Catch and Release, Or is it?

[gunflint]

I believe that most of us agree on the benefits of catch and release, and selective harvest. There is the usual disagreements on sizes, and limit numbers but over all I think most of us are on the same side.

What I would like to know is if there's some sort of definitive study or factual guidelines to use in determining the chances of survival of a fish that you're releasing?

According to the feb.05 issue of IN-Fishermans Walleye magazine, the survival rate for tournament fish in water over 67 degrees is about 20%. There are alot of factors involved, such as air exposure time etc. What about deep fish. If you pull a walleye out of 35 feet of water to fast their swim bladder is sticking out of their throat. However the dnr says for a better survival rate play them fast and release them fast.

Should we not be fishing in warm or deep water if we are planning to release every fish that day?

Catching and keeping a big female may or may not be bad depending on your point of view. But catching and releasing a fish thats almost certainly going to die might be even worse. I'm not talking about gut hooked fish or one that's bleeding badly. Is there a good way to tell? Just a thought.

[wildirishrose]

Don't know if there is a good way to tell if a fish will die or not, but alot do. I think that when Mille Lacs was hot the total kill for hooking mortality was higher than the fisherman took home (according to the survey). While Fishing Francis Case (S.D.) a few years ago there were walleyes floating belly up all over the place. There was a slot that everything under (I think) 14" had to be released, there were alot of fish under the slot caught in 35+ feet of water that did not make it. We actually moved to shallower water, away from the armada of boats because it was just to hard to look at all those floaters.

[PerchJerker]

One thing to keep in mind with tournament mortality is those fish have been bouncing around in a livewell for hours, and have been areated with surface-temp degree water. Fish that are fought quickly and released quickly have a far better survival rate.

Gut or gill-hooked fish or bleeding fish do not stand a good chance to survive. Neither do fish that have been exhausted from the fight, or handled excessively, or bounced around in the boat.

We have caught several walleyes that have hooks or hook-holes in their mouth - even fish we released a short while ago, or that broke our line and stole our jig a short while ago, have been caught again. So I think that if you're careful with the fish, the majority of them will be just fine.

[32 degrees]

This is a good topic. Pulling fish from deep water can be tough on walleyes, crappies, sunnies, perch.... Especially walleyes in the summer. In tournaments the mortality rate sounds about right. As soon as a fish goes in a livewell the mortality rate has to increase. Does Minnesota allow culling? I know SD does not. Either way, I would never put a walleye in the well and then try to release it later. I would like to believe that under normal conditions fishing under 20' the survival rate is more like 80-85%. Fishing methods can effect that too I suppose. There is probably a big difference between fish caught on long snells compared to jigs. But there you get into the gut-hook issue again. I look at Waubay SD as a good example. I dont think I have ever seen a dead walleye out there and these fish are being caught over and over. Those fish have hook marks and even hooks still in thier mouths all the time. The thing is most of these fish are being caught in shallow water on jigs which has to lower thier hooking mortality. I do not fish any leagues because I have heard horror stories relating to this topic. In-Fisherman had a couple good articles a few years ago but I must have thrown those issues away. It would be interesting to take a look at those again.

[outdoor ran]

I do know that all the fish you keep have a 100% nonsurvival rate.

[Ed Carlson]

A very Good topic.

I have long thought that they should post a C&R survivability index that would advise anglers as to the stress index for the fish at the time and the depths of maximum stress.

A reference system that could be posted at ramps so anglers know at a glance of hi-stress situations and adjust their methods accordingly. If the index is high then you should be looking at “Catch and keep” over C&R. Or, chose to not fish high stress areas and methods tell conditions improve.

I do not think such a system would be as tough to manage as one may first think. On high use and stress areas, this may have a significant effect on eliminating undue kills on many systems. It would rely largely on the anglers’ willingness to participate to work.

I think many would try to fallow the guidelines once they were implemented.

[wildirishrose]

Great idea Ed, how could we start the ball rolling on getting postings at accesses? Contact DNR? Mabey the local lake associations? Not sure how to go about it but your idea could/would save alot of fish.

[gunflint]

Might not be a bad idea to publish info in the reg book also.