I've done some searching on this site and that there internet thing in general and haven't found much about it. I was wondering the general feeling is on catching and releasing kokanee?
I normally keep them but had a day today that I just wanted to fish and not deal with cleaning when I got home. I caught and released about 8 fish. All were taken in 25-35 feet of water and released without being taken out of the water. I would think as they go deeper (60' range) it might become an issue to yard them up to the surface and try to let them go back down.
As most of mine have been caught in relativly shallow water, I have turned about half of them loose. And not just because of size. I can see that it might be a problem at greater depths.
Mature kokes die, that's a fact. Purposely killing or poor handling techinques aren't excused by this fact but your conscience can be slightly cleared when you did the best job you could to release correctly. This past trip to Flaming Gorge averaged 30 fish days so a lot of fish were being released. The fact that all fish flipped and dove doesn't mean they all survived but that's what I'm hoping. None of the fish were removed from the water as you mention and the surface temps are still relatively low. When the surface temps shoot up, casualties do too.
I have to agree with SuperD plus to add on how much fight the fish gave. The surface temps at the Gorge 2 wks ago was at 62F. The cooler temps I feel help survival rates some. A good rubber net helps out as well.
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With a number of the dinks we had I just let 15' to 20' of slack line out and the fish were throwing the hooks back at me. That was catch and release at its finest!
Super D when you are into them on those magic 30 fish days do you change your hook set up to single or barbless to facilitate easier releases? With many kokes doing their own release before getting to the boat changes may not make much difference. From the pics I;ve seen of those Gorge kokes it would make a feller nervous to fight one with a toned down hooksetup.
With a number of the dinks we had I just let 15' to 20' of slack line out and the fish were throwing the hooks back at me. That was catch and release at its finest!
That's similar to how we do it how we do it. We just give them slack near the boat and half the time they unhook themselves.
If the fish is netted we keep it. We don't mind keeping a few small ones.
They spin so much they wear their scales right of in the net. I'm sure the mortality rate is much higher than most of you think.
I am convinced that a lot more than we like to believe of the released kokes do not make it. That is why I do not think that the 3 fish possession limit at the gorge protects has any real meaning when people are catching say 10 times their possession limit in a day. If protecting the fish was a real concern I suspect the only way would be to instigate a keep every koke you get rule (like they did for perch at Yuba) but increase the possession limit. Some would say that there would be to many that would work to get around this and impossible to enforce, but I feel a lot would follow the regs.
I am convinced that a lot more than we like to believe of the released kokes do not make it.
I agree Smokepoles. I think angler mortality is much higher than most of us want to believe or accept. I started doing my own personal angling study two years ago, looking at kokanee I got in the net. The last total I remember was 156 kokanee, and not one had a hook scar. I don't know where my total sample size is to date, but regardless, I still haven't seen a koke with a hook scar. The way they fight, change water temperatures coming to the surface, and as soft as their mouth is, is enough to support either massive hook scarring (which would be visible) or mortality. I catch quite a few lake trout and rainbows, which periodically exhibit hook scars. Take your own survey or at least think about it, you might be surprised with the results. With what I've seen myself, if I catch my limit, I'm done, and on to fishing for something else. Thanks, Ryno
Washington fish and game laws say If you use bait and release it , the fish still counts as part of your limit. If you gave it slack and did not net it, it's not part of your limit. Didn't land it , it doesn't count.
I'm all for catch and release as well as catch and eat. I've often wondered how many fish die after being released. The other day koke fishing the first 3 fish I caught were in the 10-12" range. When I saw the small size I knew I wanted to release them. However when I got them along side the boat and went to release them I could see they were bleeding already. They were all hooked in the mouth. I use a single hook. I couldn't release them knowing they would die. At least in my mind. I've heard people say that fish bleeding from the mouth will survive. Well I don't know about that. This is a fun fishery and I'm having a ball learning about it. So yes catch and release healthy fish.
I finally realized I have not done my normal technique of just googleing my question. I found several 'other' forums with people bashing the catch and release idea but I also found the following article for Lake Pend Oreille. It is apparently a catch and release lake for kokanee.
I would agree with the comments on here not releasing fish taken in deep water and obviously ones that are wounded badly. Just interesting to read the different philosophies.
Catch and release kokanee?
catch and release
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