It should go without saying that fish care should be the top priority for all anglers. Rivers, lakes and the sea are not sterile environments and harbour many pathogens like fungi, bacteria and viruses. The fish’s mucus layer acts as a barrier, but an injured fish is prone to every infectious organism. A fish’s immune system has been developed over millions of years and is very effective but may need a helping hand if the fish is injured.
Intervention by an angler is rarely required and can be more damaging than helpful if performed incorrectly.
Here we look at crucial care techniques that can help an injured or stressed fish.
Wound treatment
1 Dry the wound
Failing to dry the wound will mean the antiseptic medication cannot stick. Dry the area immediately around the damage, being careful not to remove mucus from any other site.
2 Apply antiseptic
Be particularly careful to avoid the eyes and gills, apply the antiseptic with a clean cotton bud. There are commercial products specifically for fish, but iodine is easily accessible from chemists, and it works. Work the product gently into the tissue, careful not to exacerbate the damage.
3 Apply a barrier cream
There needs to be a physical barrier between the clean wound and the water.
Again there are commercial products, but human mouth ulcer gels are excellent. They also benefit from anti-inflammatories in the formulation, and Petroleum jelly products such as Vaseline would suffice at a push.
I think it is essential at this point to suggest all anglers carry a fish First Aid kit and treat it as significantly as your rod or bait.
Key fish care tips
For the good of every fish, it is best to learn best practice, handling and unhooking techniques. A minor hook injury is best left for the fish themselves, and they are pretty good at it and have done it for a long time.
- Keep calm during the unhooking procedure.
- If you rush the unhooking, you will most likely injure the fish
- Fish don’t like being out of the water; they can’t breathe! So it is your responsibility to do everything to hand to minimise the time the fish is out of the water.
- Your unhooking mat should be under the fish at trophy picture time. Also, always keep it low to the ground
- Don’t stand up with a fish when posing for photos. Dropping the fish is a sure-fire way to injure it.
- Always be careful of the gills as damage can easily cause fatal haemorrhage
- Take care when removing hooks. Ham-fisted use of forceps near gills is a recipe for disaster.
- Soaking the unhooking mat with lake water will help protect the fish’s mucus layer.
- Releasing a fish via a net is by far the best method.
- Allow the fish time to recover in the water. When it shows signs of being strong enough to swim off, it is acceptable to release it. Do not release the fish straight away.
