Keep Fish Wet

Written by: Zach Steele @0nlydinks

If you follow me on Instagram or have read anything I’ve ever written, then you’ll know that our fisheries and coastlines hold a special place in my heart. One thing we all have in common in this rapidly growing sport is that we love the fish we are trying to catch. The other is social media. Like it or not, anyone from your boss to your grandma likely has a Facebook account. The simplicity and ease of sharing information has also opened a lot of eyes when it comes to protecting our scaled friends. While it’s not hard to find a captain or fisherman who genuinely has our fish population’s best interest in mind, you’re more likely to find the opposite. Correctly releasing a fish after being caught can determine whether that fish lives or dies. All over the internet you’ll find instances of poor fish handling skills. I like to think most of this tomfoolery is based on being uninformed, not malicious.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can find groups like Keep Fish Wet and Captains for Clean Water at the forefront of responsible, conservation-minded social media. While the big boys handle the big issues, there are still things we can do as individual anglers to decrease fish mortality. When it comes to correctly releasing a fish, each species has its own unspoken set of rules and standards. Some are far stricter and more regulated than others. If we treated giant tarpon like we do bull black drum, every captain south of Georgia would be up in arms. And rightly so. Our smaller sport fish deserve that same respect. Below I have outlined a few tactics I’ve adopted to keep the fish I catch healthy and strong.

A Fish Out of Water

We’ve all heard the saying. As obvious as it sounds, this is probably the most broken fish law of all time. There isn’t anything wrong with grabbing a quick picture or getting a measurement. What I’m talking about is cutting down on unnecessary time out of the water. A good general rule of thumb for removing a fish from his habitat is “AS FAST AS POSSIBLE”. None of the fish I catch are ever out of the water for more than 20-30 seconds at a time. One way I accomplish this is by keeping them netted in the water while unhooking them. This also prevents them from thrashing around on my deck and causing further damage to themselves. If you are ever in doubt about how long to keep a fish dry, keep it shorter than that.

Treble Hook Switcheroo

Treble hooks! An angler’s insurance policy for bad timing and improper hook sets. While they do (sometimes) help you get hooked up, they cause far more harm than good. Have you ever noticed how difficult they are to get out of a net? Or how easily they snag on your clothes or body parts? Imagine both of those three-barbed hooks flailing violently in front of your face. Before I wised up and got rid of the trebles, I was double hooking fish left and right. Sometimes in the eye, sometimes in the gills, but never both hooks in their mouth. It’s a fish-eat-fish world out there, and any damage a fish takes drastically decreases his chance of survival. Owner and VMC both make great saltwater in-line hooks and have even labeled them as “replacement hooks”. They are far easier on the fish, easier on the angler, and easier to take out of a mouth… or your hand. The one hesitation I hear from folks on this matter is a lack of trust that a single hook will snag a fish as easy as a treble. I’ll give you a not-so-secret pro tip: Single hooks set more solidly than a treble 99% of the time.

Forceps, Stat!

Forceps aren’t just for doctors and surgeons anymore. The dreaded gut hook is one of my least favorite scenarios out on the water. Here, you’re just trying to do your best without causing irreversible damage. Saltwater hooks are built to last and will not simply “rust out” of a fish’s mouth. Forceps can save the day in many of these instances. Specifically, you’re looking for 8-inch hemostat forceps – these tend to be more narrow and much easier to maneuver a hook out of a gullet.

Goo Gone

Have you ever released a fish and noticed a nice layer of goo on your hands? That slimy substance is a layer of mucus and is a fish’s first and best defense against parasites. Handling a fish with dry hands or without gloves can damage this barrier and leaves the fish vulnerable to attack. Excess stress will also damage this mucus layer and goes back to my previous point about keeping fish wet. If you absolutely must remove a fish from the water, wet your hands thoroughly, throw on some Fish Monkey Gloves, and try to limit skin-to-skin contact. Which takes us to our next point:

Boga Grips for The Win

Boga grips are an incredibly useful tool and an easy way to keep fish out of your hands. The less time touching the fish, the less harm is done. Using them correctly also helps. There are far too many pictures on the interwebs showing three-pound Boga grips hanging out of the mouth of some poor fish while the angler holds it with both hands. The effort is applauded, but the fish hangs, not the other way around. This is also my main tool when it comes to letting the fish go. They make it easy to handle the fish and help control them when they get a little squirmy.

Until We Meet Again

So, you’ve limited your fish’s time out of the water, switched those nasty trebles out, and used gloves and Bogas for extra protection. Just a nice toss back into the water, and all is correct, right? Wrong. When you finally reach the point of release, there are a few things to pay attention to. A caught fish is likely in a state of shock and exhaustion and will need time to resuscitate itself. Keep your Boga’s on him, support its stomach, or gently grab its tail, and give them 30 to 60 seconds in the water to get re-acclimated before you let them go. Try to position them headfirst and into the current to help pass water through their gills. They will always let you know when they are ready to go.

Hopefully now you are a lean, mean, fish conserving machine. A little bit goes a long way, and any extra effort is surely welcome!

Zach Steele
Zach specializes in kayak and wade fishing for redfish. He splits his time between the middle and upper coast of Texas, and SouthWest Florida