Tips and Advice

Releasing in the Honey-Hole

This fisherman prepares to release a great looking native steelhead. Take a look at the rag he’s using to grab hold of the peduncle (tail-wrist). It allows him to have a firm grip on the fish without coming within contact of secreted “alert” slime this fish is exuding, which could easily put other holding fish off the bite. The rag also aids in this steelie retaining all of its valuable scales; wool gloves can be used for the exact same reasons as the rag. The release of this beautiful steelie is downstream from where it was caught ensuring that other holding fish will remain on the bite.

Did you ever notice that sometimes when the fishing is hot that is suddenly stops? Did you ever wonder why? Most of the time when fish go off the bite it actually has to do with fish that have been released into the same water. Can you believe it? Fish that you catch and then release communicate to each other using a kind of pheromone you might have felt when you were holding the fish. It's actually the slime you feel all over the fish; it's the reason why fish are so hard to handle when they're out of the water. While they exist in their aquatic environment that slime doesn't exist. It's only when they feel intense stress that they release the slime from beneath the scales and that's when other fish go off the bite. The single best way to keep fish on the bite and catch-and-release is to put each fish back into the water downstream from where you caught it. It doesn't matter if you fish fresh or saltwater environments, current always has an upstream and downstream. By placing fish downstream from where you catch it you actually keep the other fish from sensing the stress your fish is sure to communicate. This premise works anywhere in the world for every species of fish. Bear in mind that you don't have to walk miles downstream to put fish back in the water, sometimes it's only a matter of feet to a few yards Fish out of the water begin to suffocate immediately; so the sooner you put them back the better off they're going to be. Cool trick huh? .

© Timothy Kusherets 2006/07