Catch & Release
For a fish to grow to the trophy proportions so common at La Resérve Beauchêne, it must first live long enough to do so.
The slot size limits that we follow were put in place many years back, to preserve our world class multi-species fishery.
These regulations are only effective if fish survive the ordeal of being caught and released.
Here are a few pointers that will ensure that the fish that you release will have it's greatest chance of survival.
- Don't use too light a line - that only results in longer fighting times and pushes the fish closer to exhaustion, not to mention increasing the chance of having the fish break off and be left with hooks in its mouth and damaging line trailing.
- Play the fish, but don't play with it. Don't try to get every last twitch out of it.
- Bring it in quickly. Leave it with some energy to help it recover after release.
- Unless it's obviously still lively, don't just nonchalantly throw it back.
- Hold the fish by the tail in the water, support it under the stomach, and slowly move it forward to run water over its gills until able to navigate on its own.
- Keep the fish in the water - a fish out of water is a lot like you or me being held underwater. It can't breath.
- Get your camera ready before you take the fish out of the water. If you don't intend to take a picture, release the fish at boatside.
- Carry and use pliers or forceps - they speed hook removal.
Be gentle. Keep fingers and thumbs away from its gills and eyes.- Refrain from using a landing net - nets are notorious for tearing fins and removing scales. Of course, it is not worth risking being hooked by a thrashing fish at boatside either. But use your discretion and recognize the potential for landing nets to do damage.
- Go barbless - barbless hooks reduce handling time and cause less damage to the fish when removed. Especially if fish are hooked in the throat or gills, a barbless hook can mean the difference between life and death. They also reduce handling time if you are using a net.
- Equally importantly, avoid the use of treble hooks as much as possible. Remove extra trebles or bend them in to make them ineffective. These extra trebles are responsible for a large amount of unnecessary fish injury and lost time in removing fish from the net. Better still, replace trebles with single, "Siwash" type hook.
- Minimize the number of fish taken from deep water - it is not fully understood just what effects deepwater fishing has. One thing is certain: if you do intend to release a fish taken from deep water, release it as soon as possible so that it still has enough energy to fight its way back down to where it came from.
- If it does float back to the surface, you might as well keep it to eat.