How many of you hand land the smaller fish? I have hand landed fish up to 40" for years, but after the incident last year with an angler hook up (even though the fish was in the net) I am thinking all fish will go in the bag and get released with tools---long ones.

I have a full release tool set that fits in a mesh tool holder that velcroes to the hand rail. This year, I am using it, no matter what.

What do you think?

Last year I used a net for all muskies, untill one day in august.  I hooked a mid 40" fish trolling and reached down for my net.  Seems someone really needed my brand new Frabill more than I and had taken it from the Tuffy either the night before, or at the launch that morning.  It was my first attempt at hand landing a muskie and I did not enjoy it.  I am sure the vet's out there are quite good at it, but it took me to long in the hot weather to get a grip on the fish. 

I will stick with each fish, no matter what the size, to be introduced to Mr. Frabill in the future.

And to the wonderfull fella who has my net..."May your days on the water be like a root canal without novicaine...painful!"

Until we finely got the coated knotless nets (I use the Frabill's BIG KAHUNA) I hand landed all my fish. I never even had a net in the boat for many years. This was after having netted a fish or two many years ago with the old non-coated knotted nets and having the fish twist and tangle in the net to the point that they where allmost impossible to get out. I've been hooked two times and both times it was when trying to get a fish untangled from one of the old type nets. I have hand landed lots and lots of fish, including many 50"ers with out any problem.

However, with the new nets I now net allmost all my clients fish, and a few of the ones I catch, depending how they are hooked, and how hard the wind is blowing at that time.

I still hand land a good number of fish each year, and still feel that if done properly it's still the easiest on the fish. Many times I'm able to get the hooks out without even touching the fish. If you play the fish properly it really doesn't take long to get them ready to hand land. I would guess that the stress of being in a net and the trashing that takes place when you net a green fish is as hard on the fish as getting it ready to hand land. I will also be the first one to tell you that hand landing is not for everyone!

Doug Johnson

If you are ever going to try "hand landing" a muskie, the secret to being sucessful is to control the head of the fish. All the stuff that can hurt you is located in the head, i.e. the hooks and the teeth. You need to be able to watch the fish closely, as they will give you an indication when they are getting mad about something. After you have watched lots of fish you start to know when they are ready to "make a move". Then when thing are right you either grab they firmly behind the head (I have pretty big hands, and can handle fish to about 42"-43" or so), or do a very careful gill lock on them (sliding my hand up along the gill cover very carefully). Once you get your hand in the proper place the jaw forms a natural holding spot, your fingers hold on to the lower jaw bone, and your thumb is under the jaw in the space provided. Once you get the fishes head in your hand hang on!  Hold the fish in the water as much as possible. The lure can be removed with a long nosed pliers. Hooks should be cut if necessary, I push the barb though and cut the barb off. I also remove any parts of the hook from the fish. 

I basically do the same thing when I have a fish in the net. You somehow have to get control of the fishes head to get the hooks out, at least if the fish is well hooked. Control of the head is key to not getting hooked. Something like a "Boga Grip" or gaff can be used to hold the head still, but you still have to open the fishes mouth to get the hooks out. I like to hang on to the fish.

Doug Johnson

First of all I have handlanded everything before I got my big water boat to guide from in 2000. So that is hundreads of fish and many in the 50-54 inch range. I can tell you the bigger fish were much easyer to land then those pesky little ones. I got hooked to a fish once and that was because I grabbed the small high 30s fish behind the head and he twisted enough to get me hook with the believer that was hangning out of it's mouth. I therefore smartened up and never did that again.

Mark this statement makes no sense "  2. If the fish thrashes/twists and you don't have a good hold it can wind up being dropped on the floor of your boat. "  The only time the fish should be lifted is for a quick picture and held next to the side of the boat so if the fish does twist out of your hands you can make sure it lands in the water. This can happen no matter what landing technique you are using at the time. ( I did almost drop my second fifty incher that way so from then on never had a fish "in the boat " but close to the side). Are you telling us you bring your netted fish onboard? We all know nets should be used as holding pens in the water at all times.

In a way netting is very close related to handlanding as most times you can get the hooks out without having to touch the fish but sometimes you have to grab a gill hold and use your other hand to cut or remove hook wich is same as handlanding just that there is a net around the water.

Now this one puzzles me too " 3. If the fish is hooked more severely and will require the use of hook cutters, etc. the fish may be kept/held with it's head out of the water much longer than we would like to see. " Where is this different then any other method? Actualy handlanding should be better in this situatiuon as you can push the fish head down into the water but you may not be able too if hooks are caught in the netting or using another tool. That actualy is one of the things I dislike about netting as often the fish gets tangled in the net above the water, I normaly just grab the knipex and cut away at everything I see untill the fish drops back into the water.

