Shad at St Mullins

[boycie89]

lads i dont know what people were on about when they said there fish died ! i had 43 yeasterday as i said and all swam away fine ! the way i did it was by sitting the fish beside me in the water and used the grass in the water to sit him upright i just left them sitting there and fished on and after a minute of recuperation they shot off ! not 1 fish died ! if all managed to live i dont want to think of what some people call catch & release ! ...............oh and cheers for the congrats davy

[shamoo0804]

Fair play for getting a result after the hours you put in lad.

[Davy Murdoch]

you`re spot on boycie. i think a few people were to quick to get fishing again after catching one that they didn`t bother to make sure the fish was ok.as you said if they were kept upright they swam away strong.but some people must`ve been just letting the fish lie on its side to die.
some will die cos of bleeding but you can do better to save all the rest......

[WrasseBasher]

lads i dont know what people were on about when they said there fish died ! i had 43 yeasterday as i said and all swam away fine ! the way i did it was by sitting the fish beside me in the water and used the grass in the water to sit him upright i just left them sitting there and fished on and after a minute of recuperation they shot off ! not 1 fish died ! if all managed to live i dont want to think of what some people call catch & release ! ...............oh and cheers for the congrats davy

I AGREE TOO BUD NO NEED FOR THEM TO GO BACK DEAD, MAYBE THE ODD ONE OR TWO BUT I SAW AT LEAST TWENTY ALL ALONG THE BANK DEAD...

[Dave]

They do seem to be quite a delicate fish in that respect alright but once you give them a minute or two to recover they swim off just fine or at least the couple that I caught did. I did the same thing as yourself Boycie, if they didn't swim off straight away I kept them upright in the weed/grass whilst I fished on and it seemed to do the trick. The evening I was down there though there wasn't too many being caught so I didn't see any floating in the margins or anything like that.

[round_ourway]

cracking pictures. well done lads. looks amazing

[fishboy]

Maybe a few signs could be erected by the local angling club with fish handling skills being displayed clearly ?, wouldnt cost too much and would be benificial to the angler and fish, no need to handle the fish at all really, unhook it in the net in the water and with wet hands support the fish until she is kicking and wanting to swim off. happy days, their is no need for 20 odd fish to be dead on the bank, , sounds like inexperienced anglers to me.