Keep ‘em Wet!

The Little Red River is incredibly low. We are getting very small squirts of generation every couple of days. These are always very tough fall conditions for our fish. Over the last week I’ve seen some awful images of incredible fish. These fish were being insanely mishandled and unfortunately some of these were guided fish. Please be conscious of how fish are handled and for how long. Their body weight this time of year is not designed to be held out of the water. So, we’re going to kick off a Keep ‘em Wet campaign! 

We got this idea from our friends at emrldwtranglers. We’ve all known for a long time that our fish don’t need to be out of the water for the classic “Grip and Grin” photos. We have all done it and we’ve all had our share of accidents while handling fish. Even guides like myself that have handled thousands if not hundreds of thousands of fish will make a mistake. We are going to make a conscious effort to keep our fish wet even through a photo op. 

Here are some suggestions:

Try taking pics of fish still partially submerged never actually removing them from the water or the net.  Knee deep water provides an easier place to take a pic. It keeps you from having to hunch way down if you want to get your mug in there with your beautiful fish. Remove the fly while still in the water and then let him go. 

When we handle fish this way, it helps reduce the risk of accidental drop, fingers inadvertently ending up in the gills, or the bear hug when the fish is trying to get away. 

Use the hash tag #keepemwet for your fish pics in the water to help promote awareness and ultimately protect our fish.