Please Be Gentle With That Salmon

Great news for this summer: the limit has been raised this year on hatchery coho salmon to 3 fish! Fish are already being caught in good numbers out of Winchester Bay, Florence and Newport. In order to get a 3-fish limit of hatchery coho, anglers are releasing a lot of wild coho salmon. It’s important to release wild fish as gently as possible because the less they’re handled, the better their chances are to make it back to spawn. With one of the biggest ocean salmon weekends of the year coming up, I thought I’d take some time to talk about ways to reduce ocean salmon mortality.

Don’t Net, Gaff Or Bring Aboard Wild Fish
One of the worst things you can do to a fish you intend to release is netting it. Coho salmon lose scales extremely easily and netting them really impacts their chances for survival. If you’re going to net every fish you catch, please use an all-rubber net. Catch-and-release trout fisherman have been using these types of nets for several years with good results. Another huge mistake I see many times every year is fish being brought in the boat, and then released. You might as well have given that fish a cigarette and blindfold because you probably just executed it. The more these fish are handled, the more likely they are to die. Its easy: don’t take them out of the water.

Use A “De-Hooker” Tool For Releasing Fish
A de-hooker tool is the way to go when releasing fish. I used one in Alaska last year to release several hundred salmon, trout and char. Once you practice a little bit, it becomes very easy. It’s better releasing fish with pliers because you don’t have to bend way out over the water, you don’t have to worry about losing (another) pair of pliers, and there are no worries about getting a hook in your hand. The de-hooker is a small hook on the end of a wooden dowel. The hook slides down the line to the hook in the fish and you raise the dowel while pushing down on the line with your opposite hand. The fish drops off the hook by its own weight. Sound confusing? Here’s a link to Washington Dept of Fish and Wildlife showing a step-by-step diagram.
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/selective/techniques/releasing_salmon.htm.

Use Big Hooks
Using a single, large barbless (required) hook is the best way to reduce coho mortality in the ocean. With a large hook, there is little chance the fish will swallow it. If a fish swallows your hook, cut the line. This is way better than digging in the fish’s mouth trying to get a 25-cent hook back. Consider switching to artificials: Coyotes, Hoochies, Apex and other artificial lures work great.

Remember – keeping wild fish mortality down keeps selective fisheries open longer, and allows us to keep fishing for those hatchery fish.

See You On The Water,
Action Jackson

(Please send comments or questions to Action Jackson at 268-6944 or www.actionjacksonfishing.com)