One major factor left out of this article: water temperature. Mortality when temperatures are low is near 0%, since colder water holds more dissolved oxygen. But doing C&R when water is really warm leads to high mortality, since the fish is already having a hard time getting enough oxygen before it was hooked, fought, and then pulled out of the water. I've watched half the puppy drum I caught go belly up during a really bad heat wave, while catching stripers on a cold March day saw every single fish take off like a bat out of hell when unhooked.
Get 'em back quickly in every case, but if it's hot keep release times to under 30 seconds.
Get 'em back quickly in every case, but if it's hot keep release times to under 30 seconds.
