A couple years ago, I read some things about how when big fish are held vertically, their inner organs rip, and they can die. After this, I have only held big fish horizontally, but I still see lots of pictures of people holding muskies, pike and especially bass vertically by the gill plates or lower jaw. To be honest, seeing pictures like that makes me cringe pretty badly. Do you guys have any thoughts on this?
-AW
Holding very large lake trout vertically only by the gill will cause the gill plate to tear. Also, you will hear tearing or popping internally. I’ve always thought this was the spine. When these things happen you realize pretty quickly you need to handle these fish very differently.
With the advent of catch & release the holding of all species is much better. In the days of the vertical hold there wasn’t any going back so it didn’t really matter.
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