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Show Wednesday, June 26, 1974 y Page FISHING by David Mueller One of the greatest rewards I get from fishing comes after I unhook and release a fish so it can go on living again. It is a reward that does not come as part of any other form of recreation that I can think of, with the exception of wildlife photography or the fish revive and then swim away is a live-trappin- self-gratifyi- Birds. Releasing Watching g. as any ng ex- perience I have ever had. However, it is essential that before you release a fish that you are able to recognize if the fish will live or not before you put it back. h brook trout Tearing a treble cheese hook out of the guts of a and then slinging it with an arcing hook shot back into the water does not qualify as a fish release which will be successful. Carp bait will be the ultimate result in this case. If you want to put the fish back to live and catch again, resist the temptation to squeeze the fish while it flops around still struggling to get free. A flopping, slippery fish is difficult to hold, so the first prerequisite to releasing it is to play the fish into total submission - until it literally quits fighting and floats belly-uThen lead your catch into a quiet place at the edge of the water and remove the hook, not by tearing it out, but by placing your finger and thumb at the point where the hook has penetrated and using your other hand to firmly remove hook the to the shank. parallel Never tear or jerk the hook out even through the slightest membrane, as many times delicate parts of the mouth will be tom out along with the part where the hook has entered. It is better if you dont have to remove the fish from the water. And if you plan on releasing all your fish, file the barbs off your hooks to facilitate easier unhooking. Now, since you have played the fish to exhaustion, you must contribute to its revival before it can swim off. A fish can be lost even if you have used utmost care in removing the hook. Helpless, and on the border of collapse, a trout can be washed against an object in the stream where its gills become trapped shut and suffocation occurs before recovery. Once hooked, hold the fish upright, face it into the current (if youre fishing a stream) in a spot where the full force of the stream does not rush by. Gently move the fish forward and back to help the pumping of the gills. Gradually your fish will recover, and will swim out of your hand into the current. Don't let it struggle weakly out and drift downstream. This indicates that the fish has yet to recover. Make sure the fish is able to swim away on its own. One paradox of fishing is that once you start releasing fish, it becomes harder and harder to kill them. Why fish? many people will six-inc- p. ask. Theyll only know if they try it. Birds can be accurate indicators of good and bad fishing. Watch the midday insect eaters, the swallows and swifts, and see if theyre working down close to the waters surface. No matter if youre fishing . 15 .Hatches bait, spinners or flies, a good insect hatch will promote fish feeding activity - which promotes better fishing. One bird I dont especially care to see around the water when Im fishing is the common seagull. Conversely to ocean fishing where gulls indicate schools of baitfish and good fishing, the presence of a gull can destroy any good trout fishing you have planned. Not that the bird indicates that anything is wrong. It is just that when a gull is on a trash patrol it has a tendency to fly up and down an river course or along the shore of a lake in a persistent search for a morsel of garbage. As the bird passes low over the water, its shadow is cast over feeding fish and can put them down immediately. One time over is plenty. But the gull has the pesky habit of hanging around if his search is rewarded with any scrap of waste. About the twentieth time your gull swings by, you can say good-b- y to any surface feeding of the fish. This can be a real shame when a good hatch is on and the fish have already indicated their eagerness to feed actively. The birds are so tame in this state (protected by law) that wild gestures by the frustrated fisherman hardly have an effect. More than likely, the gull will think youre throwing him another tidbit. The only solution is to pack all garbage out and away from where you fish - whether you brought it there or not. And when you dispose of your fish offal, do it at a good distance from the stream or lake. It is good to leave it out of the water, but just dont drop it down by the bank. Never encourage gulls by feeding them deliberately. The mayfly hatches are coming into full swing as our waters return to normal after spring runoff. Here is a schedule of current mayfly hatches I have observed on local waters during the week. Keep in mind that these hatches do change from day to day and from stream to stream. What happened at 11 AM last week might not occur until 2 PM this week - or it might start two hours earlier. You just have to keep your eyes open and change flies with the hatch that the fish are responding to. The afternoon hatch of the grey dun mayflies seems to be the primary hatch of this week. Fish are feeding eagerly on the small insects as they drift along on the surface like little sailboats. This is a very heavy hatch and the trout are extremely fussy over what they are taking at this time. I was using a number 16 grey imitation and got refusal after refusal until I switched to the number 18 of the same pattern. It is quite frustrating when four fish continuously rise immediately next to your fly without giving your offering as much as a look-seBut if you hit the proper imitation, your fishing will be fast and furious. Take a friend up free! Give yourself and a friend a big lift. Grab some scissors and snip this ad. Then, grab a friend and skidaddle up to Snowbird. 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