I hope you will give us a report from MN. Good luck back there! Thanks for the report.

Holding a fish out of water by it's jaw, esp. trout is a sure way to insure that the fish WILL NOT SURVIVE. These fish were not meant to have it's entire weight supported by it's jaw, for best photos of fish you' re planning to release(and in Ozette you' re required to carefully release all trout,for those of you that don't know) support the fish from underneath being careful not to squeeze too hard. bob r

Bob, I have 50+ years of experience on the water, including guiding trips and the official tackle tester for a major company. I HAVE NEVER lost a fish that was released and have probably killed and eaten more than you will ever catch. Your suggestion is not based on science but rather a made up self serving notion that I reject totally. The best fish scale ever designed and sold is based upon science and guess where your supposed to grab the fish, thats right, "the lower jaw". Your comments would be more appropriate if you got your soap box and created a new blog. I did release this fish and it lives to be caught again!

How do you know if the fish you release live? Do you tag them and catch them again? Or do you put a camera on them? supporting bass by their lower jaw is perfecly acceptable but trout? Trout do not have the same jawstructure that bass have, anyone who says that holding trout by the jaw vs. holding the trout in a horizontal position is a better way to release fish is wrong, plain and simple. and sticking your hand in their mouth with pressure on their tongues? As far as guides go some of the most irresponsible"catch and Release" practices are by guides, not all but a lot.,so saying you have been a guide just don't mean much. Your suggestion as to how many fish you caught vs. me also means nothing as you know just about nothing about me.I've been fishing for over 50 years as well. As far as creating a new blog, why bother. This forum suits me just fine. And how is educating fellow fishermen on better ways to release fish "self serving"?Other than having more fish for me to catch it don't self-serve me at all I didn't make this personal' but you sure did' Sensitive to criticism, are we? BobR

Bob, Don Carey here aka BMGW, I have a degree in Fisheries Technology and one of the absolute worse ways to handle a fish is on the body with contact to the skin, it removes the slime coating and puts the fish in real risk of dying as the slime coating is their protective layer filled with defense mechanisims to ward off diseases. We were taught that the safest way to handle a fish is by it's lower jaw and that my friend is in the textbooks... As for the reference to the many thousands of hours I have on the water and working in the fishery world counts for a heck of a lot more than the average angler will encounter. Of course there are fish that you just do not hold by the jaw such as the Northern Pike or Muskie, Walleye, toothy types etc.. but even then I know of a spot that affords the least exposure and also with slight pressure will temporarily stun the fish by temporarily short circuiting the central nervous system, works on most but not all game fish, but works best on the fish with real teeth and I bet you do not know of which I speak. Now on all fish I release, I hang around to make sure they are good to go just not throw them back in and move on. So which leads me to this point of "education", folks do NOT handle a fish the way BobR has suggested! You will kill far more fish with skin contact than by any other method...

I wet my hands before handlng trout as indeed there is a slime coating that is removed by dry hands or nets.I also only remove fish from the water that we plan on killing. That being said we have diff. opinions and I'll just leave it at that.If you were worried about release you would never remove the fish from the water as that is def. the way to release fish with as litle impact as possible.Barbless hooks make boatdside releases with forceps meaning fish never leave the water. Your expertise should tell you that even 30 to 45 seconds out of water causes irreversible damage to gills.Bob R