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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | Since musky fishing is essentially a catch and release sport I'm wondering if this approach could be used under some circumstances to reduce hook mortality? Notice how the hook sits well back of the bait.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggI0TASIpG8
RM |
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Posts: 531
Location: Hugo, MN | Very interesting, seems like you'd still hook the majority of the fish that hit. I guess my only concern would be sliding the line through the musky's mouth. Would flourocarbon stand up to this test, or would it have to be a short piece of solid or stranded wire (such as Tyger leader)?
This would be an interesting way to rig a sucker minnow. It just might work, especially since the fish will bite down on the sucker and hold it. You'd have all the time in the world to set the hook, and wouldn't have to worry about the musky swallowing any hooks. |
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| Wow. Rigging suckers for muskies this way would be awesome. No chasing the muskie around with the trolling motor or waiting to set the hook. I don't think it would work as well with muskie lures though.
I think the whole idea behind the system is releasing fish as quickly and harmlessly as possible. I like that. Water releases for muskie guys would be made easier by pinching down barbs, using single hooks, using hook picks, grabb-it tools, and cradles, and avoid using a fin-splitting net (which is all of them) whenever possible. Oh yeah, but then how would we know exactly how long it was, how big the girth was, and how would we get another picture to show everyone?
This quote was posted on MuskieFirst recently by someone who has caught one or two muskies in their day and should give us some incentive to try and leave the fish in the water if at all possible.
"One of the biggest negative stimuli is the removing of the fish from water, from studies I have read, the increased stressed levels occur when the fish is removed for picture taking process. I do suspect that water released fish incur less of a negative stimuli thus diminishing a negative response to fishing presence and certain vibrations. "
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | It seem like this approach would really reduce stress and mortaility of hooked fish where applicable. We use circle hooks in the Columbia for sturgeon and they are very effective and hold fish that are several hundred pounds in size so they would easily work on musky. Who knows, maybe some of the concepts in the video will eventually catch on with musky fisherman.
jed |
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Posts: 137
| It's definitely an interesting idea. There are a few issues that may make it difficult for sucker fishing. the extra line with the hook on it would get hung up quite a bit and the sucker could get wrapped in it while swimming around. But if you looped a wire that went through the lip of the sucker and then rubber banded it to back to the original line, you could have a muskie eat the sucker entirely and then with a steady pull, you could break the rubber band free and keep pulling until the hook caught on the outside of the fishes mouth. In theory, anyway. But moving a leader inside a muskies mouth is pretty difficult sometimes when they have their jaws clamped down and a wire line could do damage to the fish when you are pulling it, if it is near a gill or down inside the fish. I don't know. Interesting.... |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | You bring up some very good points. This method is catching on with salmon fisherman in the Northwest that claim it improves their catch rate. The problem is that in Oregon a fish hooked anywhere but "inside the mouth" is considered "snagged" and must be released. There are some that are moving to change the regulations so that any fish 'hooked forward of the gill plate" is legally hooked to accomodate this fishing method.
jed
Edited by RiverMan 1/24/2010 4:29 PM
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