Looking to see what you guys use? I mainly fish fresh water but have some Bay trips planned this summer. Looking for something lightweight and simple. No need for one that doubles as a scale, already got a scale.

I like "The Fish Grip" available almost everywhere. Here, to see what I am referring to:

Fish Grip

They are light and I keep mine right below my seat for an easy grab.

One warning: use it only on fish; don't use it to grab anything thicker, say like a limb. It will mess it up.

Brad

I have the ones Brad listed.

Perhaps a dumb question: What's the point of fish grips? Does it just make it easier to get bigger fish into the kayak?

Some fish have teeth.

I prefer a rubber net. Much easier on the fish, and much easier to land a fish with. Especially in the summer, I don't like to overplay them. I use the lightest tackle the conditions will permit, and I like to get them landed, revived, and released as quickly as possible. Much better survival rates. I also feel that the lip grippers have the potential to cause irreversible damage to a struggling fish's jaw in many instances.

The Rapala fish grip--Academy Sports and Outdoors.

Drag a 40# blue cat to the boat one time without grips
Grips arent for dinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuzK1JUa6jg

I have a Boga for grips, a net for everything else.

It was noted almost a century ago by Naturalists, Biologists and big-game hunters that very often an animal grabbed by the nape of the neck will go limp and stop struggling. It is as if their survival instinct recognizes the fight is over. One man in Africa observed a large cat, a leopard as I recall, jump over a rather high make-shift wood fence, chase around to grab a fleeing/bleating goat, then once it had it by the back of the neck, the goat went essentially limp. The cat walked back over to the wooden fence and jumped it/scaled it and off it went with its dinner in its mouth. (Power: That's impressive to see a leopard jump over a fence and/or carry a large animal up 20 or 30 feet in a tree to eat it!!!)

Most fish sort of follow this same pattern where once their heads are out of the water, they slow down a bit, but when they are lifted by their lip, the fight is often over. They slow way down almost immediately. Drop it accidentally back into your boat? And, they'll take off all over again jumping and thrashing around.

Anyway, I have found that the big plastic grips do no damage and the fish seem almost immediately controllable as if hypnotized once you grab them with the grips. I often do this and then take the hook out.

The less thrashing around I think the better for a fish. A net works fine, too.

And, I'm not scared by many things, but treble hooks make me tremble! I want the fish subdued when I work one of those loose. Ha!

Brad

My fish grips failed recently. Didn't get the chance to measure that one. I lost her at the take out while lifting her from the bottom of the yak. She was the largest channel cat id ever caught. Fish grip malfunction has never been an issue before. But, I may have just squeezed them too hard which caused them to open a lil in her mouth or they might have been worn out. So, I trashed em!

That fish came from a big hole in the river near the take out. I'll go back n get her soon