I mainly fish C&R and for years I have always seen places say "Don't return accidently damaged fish"... what is an accidently damaged fish?

I have never accidently damaged a fish to my knowledge and don't really know what they mean by it. I have returned fish that had a wee bit of blood from where the hook has been (which is to be expected, I think) or have gently held a fish in the water til it gets its "breath" back and swims off.

Probably means if you accidently deep hook them and they're bleeding.

my first trout of the season was a cracking 3lb raindow, on a black and red buzzer.the fish played well until i got it into the net and there was a scar running along its whole side almost from head to tail, still fairly fresh.
i dont know if it was from poaching or what but i certainly dont think i did it.
i have had fish completely swallow the fly,especially if using small dries, with no way of returning them injured these fish must be dispatched.

a couple of seasons ago i accidently foul hooked a fish in the gills,which when landed was found to be bleeding quite badly,so i despatched it.The fishery owner said i did the right thing.

I used to run a small still water, once I invited a bloke I new and he brought a mate with him to fish, for free, for the day. Even though they were fishing for free I told them they could both take a fish if they so wished and they both knocked their first fish on the head.

I had to leave them for about an hour to take the missus somewhere, when I returned they BOTH told me that they had to kill another fish each due to deeply hooking and damaging the fish.

I am sure this does happen for real, but never once in four years running this place or never once in 30 years fishing has this happened to me yet these two both managed it in the one hour I am not with them.

Like I said I am sure this does happen for real, but I am just as sure that it is used far more often as an excuse.

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A heavy fish that is dropped, say whilst posing for a photo - is pretty much fckued.
This despite it not bleeding or showing any apparent damage for that matter.

Sorry to disagree, but during my 18 years trout farming I must have dropped an awful lot of fish - big and small - and almost all of them survived the experience. I can say this with confidence because it was a daily routine to pick all dead and dying fish out of each pond and mortalities due to handling faults were very rare.

That doesn't mean you can be rough with them and get away with it every time - I've seen some fish that were very gently knocked or dropped from only a few inches and they died instantly. The same applies with all animals (and humans) who get hit in exactly the right (or wrong?) place. Be careful with fish, obviously, but don't assume that one is going to die just because it's had a knock. I would rather return one and give it a chance than kill it and give it no chance.

Fish that are bleeding badly, especially from the gills, are in much more danger of dying.

I would guess a fair number of trout die from ruptured air bladders, due to being held too tightly. TC

That's highly unlikely Terry. The swim bladder is very flexible and an extraordinary amount of pressure would need to be exerted to rupture it and even if it did rupture it would be unlikely to cause death. If you have ever tried bursting one of those sausage-shaped balloons then you will know how difficult it is.
We had a gutting machine on the farm that slit the belly open and scooped out the entrails as the fish moved along a chain-driven set of hooks. Most of the swim bladders were still intact after being pulled out and the guts deposited in a basket - we used to pop them with our hands and it took some doing! The sort of pressure you are talking about would probably damage the liver and/or spleen before the swim bladder burst and they would definitely be life-threatening injuries.