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| I am swishing around this slot fish before releasing. It's a good idea to revive a big fish prior to release, especially when the water if warm. |
It's that time of year where the water is warm. Any stripers caught in these dog days of summer are stressed to the limit after a battle. It's especially important to properly handle these fish you are going to release, especially a big fish, and to try to revive it to prevent the fish from going belly up. Here's a few tips that I have tried to follow in warm weather:
1. Get the fish back in the water as soon as possible. When I am out in the kayak these days, I try not to even take the fish out of the water. Yes, easier to do in a kayak. I will grab a big fish with a Boga grip and hold it in the water while unhooking.
2. If you want to get a photo, have everything ready ahead of time, and do it fast. I have a Go Pro set up on a camera boom in the front of my kayak. It is voice activated and set up in just the right location. If I get a big fish and want a photo, I quickly lift the fish into the kayak and say "Go Pro, take a photo". I might take two or three photos and the whole process takes seconds. The fish is then quickly returned to the water. I see people in boats fiddling with the fish, unhooking it on ther floor of the boat, passing the fish around to other people on the boat for photos, and usually the camera person is not even ready to take the picture. Those fish might be out of the water for minutes which is way too long.
3. Try to revive before releasing. Even those fish that I keep in the water should be revived. I will
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| If you want a quick photo of a big fish, do it fast. I have my Go Pro on a Ram track mount all set up ahead of time. The camera is voice activated and takes seconds to get a photo or two. |
quickly get them off the Boga while holding onto their jaw with my thumb. I try to swish them back and forth in the water getting oxygen in their gills until I feel the fish start to swim. Only then will I let the fish go. It's easy to do in a kayak since I am low to the water. I've seen some boaters net their fish with a long handled net. After unhooking they will lower the fish back in the water in the net and swish it around before releasing it. That works and is far better than throwing the fish in the air and back into the water.
4. Realize the bigger the fish, the faster and more stressed it can get. These days a lot of us are catching over slot fish that must be released. Those are the ones that you really have to be careful with if you are going to have a successful release.
I think all of this is much easier to do from shore than in a boat. And, it takes more effort to revive a big fish in a bigger boat. But, something to think about in these days of catch-and-release fishing.
