Catch and release principals

[Chris Shelton]

Firstly, I would like to suggest that this thread be read in conjuntion with the 'merits of using barbless hooks' thread

As per the afore mentioned thread, let's thrash this one out together. As always, questions and comments are welcome.

Questions that come to mind are:

Why catch and release in the first place?
When do we kill as apposed to releasing?
How do we handle a fish that we intend releasing?
How long can a fish be out of water before being released?
How do we revive a fish before releasing it?
What are the pros and cons of netting prior to release?
Photographing fish prior to releasing...what are the do's and dont's?
Evaluating stomach contents before releasing....fors and againsts

That should do it for the time being. Please feel free to comment on any of the above

[Rendier]

Looking forward to the replies.

[Dyno]

Hell, Chris. This should be its own section and each one of your questions should be an individual thread? Same as the casting section/thread.

Pierre, what do you think?? Call it Catch & Release, move the "barbless" thread to it, and away we go??

[phly]

dammit, i feel i can contribute to this from trial and error and also keeping fish at home in fishtanks and knowing their behaviour/how tough they are etc...so much to say!
The problem is i am studying for exams at present and should be concentrating on that! i'll come online later on and say some stuff. wana see what other people have to say first..
some quick thoughts..

a lot depends on the species . coldwater/warmwater (O2 content, lactic acid build up); marine/freshwater (O2 content, tagging, resiliance of fish); behaviour and adaptations of the fish; physical characteristics (scales/slime amount).
Length of fight..size and age of fish (trophy fish are sometimes difficult to put back). How good the photographer is (# of pics needed to get one or two decent ones)
Tagging?

Just a few quick points that come to mind..

[NeilRowe]

Chris

Running out of topics to post? Did'nt we debate this CAR thing to death before?

[Chris Shelton]

Hell, Chris. This should be its own section and each one of your questions should be an individual thread? Same as the casting section/thread.

Pierre, what do you think?? Call it Catch & Release, move the "barbless" thread to it, and away we go??

good suggestion Dyno

[Chris Shelton]

Chris

Running out of topics to post? Did'nt we debate this CAR thing to death before?

apparently not Neil. This came up again as a result of a request in the barbless thread

[Chris Shelton]

if my memory serves me right, we discussed catch and release on Cape streams before, but never touched much on the other important things surrounding catch and release much

[Umhlangarox]

I have a question and not an answer! What do you do if a fish takes the fly and it gets lodged far back in its throat,so far back its almost in its stomach? Do you A) Bite the line and let it die at a later stage B) Kill the fish and put it out its misery or C)Try get the fly out knowing that you will cause damage and most likely kill the fish!

[KevinC]

I have a question and not an answer! What do you do if a fish takes the fly and it gets lodged far back in its throat,so far back its almost in its stomach? Do you A) Bite the line and let it die at a later stage B) Kill the fish and put it out its misery or C)Try get the fly out knowing that you will cause damage and most likely kill the fish!

If its a stockie, then kill it and take it home and enjoy a lekke meal. Otherwise, I'll always try and remove the fly with a pair of forceps- if I see that I am not going to be successful, or that I am going to damage the fish in the process, then I will snip the tippet off as close to the hook eye as possible and release the fish- with the hope that the hook will become dislodged at a later stage/ not prove to be a hinderance to the fish (most of the time it is very wishful thinking).