I love Bill Dance but he definitely holds them wrong a fair amount. Joe Thomas does it a lot.

This is Mark Stevenson with his State Record Bass that went 17.67 pounds. Some would say he is "breaking" the jaw of the bass by holding it this way. What would you think? Countless numbers of folks held this fish to have their pic taken with it. I am sure they were not nearly as aware of "how to properly" hold a bass as we are today but still she survived. She lived another TEN YEARS in the large aquarium at BPS Springfield Mo.

I think carpet kills more fish than how we hold them. Any fish over 5# deserves to get a little special hold. Love them and leave them!

If I�m fun fishing I play them out , when they are tired easier to
handle , fishing tournaments just get em in fastest / best way possible , put a big steel clip in their mouth with a cable and float . Next put them in live well for rest of the day , drive all over the lake , take em out , put them all in a bag with just enough water , carry them for a while , then put em in a laundry basket ......... you know the rest .

You don't have to be liberal or a PETA person to take care of your catch, just do it. What makes it so hard.
Even people who eat fish try to take care of them, so not to spoil or ruin. So why not if you want them to live.
Doesn't matter if they have feeling or not. It's just to easy to do it right

That story was put out the year they had all the Share lunkers die. And there were not that many total 13+ fish that year. Many caught prior to that year and several since with far less mortality. You get the picture?

most fish I catch hit the carpet after I swing them and a lot of them get stepped on. this is all before I pick the best angle for the pic of the ones over 7lb

Vertical doesn't hurt them and neither does carpet. Bunch of tree huggers.

We have come a long way in learning how to handle the bass that we catch. Unfortunately yes, a lot of people handled her before T.P.&W. got to the marina. The thanks goes to David Campbell of the Freshwater Fisheries for saving her life.

We have come a long way in learning how to handle the bass that we catch. Unfortunately yes, a lot of people handled her before T.P.&W. got to the marina. The thanks goes to David Campbell of the Freshwater Fisheries for saving her life.

I am far from being a �tree hugger� or a PETA nutcase. I don�t like seeing dumb things on TV that�ll be copied by the general public. Once again, this morning on a tv show, another host catches a 3-4lb bass. He sits there holding the fish by the jaw with zero support as he continuously shakes the fish. He�s explaining about the area, things to do like snowmobiling etc. He finally stops talking, pulls the hook and releases it. How�d you like to have your head held underwater for a couple of minutes while some idiot sits around talking about the area? I get it that we are human and it�s a stupid fish, but why abuse them and possibly make it hard for the fish to survive for someone else to catch. If you want to eat it, fine, but if you are going to release it, then take care of it so somebody else can catch it someday.