When been causious there is no more danger handlanding then any other method. Like Doug mentioned you can tell when the fish will thrash ahead of time. When handlanding I always grabbed the leader first with my other hand to control the fish/lure with while my other hand slides into a good gill hold. Now another thing is once you have a grip you must keep a tight grip and you will feel the fish pulse before it thrashes so in no way should you lose your grip at any given time.

Whatever method one uses it is very important to keep the fish in the water at all times exept for a qucik pic or two.

Mark, we are probably saying the same things but coming out in a different way. I believe all the bad points you brought up can be the same in many different ways of landing fish. When I handlanded all my fish my release tools were all laying on the same storage compartment right next to the side of the boat I landed all my fish from. So the release was somewhat faster then the net but again sometime the fish is cought up in the net above the water and while I reach for my tools the fishes head is out of the water longer then if I was handlanding it.

Now about playing out the fish to long to hanland then the other side of the coin is the fish thrashing a lot in the net from been too green. Now fish caught from speedtrolling or from the deep ( under 30" ) are probably less stressed then the fish caught casting with all the runs and jumps. I do believe that most fish fight more when caught casting then trolling. Maybe it's the initial jolt or been dragged for a few feet but that just my personal opinion.

I actualy use a Kwick Kraddle but it is getting old with over 400 fish netted last 3 years.

Here is a good tip for all new fishers out there, when you reach into the net to grab a relativly green fish turn it upside down it calms them down and lets you grab them easily.

Richs tip about turning the fish on it's back is a good one and really works.

It's very easy to do this when hand landing, it's very hard to do using any other landing method. If I have another experienced fisherman with me I do this with a lot of fish. My partner grabs the tail root and tips the fish over and holds the fishes tail. I work on the front end, and the fish never leave the water. When I get the hook out we turn the fish back over and by now it's usually revived and away it goes. I'm pretty sure that this method is the easiest on the fish. There are never any split fins, and minimal contact with any thing so there is less slim removal. You would be surprised at how short a time is involved before an experienced person is able to get hold of the tail and control the fish. Long fighting times are not the norm.

Again this not for everyone, it takes experience and a sort of coolness under fire.

Doug Johnson  

I'm going to try one more time also. From what I can see we are getting into sermantics about what is considered landing a fish, and getting the hooks out of a fish. To me the safest possible way of landing a fish would be to grab hold of the fish's tail. To me that would tell me that I have successfully landed that fish. I maybe wouldn't get a photo, but I already have lots of pictures of fish.

The problem is not the landing of the fish, it's getting the hook out of the damn thing. This is when you get hooked or sliced. If you catch a good number of fish you are sooner or later have to figure out how to handle the fish. At times you will need to open the fishes mouth to extract a bucktail stuck down in the fishes gills. There will be times when you have a suick with one hook in the fishes tongue, one hook in the cheek, and one hook stuck under it's chin, and you will need to cut hooks. Just getting any hook out of a well hooked fish usually means that you need to somehow hold the fishes head.

I don't care how you landed the fish, by net, cradle, boga grip, gaff or by hand you are sooner or later going to have to get one of your hands up near the head of the fish to hold the fish quiet or to hold its mouth open to get the hook out. There is no real easy or safe way to do this, a net is no safer than doing it by hand as you need to do exactly the same thing. I feel it is easier to do without the net in the way as I can see what I'm doing much better, and the hooks aren't constantly getting recaught in the net, even a coated knotless ones.

Again the best thing you can do as far as I can tell is to gain control of the head of the fish, as that's what shakes with the lure in it's mouth. If you watch people who milk rattlesnakes they don't hang on in the middle. Once you have the head under control you now take the hooks out, with long nose pliers (11").

Ranger tells of a bad experience trying to get a hook out of a fish by just gragging the hook and snapping in out. I can also tell of several hooking experiences with fish, only all of mine have come while using a net. A few hooks in the hand will make you learn how to better control the fish. This not an easy thing to do, it takes practice and knowhow, using a net does not eliminate the problem.

You don't get hurt landing the fish, you get hurt taking the hooks out of the fish.

Doug Johnson

Everyone should read this post, there is enough information on releasing fish to write a book. Doug said it in many more words and a lot clearer then I did but no matter what landing method you use eventualy you need to remove the same lure as well as the lifting the fish up for a picture is the same no matter how it was landed.

One thing that is common is to always be carefull when handling fish with teeth and lures with 5/0 trebbles. Everyone is going to get hooked or cut at times but we should learn from our mistakes.

A side question about this subject for DougJ. During the season and after encountering many big fish my hand can have as many as 6 or more gill raker injuries at any one time, some minor others not so minor. Now when I look at my hands I think to myself how are they going to be when I have been doing this for 25 years? This should be something I would have to ask a guy like DougJ. Does the build up of scar tissue make your fingers stiffer or are they great healers? I would hate to think of using gloves to handle the hundreads of fish I do every year.