Guide Tips

Minimizing Stress on Fish

Keeping our fisheries healthy depends on our ability to catch and release fish with the least amount of trauma possible. I hate to see trout with chinks in their armor, though sadly, ripped lips, battle scars and disease are an all too common consequence of improper fish handling.

It’s important to wet your hands before touching fish in order to avoid stripping off their protective layer. Once landed, it's also critical not to keep a fish out of the water for too long. If you want a picture of a nice fish, keep it in the water in your net, right side up if possible, while you get things ready. One excellent trick to calm your catch and to help still its thrashing tendency is to turn it upside down briefly. This action tends to set a fish off balance so it quiets noticeably enough for you to remove the hook quickly and efficiently.

Should a fish need reviving, as is often the case with the bigger ones, try to place it in an area with mild currents, facing upstream, with one hand around the base of its tail and the other underneath to steady it. Work the fish gently back and forth into the current to facilitate oxygen flow. When it can maintain itself upright and its gills are pumping, it’s just a matter of time before the fish swims off and you have another successful release under your belt.

Rita Rose Adams is the nut that fell not far from the tree. She was introduced to the sport of fly fishing by her grizzled guide father, Ed Adams, at a very early age. She has been guiding in the upper Rio Grande and Conejos River watersheds of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico for the last ten years. An avid world traveler, Rita has spent much of the last seven off-seasons traveling and fishing throughout Spain, Argentina, Chile, Canada and the US. Having studied language at the University of Salamanca, Spain for three years, she speaks Spanish, French and Portuguese, with the goal of someday leading trips throughout the world.