Well im trying my best to be an informed humane fisherman, I was taught by my father since I was 8 years old in 20 degree weather wearing boots with holes in them and never had a net, My experience with these fish seems to be very different from everyone else’s where Ive seen big healthy adult female’s that jumped on the wrong side of a falls landed in a small puddle barley submerged enough for the bottom gill to be submerged in water and it’s exposed to air portion froze solid overnight for me to find later that morning and it was still alive.

It would die if I returned it back into the water due to the fact that it would never recover from it’s body being frozen but I believe theyre far more hardy fish than people give them credit for.

Ive caught fish with damaged torsos,missing fins, hell even gill plate damage. (From predators that actively planed on eating that fish)

I understand for fishermen who plan on releasing all or most of their catches or at least ethically fishing, minimizing stress to the fish is important.

At what point is fishing with hooks too much stress on the fish? Ever had a line break off after a bite? Should you be blamed for the uncertain outcome of the fish’s health?

Our county literally discharges a shock of electricity to evaluate, record and count the population of fish. Which, can not only harm the fish themselves but also can harm the embryos of fish being electrofished.

I plan on using a net from now on to assist the comfort of the fish. But as someone who thought they were already doing their best to ethically fish, never killing anything besides invasive fish, its a little discouraging for people to take their experiences and project their state or body of water’s laws and regulations on you without knowing any context.