Fishing Victoria Forum

With the recent Tea Tree comp on there were a few with concerns about floating fish in fact it comes up every year - always the same that guys are upgrading fish
and although some might, on the whole I dout the practice happens that much

However there are still floaters all season and a lot happen due to bad handling of the fish
this info sheet is worth a read on both

How to humanely kill the fish you keep AND Give the fish you release a fighting chance
from a welfare perspective

if nothing else it food for thought

http://www.panaquatic.com/fishinfo.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks Cheater, that was a very good read... :thumbsup:

Thanks for sharing this information Cheater. Very informative and a must read for all Snapper fishermen and women.

I have stickied this topic for all to see.

I remember seeing some fishing show using release weights to ease the impact of barotrauma by getting the fish back down to the bottom quickly (thus letting its swim bladder compress and while i'm sure still making the fish feel a bit crook, not killing it)

found this website from WA.

http://www.recfishwest.org.au/publicati ... eight.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The thing I found interesting was how shorter time in air after catching the fish it suffers so much
lets face it if you were to do the brag mat thing and photo a fish as well as unhooking the fish 30 - 60 sec is not out of the question before release

We have all swum fish off some take quite some time to come good but how many dont make it past 12 hours with gill damage or other problems you can't see

cheaterparts wrote:The thing I found interesting was how shorter time in air after catching the fish it suffers so much
lets face it if you were to do the brag mat thing and photo a fish as well as unhooking the fish 30 - 60 sec is not out of the question before release

We have all swum fish off some take quite some time to come good but how many dont make it past 12 hours with gill damage or other problems you can't see

Great post, cheaterparts. This quote explains a lot

"After exhausting the fish and then holding them out of the water for 30 seconds, 38% of the fish died. Air exposure for 60 seconds led to 72% dying. This shows the dramatic impact of air exposure to an exhausted fish. "

Almost makes it pointless releasing an exhausted fish if it's been out of water for > 60s. (Unless legally required to do so)

great reading, thank you

I like the suggestion to hold your breath for as long as the fish is out of the water. While it certainly puts things into perspective, i'td probably lead to a lot of unconscious fishos littering our piers

Releasing a fish requires morre than just throwing it back.
They need to be suported & 'swum' until they start to recover adequately.
There really is no reason why a snapper that is properly looked after can't be successfully released.
I've done it on many occasions myself.

on topic....watched this today which i thought was interesting;

"Studies carried out by NSW DPI have demonstrated that Snapper are very resilient to the effects of barotrauma when released, provided they can get back down to depth. The most effective way to do this is to use a release weight.

The video shows a number of snapper caught from 25-35 metres and being returned underwater using a release weight and a pole mounted camera. You can see the last snapper visibly becoming thinner as the expanded gases contract as the fish gets deeper in the water column..........."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UU3o ... 9990M#t=50" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;