Vertical hold/fish handling

[Cooter]

It will be interesting to see where the best handling practices/trends will head in the future of musky fishing - and catch and release fishing in general. Some thoughts I have...

It still bothers me when bass guys torque the heck out of a fish by lip holding one yet the fish is horizontal, just can't be good. And tourney fishing survival rates...maybe another topic for later.

For muskies, do we have any valid proof/evidence that vertical holds are harmful? Seems like its best to avoid them and I follow that line of thinking. However, when was the last time you saw someone lift a musky out of a net with a proper two handed horizontal lift? I'm guilty of it, its tough on a big fish in a big boat in big waves. Also, I would think the size of the fish makes a difference - I think a little 20" musky would be less likely to suffer any damage with a vertical hold vs a 50" fish.

What about even a proper two handed, belly supporting horizontal hold? At times the the belly hand gets pretty far back and you end up with an unnatural U-shaped bend on the fish, that can't be much better(or better at all) than a vert hold, can it?

Again, it will be interesting to see what we learn in the future...thoughts/opinions?

[Black_Bay]

This has been a hot topic on Next Bite. Check out the archived articles and topics there. RK probably could tell you what the correct title is.

[Cooter]

Cool, I'll have to check out Next Bite's HSOforum....how bout an FM discussion on the subject?

[RK]

Hiya -

This really has been a pretty hot issue from time to time in the muskie world. We've done quite a bit on it in the pages of The Next Bite - Esox Angler the last few years, and there was recently an article on it in another muskie publication as well.

My take on it is that if it's a fish of a size you're interested in catching, you shouldn't hold it vertically. Period. Every biologist I've ever talked to - ALL of them - have told me it's not a safe way to handle fish you want to release. Years ago we used to argue that the risk to vertically held fish was in displacing their internal organs. There's some truth to that. Fish are built physiologically to be horizontal in a dense medium, not held vertically in thin air. But in reality, after talking with a number of biologists and fish physiologists, the real risk in long term injury is to the musclar and skeletal structure of the area around the head and gills...it was just never meant to support any kind of weight, and the muscle and ligament damage to vertically held fish is significant. Physics being what it is, the larger the fish, the greater thepotential harm. If not immediately fatal, this tissue damage can have extremely negative effects on their ability to respire and feed, which has long term health effects that can be ultimately fatal.

Black Bay referred to some articles that have been published on this topic. Check out the one by Michael Butler. Mike is a research scientist with the Ontario MNR and the Ontario Museum of Natural History. He sent out a query to fisheries biologists and fish physiologists who handle large fish all over the world asking them about vertical holds. Their response was universally against the practice. The quote that stuck with me was "my advice to anyone who holds a fish vertically by the gills is to eat it..."

There are still a few out there who will argue that there's no difinitive research "proving" that vertical holds are bad, and until there is, they'll keep doing it. I once asked a biologist from the MN DNR why there hasn't been any research on the subject. He looked at me like I was nuts, and said "we don't have the time or money to study the obvious..."

As I said, there was a recent article which made the claim that fish held vertically did just fine. This was by an angler who had done his own "study" with tags he put on a handful of fish which he later recaptured. Personally, I thought the article was irresponsible and contrived. The ONLY claim he could credibly make was "they don't all die..." yet went on to claim this as proof that vertical holds were ok. Call me crazy, but I'll give fisheries biologists and physiologists from all over the world a little more credibility than one amateur with a small handfull of fish to point to...

The bottom line for me when it comes to vertical holds is that if there's credible information pointing to its negative effects, why do it? There's absolutely no need to hold a fish vertically in the course of a capture, photo, and release. The only reason to do it is because to some, the photos look impressive. To me, that's not enough of a reason to justify it. You can have great looking photos without a vertical hold. Do a the semi-vertical, with one hand supporting the side of the fish (what several biologists have told me is preferrable if you have to hold the fish up), take an in-the-water shot, or whatever, but vertical holds just aren't necessary. To me, it's a matter of ethics. If you're going to release the fish, why do unnecesary harm in the process?

If you don't want to hurt them, why take photos at all? Many people don't. I take very few, and many of the ones I do take are in the water release shots...in part because it's easy on the fish, and in part because those are just my favorite kind of fish pictures. I understand that the topic of handling fish is a slippery slope. We run the risk of taking all the fun out of it, and I acknowledge that. But I don't think you need to go that far. There are lots of ways to safely handle fish and take photos or whatever without unnecessary risk to the fish due to overhandling, and photos are, for a lot of us, an important part of the fun.

Many who argue that we get too carried away with catch and release and fish handling is based on some PETA-like bunny-hugging mentality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pushing safe handling and successful catch and release is the most selfish thing I do. I want them to swim away healthy so I can catch them again...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Scoot]

Thanks for the info, Rob. I think Rob makes a good point- if there's no need to hold a fish vertically, why do it?

[Cooter]

Thanks Rob, any thoughts/comments on removing fish from nets...like I said many people will hold them properly for photos and such but even then many are pulled out of the water vertically by a gill. Is it time to address this? Or since its usually such a short time period where the fish is lifted vertically is it insignificant? Thanks again, later.

[bigfish21]

never tried it but how about not using the gills and holding the fish like one would hold a steelhead, one hand around the body just before the tail and one hand under the belly.

[Black_Bay]

Holding muskies by the tail doesn't work well. Actually it doesn't work at all for esocids. Their tails aren't built as stout like a salmon tail. Plus the fish are so long they'll just kick your rear trying to hold them that way. Cradles are probably the best way to handle long heavy fish that you're planning on releasing.

BTW Please Please PLEASE don't use boga grips on muskies or pike! BAD NEWS!!!

[RK]

Hiya -

The tail and belly thing works ok on smaller fish, but not so much on bigger ones. As Black Bay said, they just dont' have the build for it. One DNR biologist I know autopsies a lot of dead muskies caught on Metro lakes, and he says on some of them you can see the hand print on the caudal peduncle (that's the 'wrist' of the tail, but I use the technical term because it's fun to say 'peduncle.' Seriously - try it. Peduncle peduncle peduncle ) Plus on larger fish, you have a lot of fish hanging over in front of your hand, with your supporting hand acting as a lever on the spine. Again, as Black Bay said, cradles, hybrids like the Frabil Kwik Kradle, or BIG nets are the way to go if you don't hand land and water release them.

Cooter, to answer your question about getting fish out of the net, it is sort of tough, especially with a high front deck like I have, or with a big fish. Best you can do is get a supporting hand under them as soon as you can. I sort of grab them in a lip lock, then run my hand down their side as far back as I can reach, and lift with both hands. Kind of awkward, especially with a big fish, but minimizes weight on the gill hold.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm