Pond Boss Forums FISH & FISHING Show off your catch Pulled one off the bottom

There are good discussions here about handling of LMbass. I am pretty sure that no one in this thread is "picking on" any one else. Members provide ideas and suggestions. Readers are free to accept or reject the comments. I confess that when I catch a bass or larger YP I "lip it" using the technique just as stargazer describes above. Gently and firmly grasping the jaw of a bass does seem to "calm it down" so you can remove a hook or make some measurements. Trying to lift a slippery, wiggly, thrashing "freshly" caught large fish that weighs more than 2,3,or5 lbs is rather difficult without grasping it very tightly if you can even get your hand around the back or body to hold it firmly. What internal damage occurs to a fish that gets squeezed very tightly and who normally lives in a weighless environment? Fish are not huggers or squeezers, just humans. Try lipping a walleye, northern pike, bowfin, gar or some of the trout. Lipping is not a practical method for handling these fish. Catch & releasing those species by grasping without imparting some sort of body damage can be "tricky". That is why some anglers try to remove hooks while the fish is left in the water. Wetting your hands before handling a fish is also a good idea to minimize the slime removal from the fish.

An additional comment is that the angle that one holds the fish by the jaw can IMO play a role in jaw damage. I won't get into the detailed jaw bone structure of a LMB. However, re-examine the pictures above, only J.Huston in the 1st picture is holding the LMB in the most vertical fashion with the least distortion to the jaw-mouth structure. The other three anglers have the jaw twisted, stretched, or torqued outward in what appears beyond the natural gape of the mouth. Similar hangling is probably where and when a lot of damage occurs to jaw injured fish.

Now go back and look at the 1st picture in 1 of 3 pictures of Stargazer's 2-1-13 post. Notice how the angler is using their other hand to help support the weight of the large bass- IMO, a wise method of handling a fish for a photograph or for release.