anymore. Why didn't I fix it before

snapping the pic? We all learn.

 

But FWIW, you see that hole in its lip to the right, under

the eye? That was already there. This bass had been caught

before. Hooks make holes, sometimes gaping holes. So can

we also argue that using hooks is bad? Especially hooks with

a cutting point like Trokars?

 

A little education goes a long way....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[J Francho]

Great post, @Darren.