Don't want my bass to die after I weigh, measure and release them. Here's all I know about handling them to minimize stress. Any helpful suggestions or comments are welcome and appreciated.
1. Wet your hands before handling fish
2. Handle fish as little as possible to avoid rubbing off protective slime
3. If using thumb grip on jaw, hold wrist straight and perpendicular to ground, or you may dislocate bass's jaw (is this true?)
4. Release bass ASAP
5.move bass back and forward in water a few times to revive him.
6. Carry needle nose or similar pliers for safe and effecient hook removal

Road trip,
You could kiss them like Jimmy Houston does!

You do what I have always done. I will watch this thread to see if there is more!

Brad B.

I use a "BogaGrip" for weighing and releasing without ever touching the fish.
Pricey, but an excellent peice of equipment.
I believe Berkely has a "lip gripper", lower cost with no scale.

For every species, the most important thing that I've found is the use of circle hooks. Some people are good enough fishermen that the fish never swallow the hook. For the rest of us, I find that most of the fish caught with a circle hook are caught in the lip rather than having swallowed the hook. The use of circle hooks has decreased our catch and release mortality to almost zero. This is especially true with bluegills, yellow perch, catfish, rock bass, crappie etc.

Norm,
What do you mean by a circle hook? Are they the exagerated, elongated hooks? Do they have barbs?

Brad B.

There was a fair amount of discusion about circle hooks previously. Use circle hooks as words in the search feature and you can locate the posts. Search under the forum headings of: Questions and Observations, Types Of Fish to Choose, Evaluating and Adjusitng Fish Populations.

Norm, what size circle hook do you use for catching bluegill?

I always squeeze the barb down flat with the hemo's and ask all that fish our pond to do the same. You miss a couple fish here and there, but it makes it easy and quick to get the hook out. I use, I think a #6, with bait barbs for the most part. I pretty much just toss them back in and haven't had any floaters in six years.

roadtrip, another thing that you can do is not "play" the fish to long when catching this will contribute in stress on the fish. also when tournament fishing we used a product called "catch and release" by jungle. this product you put in your tank and dipped the fish in. there are other products that do the same thing, which calmed the fish and helped restore their slime coating. also make sure your measuring board is wet and cool.

Circle hooks! I'll be darned- I've seen them before- never made sense until now!

RoadTrip,

In a nutshell you've got it...I worked the Shimano Catch and Release barge for years at numerous major bass tournaments in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana...I've released thousands of bass over the years, and probably 200+ 10 pounders...if all fisher"persons" treated the fish the way you describe my job would have been much easier...when somebody brought us a fish that'd been abused we had to do everything we could to revive...when we released if there was a "floater" the finger usually got pointed at us, despite the treatment of the fish priot to us getting it...all aspects of catching a fish stress it out, so anything you can do to minimize the stress will contribute to a sucessful recovery after release...we utilized Catch and Release from Jungle as well (BTW the bulk of C&R is salt !) it worked well...it contains an ingredient that calms the fish as well...the quicker you get the fish back into the water, the better off it'll be...if you must keep for pics or whatever, cool water with lots of aeration and C&R will up the odds substancially ! Also, best if you can support the fish in two locations, under the belly and by the jaw in the horizonantal position, less stress on the lower mandible...

Good luck

Torchy

Thanks for all the good information.
One concern I have is the where on the bass to place the hook that is on the bottom of my scales. I have a rapala digital scale. I usually place it under the gill flap, trying to avoid the gills themselves. I have also poked through the membrane between the bottom lip and bottom jaw.
Did a search on circle hooks. More good info. :p

Your digital scale should go to zero when you turn it on...if you hook a basket to it prior to turn on, then turn on after the weight of the basket is on it, it should initiate at zero...then put the fish in the basket and should give fairly accurate weight...experiment with a known weight...by doing this method you can avoid poking a hole in the fish...however, if too involved, poking a hole in the membrane underneath the lower jaw should not be to damaging...during my tenure with the Shimano barge we had a lot of fish that had been weighed by the fishermen that way...didn't notice any significant problems...please understand, my views are not a scientific study or anything, just alot of experience with catch and release...

Cheers,

Torchy