Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
While fishing near the Rt. 50 bridge the other day I watched someone catch a small bluefish from his boat. As I motored past the fellow, I was close enough to see very clearly that he was practicing his own version of the ancient Asian art of “dim-mak”. Those who are well studied in the world of martial arts might know of the “dim-mak” or “death touch” whereby a mild strike to a particular part of the body is said to cause death in days, if not weeks, later.
So I watched in horror as the fisherman cranked in the little bluefish, lifted it out of the water by the line, grabbed it, quickly removed the hook and gently dropped it back into the water. “Poor little blue”, I thought, “Too bad it's not likely going to live long enough to grow to major proportions or a ripe old age!”
If you’re trying to figure out what this guy did that was so wrong, don’t fret, because most anglers probably wouldn’t be able to pick up on it either. The problem is that the fellow grabbed the fish with his "bare hand" and that simple, but so often practiced action can actually mean death to a fish. Not quite “dim-mak”, but maybe the same terminal results.
For some, this might seem hard to accept. After all, when we grab a fish, pull out the hook and toss it back in the water it usually takes off like a scared rabbit, so it’s got to be fine. Right? Well, not necessarily so. Think about it. What’s the next thing a fisherman does after releasing a fish they were holding in their bare hand? Of course, they wipe their slimy, fishy hand on their pants! But that slime needs to be on the fish and not on the backside of some guy's size 44’s. Fish wear a layer of slime like a diver wears a wet suit. It’s there for protection from harmful things in the water. Wipe that slime off and it doesn’t just immediately grow back, it takes a while, and in that time the fish must survive without its protective coating.
Trap a naked diver in cold, contaminated water with a bunch of stinging jellyfish and you can bet he’ll swim like mad for a while, but sooner or later the harsh environment will get the best of him and he’ll probably croak. Fish are the same way when they lose some of their slime. Biologists have done studies where they handled fish and then put them in tanks to see how they did over time. They actually reported seeing sunburn-like handprints form on the fish where they had been held. Eventually many of their subjects would die.
A dry bare hand is like a sponge that draws the slime right off the fish. Perhaps the only worse way to hold a fish is to use a dry rag or glove. Unfortunately these are all practices commonly used by well meaning, but uninformed anglers who way too often can be seen with a dry "fish rag" hanging from their belt! At the very least, if a fish must be held then the rag, glove or hand should be dunked in saltwater first to minimize its absorption of slime. I prefer to keep a rag soaking in a bucket of water so that when it's time to put it to use the totally saturated cloth comes out of the water and directly to the fish.
Of course the best way to handle a fish is not to handle it at all. But this requires that anglers are pre-equipped with some sort of dehooking device. For small fish like snapper bluefish, sea bass, sea trout, rockfish and croaker, this can be as simple as an ice pick that has the last 1/2-inch of its tip bent back about 160 degrees. By holding the line or leader in one hand and the pick in the other, the tool is hooked over the line and slid down to the bend in the hook. Then, as the line is pulled down and the tool pulled up, the hook inverts and the fish drops off. Sometimes a slight shake is needed to free the fish from the barb. Typically it all happens so quickly that the fish probably doesn’t even know it’s out of the water before it’s back in and swimming down to rejoin its classmates.
An even better tool than a bent ice pick is a product known as a ARC Dehooker. Sold in local tackle shops, this tool not only removes hooks from fish in the same way the ice pick does, it will also remove hooks that have been swallowed. With this Dehooker the angler need not touch the fish or even remove it from the water. It comes in about four sizes that will handle anything from little bluefish to big blue marlin. This is the “real deal” for anyone serious about releasing fish the right way.
In an age where more and more fishermen practice and take pride in catch-and-release fishing, it’s increasingly important to release fish while giving them the best chance for survival. After all, there’s not much sense in even throwing them back after they’ve been given the “death touch”.
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center. During the winter months, Capt. Mark runs charters in the Lower Keys.
