Bonefish Hero Shots

[Bjorn]

We collectively now know that mechanical lip grippers are a bad idea for bonefish, but it turns out that even taking the fish out of the water can be a really bad idea if you want that fish to survive. It isn't that the thing dies from the air exposure... they die from the sharks and cudas when they get back in the water a little groggy. Bonefish mortality shoots up way, way too high, when the fish loses equilibrium.

Check it... http://wp.me/pCfe5-bz

Bjorn

[David Lee]

Not trying to be 'Mr. argument' here ......

Common sense should tell anyone that , held in the air or not ..... any fish hooked and played is going to be pretty tired . Tired fish get eaten .

Pretty much the ONLY way to make sure that you don't contribute to a fishes demise is to not fish for them . Unpleasant , but true .

This might sound nutty ...... but it could be helpful to invent and carry a smallish floating pen - fine nylon or wire mesh , 2-feet by 4-feet , a couple of feet deep , with floats . You could put Mr. Bonefish (or whatever fish) into it for 15 minutes to properly recuperate ??? Put a latch top on it , submerge the top opened and let the fish go without touching it ..... I know I could use something like that in Baja for Ladyfish , which are usually wiped-out at the end of a fight .

The only problem I can see is the penned fish attracting whatever 'bities' are in the area - I'll take my fish being eaten by toothy things before I offer-up one of my legs !

Just thinkin' .......

David

[SHigSpeed]

...or you could just fish for the toothy predator to protect the smaller gamefish you just released?

_SHig

[Bjorn]

Well, it was news to me. Trout are pretty resilient, from what I've read of the studies with trout C&R. It had not occured to me that predation was so intense and immediate for bonefish. I'd say mostl bonefish photo ops would be putting the fish in peril, including my own photo ops from last December's trip to the Bahamas. Now, I'm feeling pretty bad about those pics.

Of course, as someone else pointed out on another board today, not all places have cudas and high concentrations of sharks, so, some places are less dangerous than others. The air exposure alone didn't harm the fish, it was the predation. If the fish didn't get eaten, it was fine, even with extended air exposure, except when water temps were on the high end.

I think the study would argue agaist the "the only way to not harm them is to not fish for them" line of reasoning. The study pretty much showed that if you don't take the fish out of the water, they recover well and are not eaten. I understand, as most anglers do, that fishing is a blood sport... some fish are going to die from whatever cause... but when the mortality starts heading north of 5-10%, I think most anglers would see that as a problem. What's the point of C&R if such a high number of fish die? Might as well have a catching limit at that point that mirrors bag limits, since those fish are, in fact, bagged. Know what I mean?

The fish pen sounds interesting... I wonder if anyone has done that. The study results, from my read, would indicate that it wouldn't be needed in most case. It was (almost) only when the fish lost equilibrium that it was in trouble and that almost always was the result of extended air exposure and handling. If you release the fish like they do here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfbGI3DuFrI), odds are very good you won't have a problem.

That's my read on it, anyway. Good thing to have a conversation about, for sure.

B-

[mems]

Aloha, I was in Grand bahamas last summer, and the sharks would eat the bonefish off the end of my line before I even got them landed, picture or not. Even if you got it to you and released it in the water and let it return to the school, it still got sniffed out by the sharks and got munched. The only saving grace there is that there are thousands of bones.
Here in Hawaii, I have had only one bonefish grabbed by an ulua while fighting it and got an upgrade for about 30 seconds. The GT finally let go of the bone, but he had all his scales ripped off and died on me. In X-mas I had small black tips hunt them down and kill them after release, and I didn't take them out of the water there either.
Predators are oportunistic and will hunt the weakened fish, picture or not. Some places just don't have that many predators and they can recover in relative safety. Like flats on Oahu. I feel bad when they get munched, but it is part of the food chain, and that is what happens. They would eat them if we were not fishing as well, we just make it easier sometimes. Mems.

[David Lee]

Predators are oportunistic and will hunt the weakened fish, picture or not. Some places just don't have that many predators and they can recover in relative safety. Like flats on Oahu. I feel bad when they get munched, but it is part of the food chain, and that is what happens. They would eat them if we were not fishing as well, we just make it easier sometimes. Mems.

100% on the money !

The only comforting thing about it is .... in the Ocean , NOTHING goes to waste .

Don - a Friend in Australia relates a story .... He's on a rock , and hooks a smallish- Ballion's Dart (kind of like a Gafftopsail Pompano) of a couple of pounds - a garbage-can-sized G.T. comes up underneath it and sucks down the Dart , wire bite tippet , and a foot or two of leader . My Friend pointed the rod at the G.T. and broke it off before it knew it was hooked , so He could save his shooting head/runner/reel/rod .

Brutal world out there in the deep Blue .....

David

[Darian]

I'm a bit confused about the point of this discussion. The practice of C&R, while admirable, is a personal choice in the salt. Handling of any fish will result in some rate of mortality. The mortality rate cited doesn't bother me much. 5 to 10% a day equates to 1 fish in a 10 fish day.

Many salty denizens are very large, toothy critters that don't lend themselves to easy handling. Maybe you could use a tool (long wire hook remover as in Shark fishing) to remove the hook without handling the fish at all. Of course, that fish is still tired and subject to predation by other predators.

Bonefish appear to occupy a special status among fly fisherman like Salmon/Steelhead. They occupy a mystical place in literature and the minds of fly fisherman all over the world. That bodes well for the species as we intend no harm for them. Predators don't give damn what we think, tho.

Soooo, I guess what I've been getting at is if you intend no harm to fish of any species, don't fish for them. That should should reduce any feelings of guilt.

[Bjorn]

Darian, it isn't 5% or 10%, that was just a number I threw out. Bonefish mortality in some cases, if the conditions are right, can be more like 80%. The whole premis of C&R is that the fish survives the encounter. Why enact regulations to protect the fish if they end up dying anyway? If you can greatly reduce the mortality of the catch by simply not bringing it out of the water, that sounds like a good thing to know, if that's what you intend.

If you want the fish to survive its encounter with you, it is good to know how to (Dramatically) increase the fish's chances.

The choice isn't A) Fish for them and have most of them die or B) don't fish for them. If you just don't take the fish out of the water, the research shows that they do VERY well... it's the loss of equilibrium that's a problem and that comes from air exposure and handling, not from the simple (or not so simple) act of hooking and fighting the fish.

B-

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I don't get to fish much anymore and when I do, I don't do all that well so I think I am doing my part here to preserve the fisheries, but not totally on purpose.

[Darian]

bjorn,.... I gotta tell you, you lost me all together when you went from 5 - 10% to an 80% mortality rate. Lets accept for a moment that this last figure is correct. IMHO, if survival is the goal, we should not fish for Bonefish at all (unless for food) if that many fish die as a result of the encounter with a fly fisherman. That rate of mortality would not be acceptable.

I recognize your passion for Bonefish but think you might've overstated your case.