yesterday my buddy had on a 12 lbs native. I looked for a bank to beach it but the water was too high so there was no beach. The water was running too fast to try a tail it by the boat. The water was too deep to get out of the boat and try something that way. What should I have done? Net it carefully?
thanks.

Without a C&R net I would not attempt to net the native, there is no careful way to do that. Try to work the fish close so you can get the leader and unhook the fish or cut the leader. If you had the fish with a plug or other harware try to grab the top of the plug and unhook the fish that way or just break him off. Fish will shake the hardware out in no time at all, plugs are cheep, natives are irreplaceable.

I think that I'd net it, but keep the net in the water. That would keep the fish's own weight from scraping itself up on the mesh. Definitely don't pull it up and drop it on the bottom of the boat.

Hopefully the fish could be easily unhooked while in the net in the water, and the net could be tipped and off it goes, or removed by hand for pictures and resuscitation.

A rubber or cotton mesh, or a catch and release basket type net, could come in handy in these situations.

Fish on...

Todd.

I used a de-hooker stick this year up at Sekiu with great success. It was a 3/4" dowel, about 3 feet long with a strong "?" hook on the end. We never had to touch a fish. It looked like this.

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Andy

Dogfish,
That is a good idea.When I fish my canyons I rarely have a good spot to release them unharmed.With something like that I could release them without having to beach tham at all. I just need to figure out how to make one that is telescopic.

Actualy I have an old telescopic poaching pole...j/k

One of them nifty golf ball retriever things might do the trick.

I found myself in a similar position this weekend. When this happens to me, I will often just float down river a ways until I find a suitable beach/calm water to take care of things. Nets aren't good if your going to release the fish and it does no harm to the fish to be played gently as the boat is rowed downriver. Just my $.02 worth.

Here's a link to the WDFW website with a good description of the de-hooker that Dogfish mentioned and how to use it.

De-Hooker

DF, I've heard of hookers...but de-hookers?

Good post DF!

FJ...out.

The further up into the stream system these fish are, the less you need to worry about the decaling problems! The ocean is one place where this can be a real problem.

This is one occasion where I do agree with Todd…net it, keep it in the water, and let it go!

Just curious, does WDFW have any studies to back up their proposed hook and release methods that are posted on their web site? I have never herd of any such studies on this method before, have any of you?

Cowlitzfisherman
Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the bait?

i actually think that someone in the regoin 6 office did do a study cowlitzfisherman, if im not mistakin' it was somewhere on their website, but that was a while ago so it might not be there.... if you want i could get the report and post it, possibly....

fishermanonabike

That would be interesting to read, please try to find it and post it!
I wonder if it was done only in the salt. How could they find out what the survival were on wild fish?

Thanks,

Cowlitzfisherman
Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the bait?

Netting a river fish, where the scales have likely set pretty good, does them no harm, and actually is easier on them than tiring them out enough for them to be tailed or hooked by hand, or even dragged up on the bank. Ocean fish are another thing - those scales fall off real easily and it's best not to touch them unless you have a net built for C&R. You can build one of these easily enough - get some soft nylon 1/4 inch "smelt" mesh and sew up a bag. Keep it wet and you can net and release fish with minimal scale loss and without wearing them out.

wait, are you saying that its alright to net a river fish?? that it wont do them any harm?? no, because you dont only have to worry about scales,which can still come off on a river fish, but you also have to worry about the fishes slim, its protective coating. now although handleing or tailing a fish can also take off some of this slime if done right the loss is minimal. i personally dont like nets most of the time, if i have a fish on that is gonna need to be netted it better be a hatchery fish that I'm gonna thump, or else i just go till i find a suitable spot to beach,sure it gives the fish a bit of advantage but oh well, i think they deserve all the extra points they can get......boy i know that gonna come back to huant me some day....

P.S. cowlitz i'll be working on finding that report tomarrow after i get off work, no promises though...and was it you that said they had a couple springers up at the barrier dam? in your email?? when was that?

hey thanks for the replys. If I have the same situation again i am going to net it and leave it in the river. I am going back out to the same river I was on and hopefully we will get another chance at the big fish. Later guys.