Influence of hook type on performance, hooking location, injury, and reflex action mortality predictors in float recreational angling for cyprinids: A case study in northeastern Poland

Fish Hooks and the Protection of Living Aquatic Resources in the Context of Recreational Catch-and-Release Fishing Practice and Fishing Tourism

“…Important factors having an impact on the post-release survival of fish include fish species [62,73]; water and air temperature [74][75][76]; the depth at which fishing is carried out [77][78][79]; landing duration [80,81]; fish landing manner [52,82]; anatomical hooking locations (AHL) [83][84][85][86]; the occurrence of bleeding and tissue damage [63,76,87]; unhooking duration, and the overall time the fish is exposed to the air [82,[88][89][90][91][92][93][94]; the manner and duration of keeping fish [95][96][97]. All of the factors mentioned above are ultimately influenced by the actions and behaviours of the individual angler: the angler's experience and knowledge [87,98,99]; choice of fishing method and the type of gear used [25,100], including the type of bait [76,87,101], and primarily the type and size of the fish hook [27][28][29][30]83,[102]…”

“…It is currently used as an indicator of behavioural disorders in C&R angling [28,94,[113][114][115][116][117]. Kapusta and Czarkowski [29] proposed the use of three indicators: tail grab, orientation, and VOR (Vestibular-Ocular Response) while stating that reflex disorders occur more frequently in fish caught using classic barbed hooks rather than alternative hook types.…”

“…Obviously, depending on the adopted specific angling method, a fishing rod may comprise a greater number of components. For example, a simple fishing rod used for popular float fishing is additionally comprised of a float (Figure 2d) intended to signal bites and weight (Figure 2e) to balance the float [29,99]. In other fishing methods, e.g., feeder fishing or method feeder fishing (fishing from the bottom using a groundbait feeder), the role of the float is taken over by a quiver tip.…”

“…The welfare and safety of released fish and the associated impact of the type of hook selected by anglers on their survivability has been the subject of numerous scientific studies (e.g., [27][28][29]83,87,103,105]). However, in Central and Eastern European countries, certain alternative hook types are basically unknown and not used in practice [29].…”

“…Releasing the caught fish makes sense when the chances of their survival are high. This condition can be fulfilled if anglers use safe, properly selected fishing gear, particularly suitable hooks [26][27][28][29]. When introducing new, safer gear solutions, fishing efficiency and effectiveness play a considerable role in addition to fish safety, as anglers will agree to use alternative solutions, including alternative fish hooks, if fishing efficiency is maintained [29][30][31].…”