"Richard Berke" wrote in message
om...

1. As you are reeling in how do you decide how fast to reel in, and
whether to lift the fish out of the water with your rod?

If the fish is beachable, I'll generally bend down and grab it. If not I'll
lift it with the rod, up to three pounds. I use medium spinning with 10#
test. I try to get the fish in quickly, but I'm not using 50# line like some
do, so I don't reel in at speeds you see on TV in tournaments.

2. How do you grab a fish safely? I know you want to avoid touching
it's protective slime coating on its skin. If it's hooked and you have
line tension, and it's almost out of the water, it still seems iffy
whether the fish will thrash as I try to use a thumb grab on his lower
lip.

I always lip-grab unless I perceive danger to me, like crankbait hooked in
lower lip. Then I use the gill cover method. I tend to take some chances
that I probably shouldn't.

3. How heavy a bass is it safe (for the fish) to hold up by only its
lower jaw? When is it less injurious to the fish to use two hands:
one on the lip and one as a shelf under its belly?

Don't know, but the size I catch, it's safe to hold by the lower jaw. Is
that safe for a 15-pounder? I wouldn't know.

4. I've caught fish that bent my medium-rod past a gentle C and almost
to a U, so I've grabbed the line with my hands to pull the fish up the
rest of the last few feet and out of the water and let the rod
straighten out. How do you know when the bend is too much for the rod?

Don't know exactly, but if your tackle is balanced and settings are correct,
the drag should release before a rod-threatening bend. Grabbing the line to
pull it up is an invitation to a breakoff, even though it has to be resorted
to on a few occasions.

5. I can't always get way down to the water to release a fish slowly,
and within just seconds after the catch. If my choices are to toss
the fish the higher shore/dock from 3-5 feet into the water, or walk
2+ minutes or so to reach a lower shore area to get to the water,
which stresses the fish least? Out of water, struggling to breath all
the while is bad, but the impact of water at some point would be
worse. Right?

Two minutes seems like a long time. I've fished some places where most of
the fish have to be released from a few feet above the water. With a little
practice, you can gently flip the fish as you let it go so that it will
jackknife into the water head first. Of course, this doesn't always work out
the way I want, but I don't know how much harm the "bellywhacker" causes.

6. When the fish thrashes off the hook, or snaps the line, and it's on
the ground struggling to get to the water, what do you do? Of course
banging its body on the ground is harmful. Of course grabbing the
fish with a towel further disturbs its slime coat. I've tried to grab
with my hands, and been cut on the top fins/spines much worse than by
the fish's teeth. What do you advise?

Naturally, try to grab by the lip if possible. Otherwise, stop the fish by
laying your hand on it's side; usually you can avoid contact with the sharp
spines. Or just let it get back to the water by itself (if it's close) if it
doesn't have a lure in its mouth and/or you don't need to weigh/measure it,
etc.

Remember, I'm no expert; I'm just relating some of the things I do, without
knowing what the "right" and "wrong" ways are.

Hope it's at least a little helpful.