A barbless hook makes this release technique incredibly effective. Release the fish by sliding your hand down the leader, grab the fly with a clamp or hemostats, and twist the fly out. The best way to release any fish is to do so without touching it. In the heat of summer you should look for high-mountain streams that are colder, go bass fishing, or fish in the early morning when the water is coolest. If the water temperature is near or above 70 degrees, catch-and-release trout fishing becomes unethical and impractical, as the mortality rate will be high. If the water is unusually warm or there are other stressors like improper handling, mortality can be as high as 20 percent or more. Under optimum circumstances, catch-and-release mortality can be as low as 1 percent. Releasing a fish that dies due to improper handling is a waste, and if you catch-and-release many fish this way during the course of a day, you can kill more fish than a poacher who keeps more than his legal limit. However, if you are going to release a fish, it’s important to do it successfully. It’s also okay to kill some trout in some put-and-take stocked trout fisheries when the trout are not likely to survive the season due to environmental conditions. I’ve done it myself in high-mountain streams and lakes in the Rockies that are brimming with brook trout. There’s nothing wrong with eating a few fish caught in places where a wild fish population will easily replenish itself, and there aren’t many anglers. Keep in mind, however, that in a few places, a fish population (nonnative trout, panfish) can withstand some harvest. In many places, our angling opportunities would be greatly restricted without catch-and-release ethics or catch-and-release regulations. Lee Wulff famously said in 1938 that “gamefish are too valuable to be caught only once.” It took decades for catch-and-release fishing to catch on, but later generations of North American fly fishers eventually realized that it was a critical way to conserve fish stocks amid a growing population and dwindling habitat. This story was originally titled “Catch-and-Release: Best Practices to Release Your Fish Unharmed.” It appeared in the Fly Fishing Made Easy 2020 issue of Fly Fisherman.
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