Whiting dying

[bassboy]

Hi all,on Friday night I went fishing and we caught about 20 whiting .One of the whiting coughed up a ragworm and I used it as bait and caught 4 more whiting.When I was putting the whiting back in ,8 of them died even though they were released them in less than 10seconds and were only lip hooked.can anyone please give me a few tips to stop this please,thanks

[chuckaroo]

think that its almost impossible to prevent.. delicate little fish
dont concern myself to much about it, plenty of them about. and they'll make a great meal for a passing gull

[donal domeney]

Have a bucket of sea water next to you, when you catch a fish place it in the water attached to the trace. After casting out a new trace remove the hook from the fish and place it back in the bucket to give a minute or two to recover.

Try to return the fish into deep water away from the edge of the surf, empting the water at the same.

Fill up the bucket again for the next fish

I use this system at SAI comps with a 90% return rate.
At a few of the comps I’ve had the anglers next to me using my bucket to try to keep their fish alive too.

[donal murphy]

Good tip Donal.. Thanks

[bassboy]

Thanks I was quickly unhooking them and just dropping them down the side of the harbour carefully but it doesn't really seem to work for whiting .thanks for replies .i will have to try the bucket and water

[Eoin]

you probably did this already but dont throw them back, place them gently back as the belly flop impact can stun and even kill them.

[mojo]

They die mainly from the temperature shock, this can damage the gills. The sea is still 5-7 C while the air can be much colder. The last few nights have been below freezing. I agree with the bucket of water for unhooking/returning the fish.