jennyferraynor
Freshly Spawned
How should i be holding a trout. Should i put my thumb in its mouth or is there a different way
How to hold a trout?
- Thread starter jennyferraynor
- Start date
Hello, and welcome to the board!
If I have to hold a fish I wet my hand first and grasp lightly near the middle.
Personally, I try not to hold a trout. I use a "Measure Net" and try to keep them in the water in the net to unhook if necessary; they often throw the barbless hook in the net. If taking a photo I get the camera ready with the fish still in the water, then lift the net just long enough to take a photo, then submerge the net again to look at the photo while letting it get upright and moving-swimming. Finally I tilt the net to let it swim out.
If I have to hold a fish I wet my hand first and grasp lightly near the middle.
I always go by the saying 'try it on your wife first'
Edit: Cradling gently about the midsection worked way better then lipping her. Now I'm off to the instant care..
Nope. That is only for bass (and some folks will argue that you shouldn't do it there either). Trout have weak jaws that won't support their weight if lifted that way.
If they are a decent size, just cradle them under/around their pelvic (front) fins and then with your other hand around their tail. If they are smaller, you can usually hold them with one hand. Just don't squeeze. And get those hands wet before you touch the fish.
Even better is to use a landing net. Even if you are going for a quick photo, the less handling you have to do to land/release a fish, the better.
Some good advice here:
I suspect nobody would bother to ask how to hold a trout if they were fishing for the grill/freezer.
If I have to hold a trout, and I try not to, I find holding it belly up seems to keep them calmer for unhooking. I almost never torture the fish for a photo anymore. Mostly I slide my hand down the leader, grab the hook not the fish, give it a twist to unhook and let the fish do the rest.
Troll or not, it's decent info to have out there. So I don't mind answering.
Wet your hands first to protect the trout's slime. I find that if I can get the trout lying on its side in my palm it doesn't thrash around. But as said above, I try not to handle them at all. I grab my barbless fly and manipulate it out of the trout's lip without touching the trout, if possible.
- Use barbless hooks, regardless of whether the regulations require it. Barbless hooks are much easier to remove from fish and humans. Barbs do little to improve your chances of landing a fish.
- Use a net. The fish will unhook themselves, much of the time. When they don't, you can usually just slide your hand down to the fly, not touch the fish directly and not even remove them from the net. Look up Adamsbuilt, for great value nets.
- If you must touch the fish, make sure your hands are wet. Flipping them upside down sometimes makes them easier to deal with. Forceps are also very helpful, for removing deep hooks.
I think most mis-handling comes from trying to get a nice picture. I take one picture each trip to make a record of my trip...most of the time it is not a magazine quality picture because the fish usually don't pose very well and flop right before you press the button. Over the course of the year I'll get a couple of nice photos but it is luck, not trying to pose a person or fish.
A pair of scissor forceps to cut the tippet of a deep hook is another option, so is harvest, if allowed; fisherman's call.
If this thread makes it to page 2...she might get troll of the month \ thread of the month.
Personally, I take this as as sincere question and not every new person, especially one that is also new to and asking about better fish handling, knows the 'etiquette' of posting your life history before asking a simple question.
Welcome @jennyferraynor
Welcome @jennyferraynor
Yeah it's a little like the "dumbest things" thread https://pnwflyfishing.com/forum/index.php?threads/dumbest-thing-on-the-river.2631/
Which actually turned out to be a pretty great thread but @NatalieWTruby doesn't seem to have been back since making that one very short post.
