Holding a fish by its gill or its gill plate is stupid. Fish , at least
trout, are suposed to be held as horizontally as possible and their innards
are supposed to be supported. Fish live in a near zero gravity environment
and they have little to keep their organs in place. If you hold them
vertically, you are definitely not doing them any good, I do a lot of
volunteer work for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, and the California
Fish and Game, and they are unanimous is this. Even the Texas Budweiser
Lunker people say the fingers of one hand grabbing the lower lip, the other
near the anal fin. It's hard to do this except horizontally.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
How about just pouring the fish out of the net and onto a soaking wet
towel?
I've checked local regulations (Rochester NY) and found that it is legal
to
photograph a fish on a towel. Holding it up in the air by its gills is
ridiculous and unnecessary, unless your brother's name is Clevis and your
mom wore a backwards Caterpillar hat while she was giving birth, in which
case it's a tradition to hold a fish that way for 10 minutes while telling
anyone who'll listen that a fish should go back in the water ASAP if it's
expected to survive.

"Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers" wrote in
message ...

"go-bassn" wrote in message
...
I made the mistake of landing a 17 pound pike once by the gills - tore
my
fingers to shreds! I sure as h-ll wasn't lipping that creature...

You stuck your fingers in too far and either got caught by the gill
rakers
or if waaay too far, the teeth in the back of the mouth.

Practice makes perfect, now you just have to do it a couple thousand
more
times and you'll have caught up to me.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com






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