When a fish is caught, limit the time you play the fish. Exhausting your fish before netting it will mean that it is less likely to survive if released. A released fish needs to have some strength left to survive. It must have enough energy to re-oxygenate its own blood. An exhausted fish my swim away only to die a few minutes later, out of sight and out of mind. The longer you keep a fish out of water, the more strength it needs to re-oxygenate its blood when released. You can't go without oxygen for a minute or longer and either can a fish! Limit the time you keep a fish out of water to a minute or less to insure its safety.

Dispatching a fish that is to be kept in a timely manner is the best way and the humane way to deal with your catch. Two or three sharp blows with a weighted, blunt instrument, striking the fish between and slightly behind the eyes is the best way to dispatch a fish. Any twelve to twenty four inch hardwood will work. A length of one inch galvanized pipe will word. The broken handle of a paddle, cut to length will work. After you arrive at your camp, take a walk in the bush and find a dried hardwood branch that is about one inch or more in diameter and cut it to size with a camp saw.

Leaving a fish out of the water, to expire by suffocation is not humane. Leaving a fish on a stringer will often cause it to die slowly by suffocation as well.

Some day your photographs are going to tell some other fisherman how conscientious you are or are not! Taking photos of your fish is often the most common way of damaging a fish that is to be returned to the water. In the excitement we forget to take care. We must put fish handling rules first when taking photographs. Hold your fish horizontally at the water's surface to remove hooks and to take a photograph.

About Excellent Adventures Excellent Adventures operates a Commercial Air Service for our clients. It includes Dehavilland Dhc-3 Otter, Beech 18 and a Cessna 185 aircraft. We also utilize an Aeronca Champ for maintaining and servicing the Outpost Camps. Established in 1990, Excellent Adventures operates six exclusive outpost camps on remote wilderness fly-in only lakes. Five of these are within a 40 minute flight of our Ear Falls float-plane base. Along with fully modern cabins with indoor plumbing we also offer our clients lakes with choices of 6 different species of fish. Whether you are looking for trophy fishing or a lake that offers action packed days, we have it all . Our fishing is simply World Class. When we began managing our lakes almost twenty years ago, policies were implemented to preserve the productivity of our fisheries. While guests are allowed to bring limits home from most of our lakes they must pay attention to there specific lake policies. All of our lakes have a strict 'No Trophies Home' policy to insure our fisheries remain the quality that makes our guests return year after year. This also includes the policies of 'Catch and Release, consumption of smaller fish only' at our Headwaters Trophy Outpost. Modern ‘life like’ replicas of your trophy fish can be made by today's expert taxidermists from a good photograph and just taking two measurements. We also expect our guest to review and practice proper fish handling to insure that fish returned to the lakes will remain healthy and contribute to next years production. All these lakes are superior in habitat for game fish. They all have flowage through them and the constant supply of water delivers the nutrients that support the food chain that in turn feeds the fish with a never ending supply of prey. Today with our policies that the trophy fish are returned to the waters unharmed and the spawning population of female fish will grow it assures that these world class lakes maintain there high quality for the next generation of fishermen to enjoy. Outpost Links: Brownstone Conifer Hailstone Headwaters Papaonga Sumach

Catch And Release Handling Tips