Does catching a fish hurt or handicap it? (if you catch and release)?

Yes they can live! Handle the fish as little as possible, and also take care when removing the hook. If the fish has swallowed the hook, cut the line and release.

When releasing the fish, be sure to set the fish in the water, do not throw it,and if possible hold the tail and move gently back and forth to get water moving through the gills again. The fish will swim away when ready.

You can also purchase barbless hooks, which will make the catch and release practice much easier!

Good Luck Fishing!

Just wanna set the record straight, they do have nerves, they do feel pain, but I don't believe animals of any type feel pain the way we do. It takes a lot more than we can handle to debilitate any animal, hell, I watched a housecat get hit by a car the other day and it ran off to the side of the road. (Driving home along U.S. 1, it ran out from the median and right in front of the car in front of me and in the other lane, rolled a few times and just kept running, car had to have been going 45 or so)

Anyway...... sorry about the tangent.

If done CORRECTLY catch and release causes a fish little if any harm. There are factors that need to be taken into consideration. Every year, there's an amateur redfish tournament in my town in the heat of late summer. (ok, ok, for the rest of the world, it's the beginning of fall, but here in Fl, it's still hot as heck in October...) The Indian River Lagoon has no tide unless you are near an inlet, and we're about 35 miles away from the closest inlet where I'm at. So, there's about a 1 inch tide change, very little water movement, and water temps aren't much cooler than air temps... warm water holds less oxygen than cool water, there's no current to speak of to replenish oxygen, people catch these redfish and when they go to release, they don't make sure that the fish has it in it to swim off on it's own. I watch a lot of reds get caught and released to pop up 50 yards away because they suffocated.

This has nothing to do with the hook, mind you, it's improper handling that kills released fish more often than hooks.

This is a debate that's been running between anglers and scientists for YEARS, no one knows how well fish feel pain, some say they do others say they don't, the best way to reduce the stress of getting caught is to use barbless hooks, circle hooks catch in the side of the mouth and also to keep the fish in the water when removing the hook, i fly fish mainly for wild browns which i release due to their small size, the hooks are small and don't cause so much damage as say a big bass popper does, the hooks are a size 28 midge hook and on occasions the smallest hook size 32.

Fish are pretty tough. I too catch and release. Though the hook probably does cause the fish some discomfort, they don't suffer any real harmful damage that would affect its life. In fact fish can live full healthy lives with hooks in them, as long as its not too deep.So yes, they can live with and deal with their injuries pretty well. =)

some times is can it depends on how it takes the hook but most of the time the fish is ok

if done correctly the fish isn't hurt badly, I have on one river caught this one fish with odd markings 3 separate times over 3 years, the last time it was getting close to trophy size.

It's a fish. they swim, they eat, they pee. other then that, good for you for releasing him back to make more little fishies for me or anyone else to hook through wherever I hook him at. I also don't cry when i step on a bug. And when i sneeze i understand that i am killing germs....and yet i don't shed a tear. PETA is against animal cruelty and that's good, but PETA is psycho. So crazy in fact that they would like to do bodily harm to any HUMAN that would DARE have a pet!! that's right, you must let that dog,cat,snake,turtle,bird,lizard,frog rome the street with complete freedom. let them find their own food. Word to the wise, don't be too soft.....animal rights can go too far. ANYONE WANT BACON AND EGGS?

Its cruelty in plain words, making a whole in the body with hook...

They are so shoked after you catch them that they die after few days becaus eof it.

Fish are cold blooded. They do not feel pain.

it dosent hurt or handie cap it.