C&R Hints and tips

[robmason]

Well said James. Peoples attitude can change, I know only too well, and when you have had a bonanza, as you describe, to the situation now, surely it can't take much to appreciate the value of C&R. It is still very new in the UK however. The angling press having only come on board in the last 5 or six years.

On a personal level, I had my first 100% C&R year in 2006 (when I actually caught something ), and don't I feel good.

Thats 4 out of 4 silver fish- no kippers.

[tyneandrew]

Another enjoyable read James.

The opening week of Aboyne 1989 was certainly a week that amazed me when i was told about it from Jim, the gillie. 51 springers in opening week to just 3 rods is quite remarkable and i've seen some of the photo's.

It all came back to earth with a bang, with 1998 being the worst ever season at Aboyne, where the season catch totaled just 51 salmon - desperate. Lets hope that the slow improvements keep coming or even start to accelerate.

[Yorkshire Esk]

The Fisheries Research Services from Aberdeen made a video called "Catch and Release", "The Future is in Your Hands", presented by Paul Young, a few years ago,(1998) they may even have some copies left, or may even be worth an enquiry to see if they have any left. It is quite a good watch on the way to handle the fish that is going to be released.
Tel: [phone]



Kate

[Fruin]

Well said James.

[johnmac]

An interesting piece! I do intend to keep my first fish.... when i get it!! assuming that it is a keeper.... but then i hope to return most of the fish i catch.... a photo and seeing the fish go back alive will be good enough for me...... it's the first that i catch that i'll feel sorry for! But even then... i can't say for sure that i wont return it if it gives me a sympathetic glance!

[wilbert]

As well as educating anglers on the merits of C&R I think they should be made aware of the best ways in which to do this. Playing the fish hard, remember you have a powerful rod and strong line so use it to tire the fish quickly, keep the fish in the water whilst unhooking and if a photo is needed only lift the fish out of the water for the bare minimum time to get 1 possibly 2 quick photos. Never pick the fish up by the tail and always make sure the fish is well supported. Spend plenty of time in the water with the fish facing upstream until it has got its strength back even if the water is freezing and your hands have gone numb.

Handled well and a fish has a very high survival rate and many make it to spawn which is far more than the ones in the freezer do.

[tyneandrew]

Question for very regular fishers and particularly gillies perhaps:

How often are you looking into the river and say "there is another dead fish that didn't survive C&R"

Personally i have never seen a dead salmon in a river. Other than one's that have died of estuary related problems.

[scotty]

just once have i seen a dead salmon, that was about 20 odd years ago.

scotty

[salmonking]

I have come across a few dead fish in my time not a lot though,
i have always examined the fish that i can get a hold of and check their mouths,and none of the fish Ive seen had been hooked,i think the success of c&r should not be underestimated
and the mortality rate is lower than we think.
I used to kill all my fish that bled from the mouth believing they would bleed to death,apparently this is not the case,as long as its not bleeding from the gills they will be returned,apart from one
for the beat owner.

[Fruin]

I once had a grilse about six pounds, hooked at the tail of a pool on my local water. I played the fish quickly, the fly came out as the fish was netted, and the fish barely left the water. I never bothered with a photo, and held the fish facing upstream until it swam away strongly.
Seconds later somebody standing on the bank below me shouted "Gary, that fish is rolling!", meaning that the fish was turning belly up in the as it tumbled in the flow downstream. I quickly dropped the rod, got out the water, and ran downstream with the net to try and net the fish and help it recover. However, it dissappeared into the deep water in the pool below, before I got the chance. I never found out if the fish survived, but nobody saw any more of it and I really hope it stabilised and survived.
This fish was played in quickly and treated gently and I often wonder what made it roll in the water.

[Fruin]

Another point that is often overlooked in catch and release is the fishes swim bladder. Never grip or squeeze a fish's stomach to hard, as this can, apparently, damage the swim bladder. I say this as I have seen anglers(?) holding fish in all sorts of wrestling grips for photos and unhooking.

[wilbert]

I have seen a few dead salmon in the rivers over the years and most of these were very fresh, cant say if they had been caught and released or just died of natural causes.

I have on 2 occasions in Russia caught tagged fish that have been caught and released after a small tag was placed just behind the dorsal fin. The first fish was fresh and had been caught 3 days previous and the second fish was couloured and was caught approx 8 weeks before I landed it. The guide also told me about a grilse that they would catch every day in the same spot.

[exerod]

fruin said:

held the fish facing upstream until it swam away strongly.
Seconds later somebody standing on the bank below me shouted "Gary, that fish is rolling!", meaning that the fish was turning belly up in the as it tumbled in the flow downstream. I quickly dropped the rod, got out the water, and ran downstream with the net to try and net the fish and help it recover. However, it dissappeared into the deep water in the pool below, before I got the chance. I never found out if the fish survived, but nobody saw any more of it and I really hope it stabilised and survived.
This fish was played in quickly and treated gently and I often wonder what made it roll in the water.

I would think that you can be fairly certain it recovered as it wasn't seen again. I had two fish do this last season. Both were caught in hot conditions and both, because of the nature of the banks, had to be removed from the water for unhooking. They took several minutes to recover and seemed to swim off strongly but then started dropping downstream and rolled over. However both righted themselves and did a nice head and tail rise before swimming back upstream towards their lies
Fish taken in the same hot conditions that weren't removed from the water for unhooking all shot off without needing any nursing at all.

