Letter to the editor:

Catch and release

Submitted by Phil Anthony
Posted 8/18/26

Dear editor:

A recent experience on a little stream in the Bighorns prompts me to reach out to all your readers who may also be anglers.

The experience involved seeing, and sometimes …

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Letter to the editor:

Catch and release

Posted

Dear editor:

A recent experience on a little stream in the Bighorns prompts me to reach out to all your readers who may also be anglers.

The experience involved seeing, and sometimes landing, fish with human handprints on them. This is a result of handling fish with dry hands, which damages the slime layer on fish, allowing bacteria, fungus or other diseases to infect the fish's skin. It can be fatal to fish.

The solution is simple: if you're going to release a fish, wet your hands first. (You're going to have to rinse your hands in the stream afterwards anyway. They're going to get wet regardless.) Handle the fish as little as possible. Do you have to have the picture, knowing you may be killing the fish? 

 

Phil Anthony

Powell

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