Do Mackerel die if released?

[101_North]

Bloody hell. That depressed me too Leon. I suppose it puts things into a perverse perspective!

 

I took the spinning gear down to the harbour tonight after work for an hour or two. I filed the barbs of all my hooks and found it much easier to unhook a fish without touching it using a pair of long nosed pliers. I managed to unhook them all in the water. I kept a couple for the pot but all the rest swam happily away.

 

The place was full of them again - not seen as many round here for years. Stopped fishing for them after about an hour and tried my luck with the codling. Only managed 1 but had a good night.

 

I tried to tell a few folks what I'd learnt in this thread but all I got was glazed looks and told I was talking Sh*te

[Dan G]

I'd like to ask something - if your fishing in salwater, and a fish is deeply hooked, can you cut the hooklength and free the fish... i've been told the hook disolves, and gives the fish a fighting chance of survival... what does anyone think?

 

I use an Orvis Catchum Release tool - its a fly fishing gadget, but I always use it when sea fishing for sport. Particularly for pollack, Bass and Mackeral. Very effective and absolutely no need to touch the fish and it stays in the water.

[noah]

I have at home a bass that was deeply hooked, so deep the hook was not visable. It was bleeding from the gills as well.

as luck would have it i had closed down a marine tropical fish tank some time before but had not emptyed the water out of it. I was waiting for the water to cool before cleaning it out.

I felt so bad about the state of the Bass that i fought to keep it alive. when it tried to retern it it just keeled over. The only thing i had was a plastic bag wich i filled with sea water and placed the fish into it. During the journy home i kept the bass upright and moving to maintain a flow of water over this gills.

Once home the bass was placed in to the tank. Within a cople of hours the bleeding had stopped, although the fish was very week.

Two weeks later the hook eye could be seen in the entrence of the mouth and week 3 the hook was lying on the bottom of the tank.

There was no assistance from me to remove the hook but i did notice that there was no rust on the hook. The hook then very quickly rusted when it was removed from the water.

I now regret taking this fish in some ways as it now is dependent on its food from humans

hope that helps

[Dan G]

That is very interesting... If you think logically, rust is oxidisation and needs oxygen to occur. There is far more of it in the air than the sea, hence greater rusting out of the tank.

[Vagabond]

Andy Macfarlane:

(Re Leopard Seal)I wouldn't know. That's what I was told so I'm only passing on what I heard.

Is this anything like the beast you saw ?

 

 

This is off a slide I took on Elephant Island some years back.

 

- A leopard seal resting after breakfast. The Chinstrap Penguin in the background is potentially his lunch.

 

That's as near as I want to be - just look at that set of dentures!

 

[ 21. July 2005, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: Vagabond ]

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Hi All,

 

It would appear thousands of under size mackeral are caught killed and dumped, then they net thousands of tons of sandeel for fish meal.

 

Now that's what I call top notch management :mad:

[skippytheroo]

Is there a legal limnit for mackerel? I caught my first one from the pier today It wasnt huge 34 cm, just measured it, If they are highly likey to die if released seems stupid to have a minimum size to me

[skippytheroo]

Is there a legal limnit for mackerel? I caught my first one from the pier today It wasnt huge 34 cm, just measured it, If they are highly likey to die if released seems stupid to have a minimum size to me

[101_North]

skippytheroo:

Is there a legal limnit for mackerel? I caught my first one from the pier today It wasnt huge 34 cm, just measured it, If they are highly likey to die if released seems stupid to have a minimum size to me

I might be wrong (wouldn't surprise me) but I think it's 30cm.

[skippytheroo]

http://www.nfsa.org.uk/ntcg/min_sizes_2002.htm

 

Thats better it is very late