Releasing Game Fish The Easy Way

Releasing Game Fish The Easy Way The Catch and Release Stick from Fish Go Free makes returning game fish, like muskies and northern pike, to the water easy. Catch-and-release is an increasingly common practice, with an estimated release of 98% of all muskies caught. However, releasing them can be difficult and even dangerous for fish and fishermen. After years of accidental release, lifelong fisherman Peter Sohnle devised his easy method. “Muskie fisherman, in particular, often use a treble hook lure,” explains Sohnle, Fish Go Free. “Usually, the lure ends up with one hook in the fish’s jaw and two outside. If you miss netting it, the other hooks often catch in the net, the fish shakes its head, and the other hook comes loose.” Sohnle designed the Catch and Release Stick to emulate the net for those times when a photo or retention isn’t the goal. The 3-ft. handle has a 3-in. frame at the end. The frame is covered in loosely packed netting and angled around 45 degrees from the handle. “When you bring the caught fish alongside your boat to release it, just engage the treble hook in the netting,” says Sohnle. “The fish will either shake itself free or you shake it off, but the hook stays in the netting.” Sohnle points out that catch-and-release aims to avoid damaging the fish. An actively thrashing fish with two or three hooks outside its mouth can also harm the fisherman. With the Catch and Release Stick, the fish isn’t handled or removed from the water, and the treble hook remains 3 ft. away. “The Catch and Release Stick works with pike as well,” says Sohnle. “It also works with salmon or trout caught by trolling in a lake. It could even be used with bass or trout in streams using a smaller lure with a treble hook.” Sohnle notes that his company is the only one that makes devices for releasing fish. “Everyone else makes equipment to catch them,” he says. “I have another one I’m developing, which is a handheld hook-releasing device.” The Catch and Release Stick from Fish Go Free costs $29.95 and can be found on eBay and Amazon. When Sohnle isn’t catching and releasing muskies, he can often be found videotaping them. He even developed a low-tech device for trailing a GoPro camera ahead of a lure. “Muskies like to follow a lure, but the camera by itself will spin from side to side, explains Sohnle. “I made a housing from a funnel with supports to clamp the camera at the big end of the funnel. I run a wire through the funnel to my fishing line with the lure at the other end. The funnel keeps the camera from going back and forth.” Sohnle uses the videos to attract people to his sales booth at outdoor shows. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Peter Sohnle, Fish Go Free (info@fishgofree.com; www.fishgofree.com).

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