We catch hundreds of Stripers a year, of all sizes, and have used these methods over the past 20 plus years of catch and release, fly & light tackle striper fishing. Here is a random list of things we do onboard “Reel Therapy” to greatly reduce mortality in random order:
- Zero kill during overfished status
- Zero barbs on board “All Barbless All the time”
- Zero “bonus tags”
- A rag or cloth never touches a fish, hands always wet first
- Single hooks on the rear of plugs
- Rubber coated landing net is a game changer, not only to keep slime on fish but for faster lure removal
- Hook removal tools easily retrievable and convenient
- Bass are left in water until camera gear is ready to go
- After the fight, especially the larger bass, are held at boat side until ready to move off on own, meaning fish is resting vertically in water, biting down on thumb, pushing water with tail, etc.
- Fish is always handled wet, deck flop is avoided at all cost
- Increasing fly rod weight and tippet strength to shorten fight
- Reduce stress with spinning gear with heavier gear to shorten fight
- Swap out treble plug hooks and replace with the new inline eye single hooks
- Avoiding the vertical hang, all lipped or net lifted
- Support the fish’s mid-section/weight during handling and photo
- No gill grabbing ever
- Caution around eyes and gill rakers
- Fish not out of water for longer than 15 seconds. The breath hold method is too long.
- Avoiding high water temperatures - we move out of warming backwaters, into the bay, then the ocean and then lay off the bass. Shift over to other species when temps start climbing in late June or so.
Tight Lines, Paul
