Fish Gripper

While kayak fishing, it is always risky to land ferocious fish which are hooked on crank bait. Because those treble hooks can hook myself, too. Ouch! I had a painful memory when I was landing striped bass couple of years ago. I tried to grab its mouth, but it shook its head at the very moment. It got my finger, but thanks god, I was using barbless treble hooks! It hurt but not that serious. If there were barbs, I don't even want to think about it. I was so lucky.

Since this experience, for my own safety, I exhaust fish before landing by dragging it over surface for a while. It is nothing different from chocking fish. It is not a bad tactic, but I always feel sorry for that. I also need to spend more time to revive the exhausted fish. You can consider to use a net, but a net takes space on already tiny kayak. Nylon nets also hurt fins of fish badly. Because nowadays I use mainly hard plastic lure, so I finally decide to have a fish gripper to reduce risk in landing.

I bought this Field & Stream's big game grip. Lately, I bought more Field & Stream's products than usual. But it was the only gripper at the store. More information is available at the linked web page.



So far, I am quite satisfied with it. Not only for kayak anglers, but for all anglers, I recommend fish gripper in general. It reduces all hassles in landing and handling fish.



Sponge grip makes the gripper easy to use with slimy hands. It was heavier than I thought. You need a bit of muscle to pull the trigger as shown in the picture above. A female angler complained about this. Durability of inner spring must be key review point. I will report about it later if I found any trouble.