Andy

[wilson]

In Canada my fishing partners and I are strictly catch and release. Early season on the three Gaspe rivers (York, Dartmouth, St. Jean) is all C&R, as is the lower few miles of the Restigouche. I've only seen one fish killed in the past 5 years and that was on the Matapedia where the regulation is 1 killed and you're off the water, not even C&R, you're done. I've heard of one dead fish that the biologists took from the water to find a large 2/0 single in her throat (spring fishing).

One tactic the lodges use is the packages, lodging and guiding inclusive of the cost of the water, is if an angler wants to take fish they have to pay for the water themselves with no reduction of the package. At least it puts the choice in front of the angler and makes them think because of the additional cost.

Most anglers adhere to the "2 and you're done" etiquette enforced on the main beats on the Grand and it's only happened to me twice. Once on the Petite Cascapedia which was first pool and last light and on the Grand Cascapedia which was 2 fish back to back in late morning. I've been scolded on this board for the 2 and out rule, but the fact of the matter is that most Canadian river runs are equal to your catch rates. I'm happy just to be able to be there.

It's all single barbless in Canada, trebles are illegal, though I've been using the small Loop doubles de-barbed with some success. We use the heaviest floroucarbon you can find, usually 16-18 lb, and bend to the cork. If you have one on for too long it'd better be a special fish that "worked you" or there will be questions in the evening.

-Chris

[jaxck5]

As a confirmed C&R man I am greatly encouraged by the contributions to this thread , it is up to all of us to spread the word . Perhaps we could start by asking " Trout and Salmon " to review their " Gallery "feature where many of the salmon on show are clearly dead.

[wilbert]

T&S are not very interested in pictures of fish being returned in their gallery. Fred Higham that writes the T&S reports for the Ribble and Hodder sent in some pics of my 3 year old son catching his first trout on fly, some of the writers thought that it was an excellent pic and wanted to include it in the gallery but the editor said NO, he wanted a pic of him displaying his catch. We did keep the fish as it was his first ever but 3 year olds being 3 year olds will not co-operate and pose for the camera holding a fish. They also want the river reports to read like a catch return book, not very interesting or informative.

[Fruin]

IMO there is nothing wrong with taking the occasional fish home if the stocks are healthy enough. I know too many people who wag on about 100% catch and release, turn up and fish the river of their choice, and go home. Yes, they return all their fish, but too many of them do sod all of any consequence to protect the fish. Rather than scold other anglers for not putting every fish back, they should volunteer their time to help with research, habitat improvement, education, hatchery work(where required) etc etc etc.
On each system the work and time spent by a few dedicated individuals is of more benefit than the anglers that think they are heroes for not taking an occasional fish for the pot.
I hate to see fishmongers on any system, but there should be rules implemented to deal with that.
I do believe in returning all fish , or stopping fishing all together, (after a certain date?) in the headwaters of any system.
If we actually need 100% C&R to help stocks recover, should we be fishing at all?
I have nothing against anglers that do not like killing fish. I return most of what I catch. I just do not like being preached to by people who are ignorant of the facts. Please, let us ensure that sensitive subjects in our sport are dealt with by assessing all the facts in front of us and not on individual opinion and self righteousness!!!

[exerod]

I can only agree with nearly everything Fruin has said in his last post. Just a couple of points about this bit though.

fruin said:

I do believe in returning all fish (after a certain date?), or stopping fishing all together, in the headwaters of any system.

If fishing was stopped in the headwaters of all rivers a lot of people would lose their fishing. We can't all afford to fish the good beats, thats why we are up there praying for rain!

The second point is the widely criticized taking of coloured fish at the back end. As I see it on rivers where the autumn run far exceeds the spring and summer runs the angler who takes a couple of dark autumn fish (NOT old black or red summer/spring fish) is doing less harm to the autumn run than the angler who takes a sealicer in June does to the summer run. Yet who gets all the stick

Andy

[betanut]

fruin said:

Please, let us ensure that sensitive subjects in our sport are dealt with by assessing all the facts in front of us and not on individual opinion and self righteousness!!!

I had thought about a long (and probably tedious post) on the subject of c&r and holier than thou preaching, but Fruin 'nailed it' with this sentence Well said that man ;D

[wilson]

I don't know if anyone has gotten all "preachy" on this thread, if so I don't believe it's intentional. It is a sensitive subject and yes, C&R is only part of the solution. Honestly, if I fished the Canadian rivers at a time when I could whack a fish I'd probably take a grilse for the table but I go early in the year and almost everything is mandatory C&R.

I'll say the Gaspe fisheries managers have the biologists out on the river all season doing counts and checking the health of the river so when they force one to go C&R, which they often do after a short kill season, or change the zones around as they did this year on the Bonaventure, it's done with facts in hand and all seriousness.

My concern for the resource in the small region of Gaspe is logging and land management. Just this year there was a bright shiney new clear cut on the York headwaters. I'm not really sure how to follow through with the local management on these issues but it's clear the logging practices affect the resource. Don't know what the situation is on your side of the pond regarding this topic but if you've had some success I'm all ears.

Here's a couple of links which describe the state of the salmon. Some fact, some not.

www.nasco.int/pdf/nasco_report20022003.pdf
www.dispatchesfromthevanishingworld.com/dispatch29/d29_2.html

-Chris