Lip grippers

Anyone using these . If so is there a brand you recommened/ avoid.

Thinking of trying to avoid handling cod, have dived under boats after returning fish that looked heathy as to find a number dead on the bottom. I thinking lip grippers and barbless hooks should help with this mortality.

Havent used them myself so cant comment.

Do you use very large circle hooks? swallowing the bait or gill hooking would have to be right up there in causing released cod to die wouldn't it?

Get yourself a pair of Gardening gloves (one with the rubber in the grip area) makes handling the fish easy, and use as VC says very large circle hooks

Forget the line and just spear them:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by stingray

Thinking of trying to avoid handling cod, have dived under boats after returning fish that looked heathy as to find a number dead on the bottom. I thinking lip grippers and barbless hooks should help with this mortality.

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Not sure about that. I remember reading about fish getting spine injuries after lip grippers were used. However, it may have been more about the way the were used. I think fish survival post-release is a lot lower than we think, especially in deeper water which is a bit depressing. I now aim to catch only what I want and stop when I've caught it. It doesn't always work out, but I'm trying.

Yeah large hooks, it's the handling I'm working on now, I know what you mean, gill / throat hooked is a death sentence ...what I am seeing is a 32 / 32.5 cm lip hooked handled released swims away. Goes into shock.. Damaged ... Dead

I honestly apreciate all the comments and ideas. What I'm thinking is to find a way / best practice to reduce the deaths of a damn near legal fish. That in a years time will be a taker.

I'm all for spearing them nothing like cracking Kina and sitting back smoking big boys as they sneak in for a feed.The crew on the other hand like to catch their cod :thumbsup:

Trade zone gone fishing had something about percentages of fish released that die afterwards

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by stingray

I honestly apreciate all the comments and ideas. What I'm thinking is to find a way / best practice to reduce the deaths of a damn near legal fish.

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I haven't done any serious bait fishing for 3 years, just softies and jigs = no gut hooked fish and average fish size is much bigger. Talking about snapper in the Northland, don't know if that would be realistic in other parts of the country though.

.what I am seeing is a 32 / 32.5 cm lip hooked handled released swims away. Goes into shock... sounds like you a rolling pin , couple of rolls those cod be 33 cm . ;)

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Originally Posted by MightyBoosh

I haven't done any serious bait fishing for 3 years, just softies and jigs = no gut hooked fish and average fish size is much bigger. Talking about snapper in the Northland, don't know if that would be realistic in other parts of the country though.

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Ask @Munsey about fishing with soft baits...;)

I have lip gripper here you can have @stingray.
Be usefull for all those pesky sharks too. They are Berkley brand

Wow , huge thanks @Pengy, we will have to do a trip soon and give them a work out.

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Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Circle hooks and a hook puller. I make hook pullers out of number 8 wire. A simple 12 inch length with a right angle bend the width of your hand on one end(for a handle) and a small hook bent in the other end. (I made a few out of stainless in the early days, but it hurts when some clown drops one over the side. Number 8 is way cheaper) It's a bit hard to explain how they work. Catch the trace with the puller (trace in your left hand, puller in your right), slide trace through puller until bend in hook is hooked in puller. Lift up with your right hand and push down with your left so trace is parallel with the fish. Puller has stopped in the bend of the hook. If it is done right, the fish will be only be held on the hook by the barb and/or the tip of the circle. A sideways twist of the puller sees the fish fall off untouched by hands. Only works on lip hooked fish though. I normally use the cheap square long line hooks for rod fishing and probably get less than ten percent hooked anywhere other than the lip.

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I've used these on commercial charter boats and they work really well.

I use a wet towel. I guess that's just as bad as anything. Trying is the best you can do. Some mongrels just wrangle the hook out and chuck em back any old way.

Anything sizeable and it pays to have the wrist strap in place :(

Thanks again @Pengy.
Well I believe they are the business, for cod they took a bit of getting used to but once we got used to the idea we were away, we squashed our barbs down, lip gripped the cod rolled the hook out and released them back into the tide, no handling at all, the were also good for spikies , stand on tail lip grip the bugger roll the hook out and over the side .. Though the spikies still twisted around trying to get you with their tail spike and one larger one broke loose of the grippers.

I believe they certainly have a place in the cod fishery , no handling of undersized cod is certainly going to increase the chances of survival. I don't by any means think they are a silver bullet but I do believe they will help.

I use a body gripper for couta's :D Practised it a lot over the weekend and have the technique down pat. Its designed a lot like a gaff really and I find a knife gets them off it quite well too;)

Hahaha, yeah when I reached in with the lip grippers and the triple teeth were going side to side I reached for the grippers labeled gaff!! Some fish just aren't operator freindly. :)

Dad has a welcoming stick for cuda, its about the lenght of a trunchon but of manuka with one end wrapped in lead for added effect.

We did have a big kitchen knife blade mounted on the end of a small ali oar on the old boat :D i dont like killing for the sake of it but they really piss me off. I heard if you tie a bit of chippy packet to their tail the others will chase it for ages taking them away from your area. Not sure but im not going to dilibrately litter to test it either :D

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Originally Posted by Gibo

We did have a big kitchen knife blade mounted on the end of a small ali oar on the old boat :D i dont like killing for the sake of it but they really piss me off. I heard if you tie a bit of chippy packet to their tail the others will chase it for ages taking them away from your area. Not sure but im not going to dilibrately litter to test it either :D

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I dont loose too much gear to them and they are good bait... I think the key is to winch the buggers in as fast as possible and straight in the boat.

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

I dont loose too much gear to them and they are good bait... I think the key is to winch the buggers in as fast as possible and straight in the boat.

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We would sometimes be on the drop and loose it all, sometimes just hooks, sometimes just sinker, sometimes swivel. They come in waves of teeth ha ha