It's fun to fight a fish on light tackle, but hard on the fish - any fish.
I make a practice to land the fish quickly, do not handle (I use a Boga Grip), revive it as Buce suggests, and return it to the water as soon as possible.
For striped bass, I use 9 and 10 wt flyrods on Lake Texoma - not only to land fish as quickly as possible, but to turn the fish from mean structure.
The same holds true on our ponds - 5 wt for BG - 9 wt fly rod for LMB and HSB.
If you follow these practices your survival rate will improve dramaically.
George Glazener
