Handling Bass articles and a question

[Tim Donaldson]

Here's a "duh" article regarding handling bass, along with a question. I've recently started targeting bass and have experienced that, much like panfish, bass will often inhale my flies.  I've never had much difficulty getting a fly out of a trout's lip, be it a large wooly bugger or a tiny nymph.  Any thoughts on ways to either present or retrieve bass flies that will prevent me from having to jamb my hemos halfway down their throat to free the fly?  Anyways, here's the article along with a source article from bassmaster:

http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/pro-tips-stop-lip-grip/

https://www.bassmaster.com/blog/how-not-hold-hawg

 

[Rob Snowhite]

The nature of their feeding causes them them to engulf your fly. They suck in a plume of water and the prey with it. In this case your fly. Set the hook fast enough and maybe you'll stick it between a mouth bone aka lips. 

Sent from my iPhone

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[namfos]

Pinch down your hook barbs. Makes removal easier.

Mark

[Jamie Carracher]

There are videos on YouTube that offer tips, especially when a fly gets caught further down. One video in particular I saw a guy go in through an open gill with his plyers to unhook the fish, then he pulled it out via the mouth. I am not sure if that is best practice but it seemed a lot less harmful that going through the mouth. 

I have had issues with flies going too far, especially when I have set hooks too slow. These days I've had the most trouble getting big flies out of little fish.

[bpmck1]

Line tension is helpful, especially if you're playing the visual game.

[Matt Brennan]

Thanks for this discussion, and all the tips about fly retrieval! 

I was curious if any actual studies had been done on the lip grip, and found the "All about that bass" project out of UF.  They sent me some info on their study, and below is part of the article they published in basstimes. tl;dr: The bass fed fine after all handling methods within <6 min. There was some long-term death possibly due to handling, but not due to any particular method. 

Finally, after the feeding trials the bass were moved to outdoor ponds for 30 days ... Mortalities did occur after transfer of the bass to the outdoor ponds, 12% of the total sample. For the surviving fish new symptoms of disease, for example fungus around the eyes, top of the head and gills were observed after 30 days in 8% of the sample. These symptoms could be the result of the handling manipulations. However, there was no difference in the frequency of occurrence of these symptoms or in the number of mortalities among fish from the different treatments.

 

What did we learn? It was clear that fish in the two-handed support treatment recovered the fastest. The one-handed jaw only horizontal hold caused the most disruption. It had a relatively moderate recovery time similar to the supported hold but required major head shakes and multiple jaw adjustments in many cases in order for the fish to right itself. However, we saw no permanent jaw damage as a result of handling. The vertical grip had prolonged recovery times compared to the other two groups but we saw no major head shakes or evidence for jaw damage.

~
Matt Brennan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shaw,Stephanie <sls...@ufl.edu>
Date: Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 9:25 AM
Subject: Fw: "All About that Bass" Project Updates and Summary
To: Matt Brennan <matty....@gmail.com>

---

From: Shaw,Stephanie
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 11:09 AM
To: stephan...@gmail.com
Subject: "All About that Bass" Project Updates and Summary

 

Hello All,

The bass handling project 'All about that bass' is in the final stages. We completed the experiments last summer and this past fall and winter was spent analyzing hours of underwater video. We recently got a nice write up published in B.A.S.S. Times (a BassMaster publication) summarizing the study and results. A scientific article is in the works and has been sent out for peer review. Attached to this email is summary material along with links to some video clips showing the post-treatment recovery assessment and feeding trials. We will keep you informed if more information is published. Thank you for your support and interest in black bass conservation.

Attached:   1) Slides explaining the experiment methods with photos (PDF)

                    2)  The B.A.S.S. Times article (PDF)

Links to YouTube videos:  (any trouble with the links please let me know)

                Post-treatment recovery observation

                    https://youtu.be/DnBMsbCmQfw

                Feeding trial summary

                      https://youtu.be/kWdMLy7fb2g

Stephanie Shaw

'All about that bass' Project Development Team

Biological Scientist 

Fisheries & Aquatic Science Program

University of Florida

7922 NW 71st St.

Gainesville, FL 32653

[TurbineBlade]

Having read this interesting article, I can instantly envision the scenario of capturing what are often unwilling, moving targets and attempting to minimize confounding variables related to 'handling technique' as an independent variable.  Defensive behavior testing in snakes, with which I have some experience, poses very similar problems. 

Based upon the pictures, it appears that other variables may have affected the results (e.g., gloved/ungloved hands, metal "grip" tools).  With uncooperative animals, I can imagine the time spent trying to capture some individuals out of the raceway might have had some influence in recovery time, independent from the effects of holding alone.   

BTW -- You aren't a true fisheries biologist until you are willing to carry 2 buckets of pellets, one in each hand, while walking the catwalk between 2 raceways, while avoiding piles of raccoon crap on said catwalk. 

In any case, it is still very interesting to read.  I enjoyed it quite a bit!