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[Dryfly22]

You May Be Killing Steelhead And Not Even Know It
53 comments / Posted on November 18, 2013 / by Louis Cahill



Photo by Louis Cahill

Steelheaders are generally pretty serious about catch-and-release, but it’s likely that many are mortally wounding fish without ever knowing it.

There are few species of fish as vulnerable as wild steelhead. These fish are beset on all sides by threats both natural and man-made. With their numbers dwindling, it’s safe to say, every steelhead counts. It’s vital that those of us who fish for them practice the best catch-and-release practices.

However, common landing practices can kill fish without the angler ever knowing. A team of biologists studying steelhead in British Columbiadiscovered this problem, quite by accident. These scientists were tagging steelhead with GPS trackers. They determined that the least intrusive way to capture the fish was, well, the same way we do it. With a fly rod. They landed the fish, tagged them with the GPS device and released them. When they went to their computer to track the fish’s progress they discovered something alarming.

Within two hours many of the fish they had tagged, and released in good health, were dead. They collected the fish and performed autopsies to determine what had gone wrong. In every case the cause of death was head trauma. It turns out that ‘steelhead’ is a misnomer. The fish’s head is, in fact, its most vulnerable spot.

When landing the fish the researchers had played them into shallow water where they would be easy to tail. As the fish came into the shallows they were on longer, fully submerged. Without the resistance of the water surrounding them, their powerful thrashing was able to generate momentum that is not possible underwater. The flopping fish simply hit their heads on a rock.

The fish appeared fine when released, but their injured brains began to swell and soon they were dead. It makes perfect sense if you think about it. Fish have evolved in an environment where hitting their head on anything with enough force to cause damage is almost impossible. Their brains lack the natural protection enjoyed by terrestrial species.

Luckily, this unfortunate outcome is easily avoided. The angler has a couple of good options. Landing fish by hand in knee deep water is a little tougher but much safer for the fish. You can grab the leader to control the fish long enough to tail it. After a fish or two it will feel very natural. When possible, it’s best to use a good catch-and-release net. This is safest for the fish and easiest for the angler. A net helps you seal the deal while the fish is still fresh and requires little reviving.

Always control your fish once he’s landed. Keep his gills wet and support his head in case he makes a sudden attempt to escape. Keeping him, dorsal fin up, will keep his range of motion side-to-side, making it harder for him to injure himself. When possible keep him in deeper water. Never beach a fish when landing him and never lay him on the bank for a photo. It’s just not worth it.

Wild steelhead are a precious resource. Those of us who come to the river looking for them must lead by example and do our best to to be good stewards of these remarkable fish. Their future is, literally in our hands.


Louis Cahill
Gink & Gasoline
www.ginkandgasoline.com
hookups@ginkandgasoline.com
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[typhoon]

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=34518.0
it was nonsense the first time. Read the comments in the blog - the author admits there is no evidence that any of this is true.

[Animal Chin]

The point I got was care should be taken, and if you think you can manage it, why not wade into knee deep water to release it. I've seen swaggering thousand dollar+ Simms outfitted good ole boys (20-40 yr olds) drag coho onto sandy/rocky banks. Kinda sucks.

I thought it was a good article.

On a side note, is it bad for the fish to turn it upside down in the water once you've tailed it? I find it calms them right down, even a really hot fish. 

[Tenz85]

Good info. Losing fish messing with nets and tailing sucks but if the fish often die after the catch & release it mind of defeats the purpose of catch and release. I'm curious how skilled/delicate the researchers were GPSing the fish in that study.

[bcguy]

You May Be Killing Steelhead And Not Even Know It
53 comments / Posted on November 18, 2013 / by Louis Cahill



They determined that the least intrusive way to capture the fish was, well, the same way we do it. With a fly rod.

Oh Geeze...is a hook not a hook, no matter the method...

[Pin-nook]

What I got out of that is that Fly fishing kills wild steelhead....YESSSSS I KNEW IT!!!

The point I got was care should be taken, and if you think you can manage it, why not wade into knee deep water to release it. I've seen swaggering thousand dollar+ Simms outfitted good ole boys (20-40 yr olds) drag coho onto sandy/rocky banks. Kinda sucks.

Seen this during steelhead season where guys actually look pissed once they see there's an adipose and drag the fish on shore to unhook and nudge the fish back into the water with their boot. 

[Ian Forbes]

Having caught and released over a thousand summer-run steelhead from one particular Island river over a 6 year period and marked every single one with a fin clip, I question the results of the biologists. I re-caught those same steelhead multiple times and a couple were identified as being caught by myself or a partner at least 5 times in one season. I've got all the statistics in my fishing journals.

[Sandman]

Having caught and released over a thousand summer-run steelhead from one particular Island river over a 6 year period and marked every single one with a fin clip, I question the results of the biologists. I re-caught those same steelhead multiple times and a couple were identified as being caught by myself or a partner at least 5 times in one season. I've got all the statistics in my fishing journals.

I suspect that you did not allow the fish to flop about on the rocks though, Ian.   

