Fish Handling and Release Guidelines

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Keep safety in mind

Proper fish handling and release is all about safety — your safety as well as the safety and health of the fish. 

Learn the best ways to protect your hands and to keep fish safe when catching them and when they are in your possession. 

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A pair of hands holding a fish
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A word About Harvest
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  • Cooking and consuming fish that you personally caught can be a rewarding
    conclusion to your outdoor adventure. There are many health benefits
    to eating wild-caught fish in Missouri, and it can be a good alternative
    to store-bought fish. For the Missouri Department of Health and Senior
    Services’ consumption guidelines and fish advisory, check online at
    short.mdc.mo.gov/Zwb
  • Part of being a responsible angler is being mindful of regulations that
    dictate methods for fish harvest. Some of these regulations require anglers to
    return the fish they catch to the water alive.
    Follow the guidelines on this page to reduce harm to fish, which will
    decrease catch-and-release mortality.
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Learn to measure and identify the fish you catch so that you can abide by
Missouri’s fishing seasons, daily limits, length limits, and other regulations.
When in doubt about a fish’s legal length, play it safe, and immediately return
the fish to the water unharmed.

  • Place the fish on a ruler. Make sure the fish is laid flat on its side. 
  • Close the fish's mouth.
  • Squeeze the lobes of the fish's tail fin together.
  • Measure a straight line from the tip of the snout to the tip of the tail loves. 

Note: Paddlefish are measured from the eye to the fork of the tail.
Sturgeon are measured from the tip of the snout to the fork of the tail. Only
shovelnose sturgeon are legal to keep.

Minimum Length Limit: Any fish below the listed minimum length must be returned to the water unharmed immediately after being caught. 

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Measure Crappie

 

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  • Use artificial lures instead of live bait, especially for catch-and-release fishing. Fish that strike artificial baits are less likely to be hooked deeply enough to damage vital organs and have a higher survival rate.
  • Squeeze hook barbs flat with pliers or file them off. Barbless hooks reduce the risk or causing serious wounds. 
  • Use a landing net large enough to handle your fish safely. Nets made of soft, woven knotless nylon or rubber are preferred. 
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  • If you use live bait, set the hook at the first sign of a bite, so the fish doesn't have time to swallow the bait.
  • On rod and reel, don’t play a fish any longer than necessary.
  • Check setlines frequently to improve survival of released fish, and in the summer keep setlines positioned above the thermocline (the transition zone between surface water and deep water) and not in the deeper water where the oxygen concentrations are lower.
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  • Keep the fish in the water as much as possible while removing the hook if
    you plan to release it.
  • Be gentle. Squeezing the fish can damage its internal organs.
  • Wet your hands and any other dry surface a fish may touch. This will protect
    the fish’s slime coat, which guards it from infection and improves survival.
  • Hold large fish by the lower jaw with one hand and cradle the heavy body
    with the other. Have another person remove the hook.
  • Avoid teeth by grasping fish over the gill covers.
  • Never put your fingers in the eye sockets or gills and do not lift the fish by
    the gill covers.
  • Always carry a hook disgorger or needle-nosed pliers. Back the hooks out
    if possible.
  • Cut the line as close to the hook as possible if the fish is hooked deeply in
    the gills or stomach. The hook will fall out after a time, with minimal harm
    to the fish.
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A good rule-of-thumb is to keep the fish out of water no longer than you can hold your breath. 

  • Take pictures quickly.
  • Freezing air temperatures are especially harmful and can harm the gills, eyes, and other sensitive areas of a fish. 
  • Release endangered fish unharmed immediately. Pallid sturgeon and lake sturgeon are the endangered fish species that anglers are most likely to catch. 

Learn to identify sturgeon species at: 

http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/species/shovelnose-sturgeon/shovelnose-sturgeon-identification

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An exhausted fish may have little energy to swim away when released. 

  • Hold it upright in the water by grasping its tail with one hand while supporting its belly with the other. 
  • Gently move the fish back and forth below the water's surface. This allows oxygenated water to flow over the gills.
  • When the fish is revived, release your grip, and allow it to swim away. 
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Most fish have an internal swim bladder that is used to maintain buoyancy. Deep-caught fish that are brought up too quickly may have trouble regulating pressure in their swim bladder, causing barotrauma. Due to physiological differences, some fish species can prevent barotrauma. Examples in Missouri are trout, gar, and catfish. Other fish species that can be harmed by being brought up too quickly can show the following symptoms:

  • Bulging eyes.
  • Stomach protruding from mouth. 
  • Remaining at the surface on their side or in a "belly-up" posture. 
  • Bloody fins due to ruptured blood vessels. 

Bringing fish up quickly from depths greater than 30 feet can cause barotrauma and increase fish mortality. 

The following practices can help reduce the likelihood of barotrauma in fish:

  • Fish waters no deeper than 30 feet. 
  • Reel in fish slowly to give them time to depressurize. 

 

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  • Provide continuous aeration, cool the water with ice when livewell water temperature is over 80 degrees, maintain a 0.5 percent salt (NaCl) solution (1/3 cup non-iodized salt per 5 gallons water), and replace half of the live well water at least every two hours.
  • Don’t allow water to drain from a live well when motoring around the lake.
  • Don’t put too many fish in your live well. You should hold no more than 3/4 pounds of fish per gallon of water.
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Locate the weigh-in site close to the release site and the parking lot or boatmooring
area.

  • Keep fish in live wells until participants leave their boats.
  • Shorten weigh-in lines by using only three to five organizer-provided
    weigh-in baskets. A series of light colored, clean, 50-gallon plastic garbage
    cans of lake water should be spaced every 10 feet up to the scales so that
    baskets of fish can be kept in water until the actual weigh-in. The water in
    these cans must be kept cool, fresh, and aerated.
  • Provide proper water conditions in the post weigh-in holding tank by
    using continuous aeration and maintaining recommended temperature
    and salt concentrations.
  • Choose release sites with relatively cool, clear, deep water.
  • Assign people to coordinate fish release. After the weigh-in, fish should be
    classified as releasable or non-releasable. Non-releasable are dead, weak,
    or injured fish.
  • Three to five days after the release, check every release area and remove
    any dead fish. The tournament should not be considered over until this has
    been done.
  • Consider refereed or geo-referenced photographic tournament formats.
    Nearly immediate release after recording increases fish survival.

A complete guidebook for tournament anglers and organizers can be found at:

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Fish Handling Tips

Description
A quick lesson on some important fish handling tips.
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Proper Catfish Handling for Anglers

Description
Learn the best ways to handle catfish for angler release and tournaments.
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