Chances of this fish surviving??

[fisherben]

Hey forumers! Recently I was fishing a decent sized creek and I hooked and landed a wild, 17 inch coastal cutthroat in spawning colors. The awesome fish fought hard for about 30 seconds, gaining flight multiple times and doing a tail walk. My friend and I were able to hoist it out of the water and over a 4 foot cliff into the net. We used a single hook, and were able to easily unhook the fish. However, we in our excitement of taking pictures and measuring the fish we accidentally kept the fish out of the water for a confirmed minute and 12 seconds. I could easily tell that the fish was very tired out, due to its lack of energy during the picture taking and measuring process, however the fish appeared to swim away unharmed when released. This really bothered me, because it only seemed right that my largest wild trout Iv'e ever caught survived after giving an amazing fight! It really was a poor choice to keep it out of the water for so long... Could anyone please tell me what its chances are of survival are? Please don't "sugarcoat" your answers, either as I need to deal with the reality of this situation in order to do a much better job next time! What is the maximum amount of time a fish should be out of the water at a time if removal from the water is necessary?

Thank you guys so much!!!

[RiverChromeGS]

Good chance of surviving. Cutties are prettt hardy, as long as it wasnt hooked in the gills. You definetely reduced its chances of survival tho, so when possible do your pics at the waters edge so they can stay in the water and breathe

[fisherben]

Thank you so much!! That's what I really needed to hear. We will strive to keep our fish in the water while taking pictures. As you probably can infer, that is very hard to do at the spot we were fishing at, since there was a 3.5-4 foot cliff separating us from the water. Again, thanks!!!

[bigskyx]

It's great that you're so concerned and willing to learn Ben! I personally think it's best to not take wild fish out of the water or even touch them if you can avoid it. Here's one link for some reading. Google will find you more studies.

"Ferguson and Tufts (1992) found that there were direct effects of air exposure duration on
mortality of rainbow trout. Rainbow trout that were chased for approximately 10 min had a
survival rate of 88%, however this fell to 62% for fish that were subsequently exposed to air for
30 s and survival was only 28% for fish exposed to air for 60 s"

http://www.wildtroutstreams.com/CatchRe ... elines.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kieth stone]

I bet it will be all good. Good on you though for being concerned about it. Another tip for all fish is never handle them with dry hands or a glove of any kind, even a landing glove. A wet hand is best. That is a very nice fish. Great color and nice sized.

[fear_no_fish]

Im glad theres some kids that care about fish still.
Right on for trying.
Maybe next time you can move down or up the creek with the fish in the water to a better location.
Any time out of the water is bad for fish, so the more you can keep the fish in the water the better.
If you really feel the need for a photo, you could still keep the fish in the water. You dont have to be in the picture.
Have your camera ready for a picture before the fish comes out of the water if anything

[fisherben]

Normally I would have kept the fish in the water while I unhooked it and measured it, but since I had to lift the fish up an almost 3.5 foot ledge, unfortunately that wasn't an option. The fight only lasted 24 seconds, as seen in the video, so I don't think the fish was too worn out. In fact, my video also shows that the fish was still tensing even as I was releasing it. I'd say that if a rainbow trout has a 28% chance of survival after a 10 min chase/fight and a 60 sec out-of-water time, then my fish must have had at least a 75% chance of survival with a 24 sec fight and a 72 sec time out of water. My hopes are up!

[fisherben]

And the link to our video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opP8vdRBoBI&safe=active" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fear_no_fish]

And the link to our video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opP8vdRBoBI&safe=active" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After seeing that, you need to change how you handle then release fish.
Are you at least pinching your barbs?

[fisherben]

And the link to our video is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opP8vdRBoBI&safe=active" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After seeing that, you need to change how you handle then release fish.
Are you at least pinching your barbs?

Yes, we do fish barbless...and please excuse my friend for the poor handling of the big cutthroat at the end. I myself was really dissapointed about how the fish even ended up in the stickerbushes as well. However, I make it a point to use a net whenever I fish(as evident in our other videos) and I try to encourage others to do the same and handle their fish properly and as safely as possible, whenever possible, to the utmost extent. We really don't like fishing off of sketchy ledges like the one in the video, however if we fished that pool from the other side we would be trespassing, so we had to rope those fish up the ledge, and I'm not proud of it either(not to mention my that my friend didn't even have a net when he caught the 20 inch fish). Thank you for your feedback, though. We will take proper handling very seriously from now on!

[RiverChromeGS]

Dont worry that last fish in the video is fine, you really couldnt do anything else all i can say is tire it out more before pulling it up so it doesnt move as much but you didnt drop it, the leaves were wet and you got it back pretty quick its fine!

[fisherben]

Dont worry that last fish in the video is fine, you really couldnt do anything else all i can say is tire it out more before pulling it up so it doesnt move as much but you didnt drop it, the leaves were wet and you got it back pretty quick its fine!

It really was all we could do in the situation. The leaves were wet and on that day the water was surprisingly low, so netting or tailing the fish wasn't an option, especially with thorny vines protruding out over the water. However, we will continue to do our best to carefully handle fish. Thanks for the feedback!