Information · Releasing fish properly

Trout and grayling

Sensitive salmonids from cold water: every second in the air and every extra degree counts.

ideally without taking it out of the water

What you need

  • Landing net with a rubberised mesh
  • Barbless hook (required on many «catch and release» stretches)
  • Small pliers

Steps

  1. 1

    Bring the fish in quickly -- a long fight exhausts it.

  2. 2

    If possible, remove the hook with the fish still in the water, in the landing net.

  3. 3

    If you touch it, only do so with a wet, cold hand, without squeezing.

  4. 4

    Hold it with its head upstream, in the current, until it swims off by itself.

Tips

  • In summer, when the water goes above ~18-20 °C, trout suffer even without being caught: fish in the morning or avoid long fights.
  • Keeping grayling is forbidden by the closed-season order: it's always released.
  • On the associations' «catch and release» stretches, the rules (usually barbless lures and mandatory release) are written on the permit.