Another important thing you can do to help release your fish in good shape is to be prepared. Anything you can do to get the fish back in the water as quickly as possible will help ensure its survival. If you have everything you need within your reach, you won t have to keep the fish out of water any longer than you have to. Some people like to weigh trophy fish before they release them. When you weigh a fish, try to use a scale that allows you to place the fish on it, or place the fish in something that will be lifted.
Most scales have a hook on the end and do damage to fish.
Never place this in the eye of a fish, or in his gills. Place the fish in a wet towel and lift it with the hook. Remove the fish and weigh the wet towel and subtract the weight of the towel to get the weight of the fish. Or, zero the scale out with the towel attached, and then weigh the fish. An alternative to using a scale to obtain the weight of a fish is to carefully measure the length and girth of the fish and then use the calculator I have provided at the bottom of this page.