I have not noticed the kickback until I watched the video. It normally does nto really do that. It did not appear that way when we used our older scissor style.

You do not want to go thru the fish and you do not even do that on a thin bluegill. We used are dink bass are test pilots for this video, they are about to hit the frying pan.

You are correct you angle the needle forward so as as to not go through the fish. The tags are caught on the rays that extend down into the fish tissue.

Greg Grimes
www.lakework.com