There’s little doubt that the best trophy shots keep the fish in the water.
Photo by Sandy Hays
Written by: Phil Monahan
The two most common criticisms are that the person is squeezing the fish or holding the fish with dry hands. We don’t post any images that show a fish on the ground or an angler with his fingers in the fish’s gills or mouth, so I don’t see those kinds of negative comments, which I generally agree with.
I am always amazed by the certainty with which the critic makes his assertions, and I wonder whence comes this absolute sense of rightness. Let’s look at two examples:
1. Your hands must be wet when you handle a fish. This is one of the first things a trout angler learns, and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t believe it. But how do we know this to be true? I put the question to Prof. Gary Grossman—distinguished research professor of animal ecology at the University of Georgia and author of the “Ask Dr. Trout” column in American Angler magazine—and his response blew me away:
2. Squeezing a fish damages its organs and often kills it. Earlier this year, an article from New Zealand’s Bish & Fish website made the rounds of fly-fishing sites. Author Tony Bishop coined the term “grip and kill,” and he offered scientific diagrams to show that “[a] fish subject to external pressure to the heart and other organs may swim away on release, but many die soon after.”