I seem to remember a similar article years ago that pointed out that as little as a few centimeters of water made a huge difference in post release mortality. I do not recall the particulars, but I also do not remember any outcry or skepticism about the veracity of the argument either. I get the whole failure to back up with sources, and even the possibility that there was never any study using GPS tracking of steelhead to begin with, but let's not pretend that landing fish by dragging them onto rocks, or even into very shallow water, is good for the fish. I do not know if the original author was intentionally trying to deceive people in order to get them to change their behaviour (which some have suggested) or if he was given false information about the study and then used it to try to get people to change their behaviour.  Which ever it was, the advice is sound...do not drag fish you intend to release onto the rocks.

[HOOK]

I like sticking my pinky up their butt to sex them before I bonk them 

I would hate to bonk one for roe to find out its full of sperm 



LoL - seriously though. people know that fish need to be in water, problem is that a lot of them don't give a flying f***

[Zach Sanchioni]

Does seem pretty odd. 'Many' dead steelhead in one study? How many dead steelhead have you seen over years of fishing...the Vedder? Thousands of rubes mishandling steelhead on a daily basis for four months straight and I don't think I have ever seen one, and its the most heavily fished river in BC. But biologists are killing 'many' during one study...Anyone ever stand up in their boats when you drift over the run/pool after you have fished it? on lots of rivers you will regularly spot fish, sometimes alot of fish, especially on summer run rivers. You RARELY ever see a dead one lying on bottom. My thoughts anyways are that if fish are dying after release, you would see them dead in the river. I think its a much more rare case than this study would have you believe. Handle with care either way of course.

[HOOK]

I have seen 2 and that's it over the years. Both were due to poor fish fighting and handling. I know because I saw them hooked, played and released only to see them floating or rolling along the boat past me a little while later 

[Ian Forbes]

I've swum a lot of the rivers I fished for summer-runs and I was only one of a few people fishing. I never saw a dead steelhead during that time. I've swum the Stamp during the summer and the only dead fish I saw were salmon. I drift the Cowichan all the time and I can look right into ever nook and cranny. I see lots of live fish but no dead ones... except down near the native reserve. Dead fish show up quite well because they lay belly up and their white belly shows up against a dark background.

It is hard to fool an old timer with a lot of practical experience. We've listened to too many unsupported theories to accept what some newbie with an idea is trying to convince us with.

[Dryfly22]

Still makes sense not to let a wild fish thrash around on the rocks and bonk it's head on the side? just saying that is for hatch fish. More care the better. See guy taking pics all the time with fish laying on the bank out of water on their sides and flopping around.

DF.

[Every Day]

I've swum a lot of the rivers I fished for summer-runs and I was only one of a few people fishing. I never saw a dead steelhead during that time. I've swum the Stamp during the summer and the only dead fish I saw were salmon. I drift the Cowichan all the time and I can look right into ever nook and cranny. I see lots of live fish but no dead ones... except down near the native reserve. Dead fish show up quite well because they lay belly up and their white belly shows up against a dark background.

It is hard to fool an old timer with a lot of practical experience. We've listened to too many unsupported theories to accept what some newbie with an idea is trying to convince us with.

I agree.

This fall I helped DFO tag a bunch of coho. I personally tagged around 80 fish over the span of a month. The river was super low and super clear the whole time. I was both pit tagging and spaghetti tagging the fish. The PIT tags were not nice, it was a large needle, inserted in between the pectoral fins, and a fairly large tag was inserted just under the skin. At times I was what I would consider rough on the fish (not on purpose of course, they would just start trashing at a bad time, etc).

Over the span of that month I never once sighted a dead fish. Every day I went out, I could personally count at least 90% of the fish I had tagged from vantage points amongst the other coho. The river was so low, that if a fish died, it would have stayed put as there was no current. There was also a receiver at the lower end of the river that would have picked up the tags in these fish if they drifted down dead during high water, etc. Neither ever happened. These guys were either super rough and had no idea what to do with fish, or it's a fabricated piece of work.

Not saying this isn't a good reminder to treat fish properly, but at the same time it paints a bad picture for steelhead anglers and the like which isn't really fair.

[Ian Forbes]

In the 1950s, the old timers at that time said that every fish that was released would die. I think it was an excuse to kill more. W proved them wrong.

 Then, in the 1960s, the young guys who had killed their 2 fish limit and wanted to keep fishing, would release anything they caught for the remainder of the day. We caught a LOT of steelhead and many were released. Not all were handled properly. The new seasonal kill limit was 40 steelhead, and many of us were proud to get our limit. That was before hatcheries, and all steelhead were wild. We waded back and forth across all the lower Mainland rivers and if there had been any great numbers of dead steelhead they would have shown up.

Anglers have come a LONG way since those days and much more respect is shown for fish by responsible anglers. However there are still a lot of newbies who just don't know better. And, there will always be the Neanderthals who just don't care so long as they can get some easy meat.

It is our job as responsible anglers to teach those that don't know better in a way that doesn't offend someone. Most people don't want to look like a jackazz in front of their peers.

It doesn't help the cause when we get peddled BS by some biologist with an unsubstantiated theory.