If you have spent more than one day on a salmon or steelhead river chances are that you have illegally hooked a fish. I know that I have done it numerous times, but watching a person on the Rogue River in Rockford, Mi catch, fight, and land a snagged king salmon brought several questions to mind about the treatment of snagged fish.
Most states DNR indicate a fish not hooked in the mouth must be returned to the stream immediately and can not be kept under any circumstances.
Now some river are easier to tell if you have snagged a fish than others, but my question is “Should you play out a knowingly snagged fish?”
When fish are hooked they begin excreting hormones that allow them to try to get away from their capturer. To avoid making this post overly scientific I will avoid the big terms that really have no place in general reading. As these hormones build up in the fish they require a longer time to recover. Consider it similar to a human sprinting and jumping for a few minutes! After that we are tired and sore and need sometime to recover.
Now fish are built to run and jump for long distances, especially during their spawning time, so compare them to professional athletes, but even they need a break once in a while!
So once you know that you have a fouled hooked fish on your line should you play them out and land them knowing that you are placing the fish in an unnecessary position where they could end up dying and no one is legally allowed to keep them? Or should you break off the line to prevent them from the added stress and tie on an new set-up and go on your way?
This is something I have struggled with for a long time and I have come to the following conclusion:
If you snag a fish when it would be easy to land them and remove the look without added stress on the fish I beliece that you should, especially in shallow streams that receive a lot of fishing pressure. The last thign that we want is another angler catching the same fish and getting your hook in their hand!
However, if the stream is large and it will take a significant amount of time to land the fish and the angling pressure is not too bad – or the stream is large enough to where the chances of another angler catching the same fish is minor – I believe that it should be broken off and ensure the fish will live to fight again.
Please leave your comments as this is a topic that comes up quite frequently in DNR meetings, fish biology research, and other applicable platforms and I would like different anglers points of view on this extremely important topic.
Thank you in advance!
J.Crane Flies & Tackle Staff
