Tony Sindt is a fisheries specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and in the short YouTube video below, he provides five tips for successfully releasing large fish such as flathead catfish, channel catfish, muskies, northern pike and lake sturgeon. Because Sindt filmed the video on the Minnesota River, he demonstrates with a large flathead catfish.
In addition to the release tools Sindt discusses for catfish, anglers who have the chance of catching muskies or pike should also have a mouth spreader and hook cutter. (Click here to read my article, “Catch-and-Release Tools and Techniques.”)
The goal with catch-and-release is allowing that fish to grow, reproduce and hopefully be caught again. With proper fish-handling techniques, you give the fish the best chance of survival.
