Conservation

Catch and Release

Limit your kill rather than killing your limit.

Catch and respect

Fly fishing for bass — leave no trace.

There is a skill in the proper release of a fish. Catch and release bass fishing rewards patience more than force. Please limit your kill rather than killing your limit.

Catching a wild fish like a bass is a skilful process. Releasing one successfully back to the sea alive and healthy takes just as much skill and good technique. I try to apply the following to my own fishing as best I can.

Before you start

  • Look closely at where you are fishing and find the lies a fish may run to for cover, use to its advantage, or hang you up on.
  • Plan as you move. Consider how you will play, land and return a fish in the circumstances you are actually in. Check your own safety, and check for a path to bring a fish through to release.
  • Think speed of return — get them back in the water fast.
A bass being returned to the water

Handling and release

  • Handle the fish as little as possible, and keep it in the water while removing hooks.
  • Avoid lifting or touching the fish at all if you can.
  • If you must touch it, wet your hands first — this protects the slime coat.
  • Never lift a fish out of the water unsupported. If you lift it, support it evenly along its length.
  • If you use a landing net, use a knotless rubber one. Rubber meshes do far less damage to slime, scales and fins than knotted nylon, and a net that shortens the time a fish spends being chased or fumbled is better than no net at all. Avoid knotted mesh entirely.
  • If you are new to lures and nervous of treble hooks, a boga grip can help with in-the-water releases. Never lift or suspend a fish from a boga grip.
  • A grip is often unnecessary for bass, especially on single or barbless hooks. Reduce or drop its use as your confidence grows.
  • Always have a plan for releasing a fish before you land it.
  • Time is what keeps a released fish alive. Work quickly and eliminate any over-exposure to air.
  • Do not drag a fish over dry hot sand — it strips the slime.
  • Remove treble hooks carefully and quickly with pliers. Avoid ripping lip or flesh, and avoid all contact with the red gill area.
  • If you are taking a photograph, make it very quick and plan it before the fish is out of the water.
  • Revive an exhausted fish in the water, pointing it into any available current and supporting it until it recovers.
  • Try not to recover a fish where the water is muddy, sandy, or warm.
  • Be patient with bigger fish, and with any fish responding slowly.

Reducing over-exposure

  • Be confident when landing your fish.
  • Cut down the number of hooks on your lures.
  • De-barb your trebles. Better, fit single hooks — and de-barb those too.
  • Land fish as quickly as you can, to avoid over-stressing them.
  • Overplayed and over-exposed fish die after release.
  • A quickly landed bass will still have plenty of energy and is inclined to shake its head hard from side to side. That is a dangerous moment for both fish and angler, especially with barbed multi-hooked lures.
  • Longer lures with multiple trebles cause more damage than shorter ones.

On measuring

Wrap tape of three different colours at useful intervals along your rod and measure from the butt. Is it really so important to be accurate to the millimetre, at the cost of a fast return?

  • 50 cm is roughly 1.35 kg, or 3 lb.
  • 70 cm is roughly 3.35 kg, or 7 lb.
  • 80 cm is most times more than 4.45 kg (10 lb) and less than 5.25 kg (12 lb) — a big fish, and the one bass anglers seek most.

Know the current rules

Bass are protected in Ireland. There is a daily bag limit, a minimum retained size, a period when fishing is catch-and-release only, and a closed season around spawning when angling for bass is prohibited altogether.

I am deliberately not printing the figures here. They are set annually by Statutory Instrument and they change. Anything I write today will be wrong soon enough, and a fisheries offence carries an on-the-spot fine. Confirm the current season’s rules yourself, before you fish and certainly before you retain anything:

If you do keep a fish

If you intend to kill and keep a fish from time to time, during whatever period retention is currently permitted, then carry the proper tool to do the job. Don’t leave a fish gasping and flapping on the shoreline — use a priest and dispatch it quickly.

If you are keeping one, consider keeping a fish that has already spawned a number of times — over 45 cm. And try not to kill the fish that everyone wants to catch: return the bigger ones.