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| What's the best method of handling the fish in the boat, i.e., if you have to bring it into the boat to get the hooks out? I don't have either available right now. It's seems to me that a wet cradle would be the ideal method of stabilizing and protecting the fish in the boat.
I noticed on several Pike web sites that wetted release mat's are very popular in Europe, i.e, to help protect the fish. Granted they are fishing from shore quite a bit.
Because I frequently fish alone, I'm still going to use my Beckman "pig pen" to secure the fish in the water. But I want to be prepared for the eventuality that I'll have to bring some fish into the boat, i.e., those that are hooked very deep in the rear of the mouth.
I know just cut the damned hooks and you don't need to bring the fish into the boat. Well that works maybe 90% of the time. I use barbless so it's even easier for me. I've actually only had to take one Muskie I've caught out of the water to get it unhooked and that was because it also had a buddy's #11 Rapalla lodged crosswise in the rear of it's mouth.
It seems the release mat would be easy to carry and store. Whereas, the cradle may require some rigging on the boat to stabilize it while you work on unhooking the fish.
The reason I'm posting this here is with respect to prevention of furthur injury of the fish, or de-sliming of the fish. Any advise from the fisheries biologists?
What about disease transfer? How do you clean/disinfect your release tools, matt or cradle?
Al Warner
www.youdontknowhowtowatchtv.com
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| I'll jump in on this. Chlorine is a good, reliable, disinfectant, to answer your last question first. Common household bleach can be mixed with water to make a satisfactory cleaner; just be certain to rinse thoroughly so the chlorine 1) does not degrade the materials you are cleaning and 2)will not injure the fish at next contact.
It seems the wet mat would make a good second choice. Second to leaving the fish in the water or placing it in a large livewell. The mat may help with the problem of slime coat retention, but the primary concern I would think would be to keep a fish (exhaused from the fight) breathing and stable. Stability of water temp and dissolved oxygen would reduce shock to the toothy critter. m | |
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| mikie- Don't know whether I'm going to use chlorine in my boat. What about your clothes etc. + putting chlorine in the lake. I'm really concerned about transfer of either the lymphosarcoma virus or another disease to uninfected fish. Is rinsing everything off w/ lake water good enough? or do we need to use some type of non-poluting disinfectant? Any fisheries biologists have any feed back on this? I'm sure the Muskie fishing community would like to hear it.
Al Warner
www.youdontknowhowtowatchtv.com
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| Usually drying off your stuff will kill bacteria. So, just make sure your net has a chance to dry before you catch your next muskie! Yah.... right. | |
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| Ohh, no, don't chlorox the boat, for sure. I was thinking you were more concerned about the hook-removing tools you were using with the fish. sorry, m
ps - they are recommending dilute mixtures of chlorine for livewells and other boat areas that might retain zebra mussels, though; I'll try to do some checking on less-toxic cleaners. | |
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release mat or cradle? ...........................