How you hold your fish after your catch it can make the difference in it’s survival rate upon release. In yesterday’s blog entry I had some photos showing me holding some bass in a vertical postion.

J. Leslie Booth, editor, O’fieldstream Outdoor Journal commented with some valuable insight into the importance of the angle in which you hold a fish (like bass) before you release it. I followed up with an email and he was gracious enough to send along a photo that he created with some more valuable insight into this matter. Take some time to read a portion of his email:

…On the lip-hold method for large and smallmouth bass … I’ve been involved in an on-going discussion with a Fisheries doc at Harvard, concerning a study he and colleagues conducted on the muscles – in the head of the LMB (large mouth bass) – used when ‘sucking in prey’. It wasn’t directly speaking to the issue I addressed on your blog, but in the ensuing conversation I’ve learned a lot about the validity of a long-held position of mine I had when working towards a Fisheries degree, from 45+ years of fishing experience and more-than-a-few-myths. The short-of-it is this: If you want the bass (really, any member of sunfish family .. in fresh or salt water) to live in a Non-Harvest (Catch and Release) action … DO NOT HOLD them HORIZONTALLY .. UNLESS .. the main body is ALSO supported. And NEVER allow the body, behind the opercula [operculum] (gill plate), EXCEED 10° off the horizontal line running from the premaxillary (upper lip) through the fork in the caudal fin (tail). You can hold the fish at ANY ANGLE you want .. just so long as THAT LINE is never ‘BENT’ beyond 10° !!!…

-J. Leslie Booth, editor, O’fieldstream Outdoor Journal

The photo he sent me is used with permission. Please do not use without permission.

Share the danger with other anglers. (for a larger view, click on the photo at the top of this blog entry)
Bill Anderson

Muskoka Outdoors