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Catch and release.....

4K views 22 replies 16 participants last post by  shadslinger 
#1 ·
I have done a "study" on some fish I caught and released where I could observe them .....

10 Blue cat 4-12lbs.....after 2 months 8 had died of wounds(hook) from bacterial infection .....

8 Black bass.......after three weeks 5 had died of wounds(hook) from bacterial infection (rot)..another is showing signs of same...lot of other fish around them are in normal healthy looking condition....


just my own observation for my own reasons.....
 
#5 ·
That’s why I’ve always advocated for limits to be the first X amount of fish you catch

You look at the number of fish that die that are 1/2” under the legal Limit and it’s sickening but what do i know, I’m not a biologist I’m just a guy that has fished for many years and watched undersized fish float belly up downstream after being caught. So much better to feed the gators and birds than folks that spend the money on license, fuel, bait etc



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#7 ·
I have done a "study" on some fish I caught and released where I could observe them .....

10 Blue cat 4-12lbs.....after 2 months 8 had died of wounds(hook) from bacterial infection .....

8 Black bass.......after three weeks 5 had died of wounds(hook) from bacterial infection (rot)..another is showing signs of same...lot of other fish around them are in normal healthy looking condition....

just my own observation for my own reasons.....
I suppose these are in a private pond, to make these observations. Not trying to be funny, but it reminds me of the joke, sick joke, where the politician is slowly clapping his hands and saying "Every time I clap, a child dies of disease'! A voice cries out "Quit Clapping!" Quit catch and releasing them!
 
#10 ·
A lot of variables at play...

One of them is how the fish is handled, i.e. how long out of water, how deeply hooked, how the angler plays the fish, etc. Florida has done extensive scientific studies and now has laws that prohibit removing certain highly prized species of fish from the water; must be released in the water. Their scientific studies show above 90% survival rates when those fish are handled properly.

Another variable is the water temp...high water temps significantly increase release mortality. Before the good stripers were washed out of Livingston starting about 2015, one could easily see the effects of water temp on released striped bass in summer around pine island. Dead stripers all around. I estimate 90% of stripers caught and released in water temps above 82 deg. die within 24 hours and the rest probably within days.

O2 levels in the water very important. If the fish caught is just barely surviving in low oxygenated water, for example, the added stress of "catch" will likely kill them upon "release".

Nothing we can do anywhere approaches the reliability of scientific studies, but I have studied caught and released fish for many years in controlled environments. I've seen excellent survival rates...well above 90%...consistently when the variables are taken into consideration. Many of the fish I have studied have been caught multiple times over a several year period....don't tell me catch and release doesn't work.

When the factors are right, catch and release works and works extremely well. It is an important, often critical, element of any fish management program.
 
#11 ·
A lot of variables at play...

One of them is how the fish is handled, i.e. how long out of water, how deeply hooked, how the angler plays the fish, etc. Florida has done extensive scientific studies and now has laws that prohibit removing certain highly prized species of fish from the water; must be released in the water. Their scientific studies show above 90% survival rates when those fish are handled properly.

Another variable is the water temp...high water temps significantly increase release mortality. Before the good stripers were washed out of Livingston starting about 2015, one could easily see the effects of water temp on released striped bass in summer around pine island. Dead stripers all around. I estimate 90% of stripers caught and released in water temps above 82 deg. die within 24 hours and the rest probably within days.

O2 levels in the water very important. If the fish caught is just barely surviving in low oxygenated water, for example, the added stress of "catch" will likely kill them upon "release".

Nothing we can do anywhere approaches the reliability of scientific studies, but I have studied caught and released fish for many years in controlled environments. I've seen excellent survival rates...well above 90%...consistently when the variables are taken into consideration. Many of the fish I have studied have been caught multiple times over a several year period....don't tell me catch and release doesn't work.

When the factors are right, catch and release works and works extremely well. It is an important, often critical, element of any fish management program.
With what you have pointed out it would seem under ideal conditions catch and release has a good survival rate but these conditions would seem to be the exception. I would venture 75% of fish released do not fall under these conditions therefore there is a much higher mortality rate. So would it not make more sense from a conservation mindset to improve the mortality rate to just keep the first x-amount of whatever fish caught instead of weeding though many that will likely die in an effort to keep one legal fish? I see this all the time when catching trout under the lights at night (saltwater). May have to catch 10 to get on keeper and of those 10 two - three float off belly up.
 
#15 ·
Have you ever caught a fish with a hook in it's mouth? I concur it seems more like a water quality issue then the fact that that were caught two months ago and the hook mark still exist.
I can assure you a fish can dissolve a 16 O circles hook in a matter of days. We caught many black tip sharks in the days of Tarpon fishing and each one was released with a brand new 16 O hook in it's mouth. We went every weekend out of San L. Pass and never caught a shark with a hook.
Same holds true for freshwater. Fish generate acid that dissolves the hook so how can the hook mark still be visible after 2 months and why would that be related to bacterial infection i.e dead fish?
 
#16 ·
Scientific aside we all know if a fish is handled improperly, slime is removed by a towel could be one of the worst, or reeled up as fast as you can or fought for 20 minutes on light tackle there is a great chance it will not survive a release especially in the summer months and Saltwater with the amount of predator fish. Culling legal fish is such a waste. Just take your limit and move on. We all just need to do our part. Some are just greedy and they will never change.
 
#17 ·
sorry but culling fish is NOT a waste and thousands of studies have shown in freshwater the mortality rate is really low for bass released after tournaments. It's all about how the fish are handled, water temperature etc and the stress put on the fish. There's an extremely healthy black bass population in most lakes in the USA specifically because catch and release is the norm. The same goes for freshwater trout such as rainbows and browns in catch and release only streams.
 
#21 ·
I have to agree with this ðŸ'†ðŸ»ðŸ'†ðŸ» Hundreds of people fish every single day, and catch and release all over Texas. It would look like a GIANT fish kill all over Texas every weekend if that were true about catch and release. The water quality/oxygen, water temperature, those fish were released in May play a factor, or even the stress from transporting them, what were they eating where you released them. There’s probably well over 1,000 possibilities of what may have happened to those fish. Just my 2 cents, anyway tight lines everyone! ðŸ'ðŸ»
 
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