Do combat caught salmon survive to spawn if released?

[PhlyanPan]

I know deep water kings in the summer is sketchy as far as survival rates but what about this time of year.  If I release a king caught in relatively shallow water would it live to spawn?  

[bandrus1]

1 think for sure is it wont if ya keep it..

[PhlyanPan]

What if I have a very large fish tank at home? 

 

 

1 think for sure is it wont if ya keep it..

[TyeeTanic]

We have sucessfully released staging kings in the past. It takes a while to "revive" them. What we do is lock them on a boca grip, which is tied to a rope. We then put the fish in the water with about 8 ft of rope out and the rope secured to a cleet on the boat. Let it ride in the wake for about 5 to 10 minutes. You'll see them eventually start fighting the line. Just pull in the boca grip and open to release the fish. They normally shoot right down with lots of energy.

 

The other good thing about it is you don't need to hang off the back of the boat to revive the fish. You put it in the water (takes 1 minute) and then get onto putting your rods back in the water and cleaning up the boat. It's very efficient.

Edited September 18, 2015 by TyeeTanic

[Sk8man]

It can be done and we may do it but who really knows whether they actually make it. From what I understand there is a great amount of lactic acid build up during the fight and it may not be something that reduces quickly and  these fish may already also be compromised in terms of their physical status because they are in the process of spawning and dying....they are in  a much different situation and status than the younger silvers and in all probability much weakened and less resilient in terms of "coming back" even after being "revived".  At this point in the season a lot of the fight is also missing in the matures in comparison to earlier on or when compared with younger and smaller salmon and I think this also underscores the weakened condition.

[Paul Czarnecki]

They will ALL die......in a month or so.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

[tuffishooker]

Ditto on the boca grip T.T. Seen too many belly-up " live" releases and had to watch the torpedo type live release on other boats by so-called sportsman .

 

Rubber on the road ; some fish caught in Port Dalhousie harbour have been carried over the "dam" and dumped into the 12 mile creek to survive to the upper creek to break up the spawning beds of native fish [ not a good idea !]

[Sk8man]

They will ALL die......in a month or so.

Sent from my iPhone using Lake Ontario United

And hopefully AFTER spawning