Proper Release

Joel Prunty - media manager, All-Canada Show - Catch and release fishing – especially as it relates to trophy fish – is now standard practice for anglers. And these actions are greatly improving the quality of fisheries in Canada. The likely hood of catching a trophy these days is better now than anytime in the last 50 years and the main reason is catch and release.

The next major improvement in Catch and Release to come is survival rates and how to improve them. It does no good to release a fish if it doesn’t live and we still need to make major improvements on how we handle trophy fish. Here a few quick tips for handling your next BIG fish:

NETTING - Leave your trophy in the net and in the water, remove the lure then lift your trophy out of the net. (If you bring the fish into the boat it’s going to flop around and entangle itself more.)
HOLDING – Always hold your trophy pike and lake trout with two hands with one supporting the stomach. Never hold a trophy vertically with one arm.
ACT QUICKLY – Time is of the essence. You want to enjoy your trophy and get a good photo, but act quickly. A lodge owner once told me “think of yourself holding your breath under water…that is what fish are doing out of water.” While your trophy is being removed from the net, set up your picture to save time.
WEIGHT - Never weigh a fish by haning it from a scale...weight your fish in the net by attaching your scale to the net and raising it, the weight of the net is so small the reading is still accurate

Paying attention to these three tips will greatly increase the odds of your trophy surviving to fight another day.