Hi Guys,

My last fish of the season was caught on the last day of opening, a beautiful wild brown trout of about 6lbs. She was full of eggs and I really wanted to see her go back.

After about 10 mins or more of trying to revive her she eventually swam off.

Was this too long to spend trying to revive the fish?

Would anyone know what the chances would be of surviving??

The fight wasnt a long drawn out affair but she did go ballistic for the first 5-10 secs slapping on top of the water with her big tail. I think this exhausts them more-so than big long runs or when they are dogged under the boat.

Is there any hard or fast rule for releasing fish?

cheers

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Co-Founder of the S.S.F.D 2010

imo if she swam off she will get her balance properly then she will sit in a shelterd bit of water, after a few mins she would be fine.you can revive aslong as you feel,if the fish comes round then great it can take a while ive had them in the net for mins at a time and they can take time but most get there.

phil

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stop buying bottled water we have,nt got enuff to fish in now so stop it get the water companies to do there job and clean the water every where!!!!

It depends how long the fight,how stressed they are, and how long they are out of water to how long a trout will take to recover. It should only be a mater of minutes unless the fish is seriously distressed or injured.

BK

You did the right thing and are to be commended for it.

More than once, I've had brown trout that were hooked in the gill raker and bleeding take more than 30 minutes of being supported in the current before they were ready to move off on their own. These fish not only survived but recovered well enough to be on station and feeding the next day.

We should take as long as each fish needs, even it it freezes our hands into "hotaches". They deserve every chance.

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Very interesting to read that Richard....I had heard that bleeding was "fatal" i.e. no recovery and that lactic acid built up in the fight was a major problem in that it could turn toxic ??? I'm delighted you have experienced success form those situations. Also, I read in one of the monthly mags. that a proper study on the success of c&r was being carried out at Farmore or somewhere like that.....that was a year or two ago but I haven't heard anything since....anybody else remember this ?....

Interesting post. I'm just back from 6 days fishing on Grafham,Rutland, Pitsford and Draycote and our group caught plenty of fish almost all returned. We all had to revive fish at some point because to my mind the size of a lot of fish were too big for effective C&R. We had a lot of fish of 4lb + and some of these fought so hard that it took too long to get them to the net and because of this they then had to be handled to revive them. You also want to get the fish back into the water ASAP so that you can get fishing again and maybe don't spend enough time reviving them or you need to start the engine to get away from the shore etc. before you can deal with the fish.

So my point is that effective C&R can be very difficult and any hints or tips would be appreciated. I used to think that C&R was the right thing to do but now I'm not so sure.

Kenny

I took a substantial fish and after having to handle it because of an awkwardly set hook it took a couple of minutes to swim off. I then got a phone call from the office so I moved a little away (standing in the middle of the river was I) so they wouldn't hear the sound of running water, anyway half way through the call I see the fish with his head stuck between two rocks immobile. I figured that if he was going to die anyway then I would knock him on the head and eat him, waste not want not and all that.

This was certainly more interesting than the phone call so I maneuvered the rod, phone and the snake of line around my feet into a position where I could grab his tail, well that didn't suit him and he buggered off in quick time. My discussion partner wasn't really sure whether the softly breathed "******" was aimed at him or not.

It then occurred to me is one should probably do something like walk them off, like you do horses after riding.

I used to assume it was fatal too. Then one day it happened when Warren was with me. He showed me not to lose heart and demonstrated the right way to support the fish and not to do that pulling and pushing backwards and forwards that you sometimes see people do. Sure enough, supporting the fish the right way up with the head facing the current worked. Since then I have always given the fish the best I can to get them back to strength enough to survive and recover fully.

A few winters ago I was fish watching on the Lathkill as they were spawning. On my way down the field I scared off a heron that was on the bank by the water. I paid him no more attention and went down river below where he had been so that I could watch a redd with a number of fish spawning. I was keeping low so they would not be scared. Then I saw upstream of me, just where the heron had been, a spout of water about five or six inches high squirt up from the bank. I looked to see if it happened again and it did. So I went up to see what on Earth it was...

There was a puddle of water and in this puddle, laid on its left side was a male brown trout of about 18 or 20 ounces. It was in a bad way struggling to breathe in the water, gill flaps opening and closing with enough splashing to make some of these spouts and to keep the right hand side of the fishes head, that was out of the water, wet...

I ran to it and picked it up, then knelt over the edge to support this poor fish that had a dried out right hand side from the pectoral fin to the tail. It had a wicked vee shaped hole in its right shoulder, a typical heron inflicted wound. It was at least 10 minutes maybe longer since I had scared up the heron. Here was the reason the heron had been on the bank and not wading in the redds. In a very short time the trout was showing signs of wanting to be out of my hands. I let go. The fish then swam off vigorously to a redd upstream of us and promptly took station with a hen fish on the gravel, at the same time dismissing a number of other suitors with some degree of determination!

He was there a few days later and certainly made it through to summer. He was easy to identify with his black right hand side, his vee shaped scar and his dominant poses about the pools. Trout are amazing, or at least some of them are.

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

it pains me to see fish bullied and forced in, in the name of stressng the fish less, worse is holding the fish with dry hands, if the fish is brought in confidently and without fuss, and not left lying gasping for ages while farting about with a camera they usually kick pretty quick, its a judgement skill.

Hi Ohanzee

The problem is conflicting advice, some say get the fish in as quickly as possible (bullying?) and unhook and release from the net. I have also been advised that fish should be launched back as they are when stocked, either down a pipe or from a net.
It is obviously much easier on a river as you can stand in the same spot as long as you like to revive a fish but a different story in a drifting boat in a biggish wave.

Kenny