. . .keep this in mind! Saw this on another board and it looked share-worthy.

http://www.ginkandgasoline.com/steelhead/you-may-be-killing-steelhead-and-not-even-know-it/

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Silly me. Turns out that after all these years and hundreds of fish, I should have been knocking them on the side of the face. Who'da knowed?


Not buying it.

Show me the data.

I once saw a picture of a steelhead with half it's nose smashed in . It was still very much alive. If this were true we would see dead fish floating down the rivers . I'm not buying into it either

Need more information. If this occurred often, we'd see lots of dead steelhead, but we don't.

I'd like to see the data they reference too but the general premise makes sense though.

I'm now a big believer in (friendly) landing nets for steelhead. They allow the fish to be kept off the rocks and also allow them to be landed before completely exhausted. Trying to land them in water without a net creates all sorts of opportunities for problems.

I could see it, fish thrash violently when pulled from the water , often throwing themselves and slaming into various objects, especially when you are pulling them up onto the bank.

Interesting.

+1

IMO its the only way to go.

I'd really like to see the data on that study, anyone have a link??

A few observations....

Obviously, there are no anatomical differences of any signficance between wild steelhead and hatchery steelhead. Hatchery fish are not bred to have harder skulls than wild ones. So if this is happening to wild fish, it should be happening to hatchery fish too.

In order to determine the cause of death, they would need to do a necropsy (not an autopsy, that's for humans). Doing a necropsy on a wild animal to determine the cause of death is very difficult to do. Doing one in the field is even more difficult. I find it hard to believe these folks had the necessary equipment to accurately determine the cause of death, while streamside.

Sampling with rod and reel is a long accepted method of capturing fish for research (tough duty....) in remote areas, primarily because of the high survival rate of the fish. This study suggests otherwise. It casts doubt (pardon the pun) on reliability of the technique. Perhaps, but more research would need to be done to validate the findings.

Lastly, I find it odd they used fly rods. Fly rods are perhaps the least efficient method of angling. Perhaps the most enjoyable and rewarding, but also the least effective. So why did they use it? Perhaps it's the only method allowed on that river, and they could not get sampling permits to do otherwise. Not sure, but I would never consider using a fly rod as a sampling tool.

If true there would be WAY more dead fish. Not saying it can't happen but not as often as they try and make you believe.

Has a bogus nose, concocted body and an agenda finish.

I agree, it'd be nice to see the study's M&M and data. No reference to the methods or locale of the necropsy. I would think that determination of piscatorial brain swelling or edema would be sketchy at best in a subject dead in the water, especially for any amount of time. It's hard enough in a human, who has a conveniently closed skull cavity, and I've done it aplenty. Brain hemorrhage is a lot easier to see. Obviously a very limited data set, with more questions than answers. I choose to view this as a good reminder of careful fish handling, regardless of whether it's BS. A tailing glove or knotless net in calf-deep water are both good options,

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Although not backed up by a lot of empiracal data, Bob Hooton of BC noted that C&R regs in BC did not produce the results hoped for. Not enough fish seem to survive release long enough to spawn successfully,

Having walked the the entire anadromous zone of some creeks weekly, during spawning season on a known number of fish I can recall finding one steelhead carcass even though we know that good number died.

First person to invent and patent a fish helmet is going to be rich.

So the report is saying that it is bad for the fish to be dragged into the shallows where it might thrash around? Is that not obvious to most people?

The safest way to CNR is probably via pliers in knee deep water or deeper without even handling the fish using gear appropriate for the job, but those pictures suck AMIRIGHT? You don't get the sweet feeling of watching the fish Vee back into the depths from the shallows, and the sweet SIMMS catalog cover picture of the splash back in the face as it speeds off.

NAIL ON HEAD.

Could it be that what the C&R fisherman likes & what's best for the wild ironhead are @ odds?



c/22

This just in.... New data, the fish were traumatized while they beat their head on the gravel bar while the researchers installed a GPS tracking device on them. Oh yeah the fish were out of the water for 5 minutes and handled using the "death grip" to keep from flopping so much!

Not really but you get the idea. This article has an agenda to get across that poor fish handling contributes to fish mortality. Most already know this.

The take home message that anglers should improve their handling of fish is fine, but this article is smoke and mirrors and easily could have been dry labbed and published on the internet to push for better fish handling publicity.

I agree with a previous posters as well, something fishy, feasibility of the study, ("fly rods most effective way to land fish unharmed") since when??? try a plug rod or heavy float rod.

arent Steelhead known to die if you fight them for too long and they exert all their energy?

kinda throws fly rods out the window...

as far as them dying from hitting their heads on rocks, i fully agree with that... as i said on a FB status on this subject, i dont use clubs, or sticks, or rocks to beat my fish over the head, i use my Channel Lock Needle Nose pliers, and just rap em once or twice on the top of the head with the mid section of the plier (they are regular sized pliers)... the fish is generally dead within 5 minutes, so smashing its head, dropping it, ect, could most deffinately have the same effect...

i really hate hearing the stories about "oh i had to fight this 20 pound King for 15 minutes straight" (some say an hour) and things of that nature... with a fly rod, thats a major possibility, but with gear rods, it should never happen on rivers while bank fishing... i dont think i have ever in my life passed the 5 minute mark, but then again, i dont sit there with a stop watch, because my main objective is to get the thing in as quickly as possible, and either kill it where applicable or let it go with the least amount of energy wasted, because of it being a native fish...

fish need to be treated like newborns, because they are just as fragile when you take them out of the water... i dont like keeping fish out of the water more than 10-15 seconds, but again, thats just my 2 pesos...

Any rod regardless of the type can be a danger to fish if in the wrong hands.
I watched a guy this summer on the beach tossing herring under a float take 20 minutes to land a 6 lb silver. Talk about a milk job.

Use the heaviest leader you can and take the fight to the fish to insure a quick and safe release.
SF