Catch and Release

Catch and release is the practice of returning a captured fish to the water alive, central to recreational angling and to scientific tag-and-recapture programs. Survival depends on hooking location, fight time, air exposure, and barotrauma in deep-caught fish, with post-release mortality ranging from near zero for lip-hooked fish on barbless hooks to over 50 percent for deeply hooked or decompressed individuals. Management uses it through minimum and maximum size limits, slot limits, and tournament rules, and pairs it with descending devices and circle hooks to raise survival. It supports stock conservation only when release mortality stays low.