Catch-and-Release Practices for Small Fish

http://ift.tt/2gMb6HD

Handle the little guys with care if you want to catch them when they are big.
Catch-and-release practices among fly anglers are probably the best they have ever been. In part due to social media and the popularity of ideas like, “Keep ‘Em Wet.” More times than not, when you see a photo of someone holding a trophy size fish they have it cradled gently in the water. That’s great, but what about the little guys?
All of those trophy fish were small once and in order to get big they had to run a gauntlet of anglers and predators. Although there has certainly been improvement in the way the average angler handles fish, when I see one taking a beating, it’s usually a little guy. The thing is, these are the fish which are most vulnerable.
There are several common ways these small fish are mishandled.
The most common is time out of the water. While most anglers will net a big fish and let it rest in the net while they remove the hook, a net isn’t usually required for a small fish. Often they are simply snatched up to chest level by the leader. They are usually still pretty green so they squirm and make removing the hook a challenge and often spend way too much time out of the water.
There are a couple of other things that can go wrong when

fishing

via Fly Fishing | Gink and Gasoline | H… http://ift.tt/1dNRyaq

October 30, 2017 at 05:05AM