I think I would have put the fish back myself and then kicked him in the nuts (I probably wouldn’t really do the second part). To mess with an endangered species like that just for a stupid picture (I have hundreds of fish pictures I don’t look at and I now I don’t even take them any more) is proof this guy is a douche.
I no longer do this, I use a hemostat for trout and a pliers for larger fish. Seeing someone with a treble hook through their finger with a northern pike still on the other hook going apeshit will do that to you.
Just tell me this guy doesn’t hunt as well. Sounds like the kind of guy who’d also gut shoot a doe to spare some shoulder meat.
Thanks! I’ll be working on that. (I use a hemostat too, just not all the time and yes, I get hooked every so often. Part of the fun, eh?)
The Redi-Mix I’m referring to is the concrete, not the whipping cream. 
Wuss.
You did the right thing, your buddy was clearly in the wrong
was the stringer a metal chain, or a rope, or did it have oversized snaps on it, either way, there’s no way that a stringered fish would not sustain some injury from being stringered
heck, when i accidentally gill-hook a largemouth bass, i’ll cut the hook as close to the gill rakers as possible and release the fish, i try to unhook it and minimize bleeding, i also don’t use stainless steel hooks for that very reason, i want the hook to rust out
if the fish is mortally wounded, only then will i keep it for food
i’ve just started getting into saltwater striper fishing, we have a few nice bridges that go over some tidal tributaries, and i’m already concerned as to how i’ll release the stripers i catch, most catch-and-release anglers simply drop them from the bridge back into the water, i’d imagine that isn’t a good way to release them, they’re already stressed and weakened from the fight, their slime coat can get damaged if they’re handled, they’re unable to breathe as you reel them up out of the water, only to be dropped back into the water from a good height, the impact with the water and hydrodynamic shock can’t be good for them…
and to make matters worse, there are no easy access points to the shore of the tributary to release them properly at water-level…
hmm, maybe i should stick to beach fishing and freshwater fishing for catch-and-release, and only fish bridges for fish i intend to eat…
I have to agree with you hear whistlepig, a new fishing buddy is needed in very short order. Unfortunately, these can be tough to find. I think part of the fun of not taking the picture is being able to share the memory with your buddy about the fish, and of course being able to grow the fish an inch or 2 every time you re-tell the story.
Either way, tight lines to you…
I generally use a hemostat but on this trip we were catching bunches of 4-6 inch cuthroat on flies and I found it was quicker to just work the fly loose with my fingers.
But yeah, my fingers go nowhere near a treble hook. When I was a kid my cousin caught me in the shoulder with a treble hook, yanked on it a few times and I then panicked and ripped the hook out my shoulder with my hand. He then yanked on it again (not bothering to look back and see what he was hooked on) and buried it in my thumb.
My folks were not impressed with the vocabulary of curse words I had acquired at age eight*, though they were OK with my kicking my cousin until he dropped the rod and then continuing to kick him until he fell in the stream.
whistlepig
- Every time I watch, “A Christmas Story” with my mom and Ralphie says, “THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the “F-dash-dash-dash” word!” she laughs and retells the story of when my cousin hooked me. NOW she thinks it funny :rolleyes:
Hey, whistlepig? Just wanted to let you know that, if I were a fisherperson, you would be the type of person I would go fishin’ with. (Does that make sense?) Please keep on being honerable!
I would have went and got the camera for him. 
I’m uneasy about this. It smacks of fishing (herk herk) for validation or compliments from the SDMB crowd (who have obliged).
Didn’t both of you risk the lives of the fish just for a bit of fun? There’s a part of me that thinks you should only fish to eat. An endangered fish dies because of your buddy’s handling, and he’s suddenly an asshole, but one dies because of injuries inflicted when you caught it, even with the best of intentions to return it to its habitat, and that’s just “collateral damage” or otherwise OK?
I don’t mean this to be too flaming or pitworthy or anything - I am genuinely curious about the ethics of all this.
Is taking up golf an option?
THe hook will not rust out in freshwater as quickly as you might think…better to try and remove it if at all possible…
You can safely remove gut hooked hooks…
- cut the line
- Pull the line back thru the gills (this reverses the hook/barb in the mouth)
- push back up on the hook that way… much of the time it will pop free real easy
(there are articles in in-fisherman and elswhere that describe this technique better - but it is pretty simple)
If its in the gill(s) - while it may look like its going to bleed to death, once the hook is removed and the fish back in the warer, most will survive. The water acts as a clotting agent (or they clot real quickly once back in the water, however you want to say it)
The worst place to hook them is in the ‘tounge’, they can bleed to death from that one.
When I was living in Alaska, my brother came to visit and do some world class fishing for King salmon on the Kasilof River on the Kenai Peninsula. After several days of no luck, he finally caught a 40lb King and was ecstatic as he reeled it in. But when he finally got it into the shore, I saw that it had been foulhooked (snagged outside of the mouth) through the back near the dorsal fin, rendering it illegal to keep under Fish & Game rules. He was dumbfounded when I told him we had to release it, doubly so when it turned out to be the only King he caught that trip. In addition to the being the sportsmanlike thing to do, at combat fishing spots like the one we were fishing, F&G are notorious for busting people for keeping foulhooked salmon, so there was no question it had to go back.
You did the right thing.
I’d have the picture blown up and make two copies, one as a framed and matted peace offering for him and the other to send to the local Fish, Game & Wildlife authorities along with his address. (Bye bye fishing license for a while.)
But then I’m a bit vindictive on my best day.
I was looking for validation in that I thought I was following/suggesting proper and legal fishing etiquitte. I was puzzled that my buddy was so angry and thought maybe I was being overzealous.
I generally keep and eat the fish I catch ( which is fewer than ten per year, I’m not a very good fisher and I don’t go alot.) I caught my limit on that trip and stopped fishing. I follow the best practices for catch and release. I very rarely fish waters where I can’t keep the fish. “Collateral damage” does occur, but most studies show a 95% or better survival rate for mouth-hooked fish who are properly released.
There is the arguement that purposefully catching and releasing is just torturing fish. Wikipedia addresses this in a “catch and release” article.
I come from people who look down on “Orvis-ites” who ONLY do catch and release - my grandparents had to fish for food to stretch their food budget. I fish because I enjoy it, and because wild-caught trout tastes 1000 times better than farm-raised trout. I can’t think of a time that one of my other fishing friends didn’t keep a legal fish, or exceeded their limit or fished unethically.
I do golf, much better than I fish. But you can’t beat the feeling of being knee deep in a trout stream and stalking fish.
whistlepig
I also keep an annual fishing log for the department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. This allows them to determine fishing pressure on specific waters, the catch rate per angler hour and the species/size caught, which gives them data they otherwise couldn’t get. I encourage all fishers to contact their state fish and game department to see if they can do the same.
Cool. Thanks for that, whistlepig.
Well, I guess if a stupid fish is more important than your friendship, he wasn’t that good a friend to begin with.
??? Where did I say I was going to end the friendship?
whistlepig
I’m also a big fan of only fishing to eat, but what do you do when you catch something that’s illegal to keep? Do you go ahead and kill it straight away to put it out of its misery, or do you quickly release it, giving it a strong chance for survival?
Whistlepig, you can count me in with the rest of the board. It sounds like you did the right thing.