Air Exposure Time of Trout Released by Anglers during Catch and Release

Research of catch-and-release fishing has included air exposure time as a contributing factor in the lethal and sublethal impacts to fish. However, to our knowledge, no studies have observed the amount of time anglers actually expose fish to air when recreationally fishing. We observed 280 anglers on several waters where catch and release was commonly practiced for trout and timed how long they exposed trout to air before releasing them back to the water. We also noted several angling characteristics to evaluate whether they influenced air exposure times, including the type of gear (fly, lure, bait), fishing on foot or from a boat, handling method (hand, net), and a subjective measure of trout size (small, medium, large). The longest continuous interval that anglers exposed trout to air averaged 26.1 s (range, 0-160 s), and only 4% of the anglers held fish out of the water continuously for >60 s. Total air exposure averaged 29.4 s, ranged from 0 to 165 s, and differed from the longest air exposure by only 3.3 s because most of the released trout (78%) were held out of the water only one time. Anglers who handled trout by hand (rather than using a landing net) and used flies (rather than bait or lures) held fish out of water for less time. Larger trout were exposed to air longer ((x) over bar = 36.0 s) than small ((x) over bar = 22.5 s) or medium-sized ((x) over bar = 27.1 s) trout. However, no angling characteristic increased air exposure by more than 14 s. Fight time averaged 53.0 s and ranged from 7 to 128 s. We conclude that from an air exposure perspective, most of the trout released by anglers in our study were not exposed to air for times that would cause mortality or substantively increase sublethal effects from catch and release.