I caught my first lakers last weekend, and I’m going back out tomorrow to try to catch some more. Last weekend, my brother and I didn’t really know how to handle them well, so we were leaving them in the net while we got them off the hook. It didn’t seem ideal, partly because they are big and feisty fish, and partly because the net just wanted to grab lures and complicate things.
Is there a tried and true way to handle lakers? We bought some longer pliers, and we are going to pinch the barbs on the hooks to make things a little less painful for the fish, but with the way they attack lures we had some pretty gnarly situations on our hands last weekend.
I really don’t want to go out there and needlessly hurt fish any more than necessary on any given outing. And considering how amazing dinner was the other night from the one we had to keep, we will be putting some lakers in our freezer for this winter, but we would really like to do it in the most painless way possible for the fish.
Thanks in advance for any tips you may have, and happy fishing to all!