Enough of the complaining, and lets get to the actual act of releasing fish back into the water. The first thing you can do to help the fish survive should happen before you ever make a cast. If you remove the barb from your hook it will help aid in removing the fish in a timely manner. While you may lose more fish this way, you will greatly reduce the amount of tissue damage to the interior of the fish's mouth. This can easily be done to almost any hook with a pair of pliers, simply mash the barb down until it is fairly smooth. On some hooks the barb will actually break off.

The second most important thing to do is to not remove the fish from the water. While in theory this is a great thing to do, but most people that are catch and release enthusiasts will want to at least take a picture of the fish for a memory. So the technique of removal of the fish from the water is important. Before you handle a fish, any fish, please wet your hands in the lake! Dry hands will remove the "slime" coat from the fish and make it more susceptible to disease. The slime coat protects the fish from all kinds of bacterial disease. This can also occur with a dry net, so try to keep your net wet before using it, the fish will thank you!

If you decide not to use a net, fish like bass are pretty easy, just grab the fish by the bottom jaw with a firm grip and lift straight out of the water. Try not to hold the fish horizontally by its lip with out supporting the weight of the fish with your other hand. The jaws of these fish are not as strong as you think and they can be broken, especially on larger fish. Always support the weight of the fish with your other hand when taking pictures of a fish horizontally. A fish with a broken jaw cannot eat properly and if the damage is severe enough it will not be able to breathe.

Pike and musky are a bit different, as you don't want to try lip these toothy critters. There are cradle style nets that work great with these long monsters. They do a great job of supporting the weight of the fish correctly and you don't even have to remove the fish from the water to unhook it. It is amazing to see a big musky calm right down when it gets cradled in these new style nets. You can find them at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World in Auburn Hills.

If you don't have a net and happen across a big musky or pike, please do not gill land these fish. Touching the gills can and will damage them, not to mention that musky and pike have teeth in the back of the mouth near the gills. The best way to land these monsters is to grab the fish behind the head and hold the gill plates closed with a firm grip. Lift the fish out of the water in a vertical line and use a jaw spreader (also available at Bass Pro) to remove your hooks. By forcing the gill plates shut, the fish will usually clamp its mouth closed, so a jaw spreader will help you get your favorite bait back.

Now if you encounter a fish that has swallowed your hook or bait too deep to effectively remove it please just cut your line and release the fish as soon as possible. In most cases the hook will rust and the fish will be fine. Other cases the fish will swallow the bait and hook and will end up digesting or passing it. I don't know how it feels to pass a hook through your digestive system, but I do know that I have caught plenty of smallmouth with crawler harnesses or tube heads coming out of the anal opening. I will usually assess these cases and try to remove the lure from the fish prior to releasing it, not because I like to but because I would want a hook removed from my butt if it were stuck there!

While I have barley covered a lot of good catch and release practices, this should give you some things to think about and try the next time you catch a fish and want to release it back to fight another day. You can always search the web for more information or look to most of the outdoor magazines for additional info.

Have fun, catch fish and release all that you won't eat so we may have great fishing on St Clair for future generations of anglers to come!