CNR FISHING
What is CNR fishing?
CNR is short for Catch and Release. This entails releasing fishes back into the water instead of capturing them. This sustains the fish population and prevents them from being overfished.
A 1kg barramudi caught in Pulau Ubin. We made sure to release it back into the water! All barramundi over 500g should be released.
Why should we practise CNR fishing?
CNR fishing helps to sustain the fish population, maintaining their numbers so that they can sufficiently reproduce, continuing to exist with new generations. This way, people will have an ample supply of fish to catch and the release of foreign species into waterways will be reduced. This is due to how anglers illegally release foreign species into Singapore's waterways is due to the shortage of fishes.
You may ask,"What about the invasive species that we catch? Shouldn't we kill them?"
We respect your choice to kill or release these species. We still encourage their release of these invasive species as in the current situation, we feel that we should just release most of the fishes that we catch so as to maintain the stocks in our waterways so that people will not release more foreign species into the waterways. We want to prevent further introduction of other foreign species that will further damage the ecosystem.
HOOKS:
Hooks play a major role in the survival of a fish. It minimises the injuries to the fish when the fish is hooked. We want to minimise damages to the fish when we release it.
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There are 3 types of hooks:
1. J-hook
2. Circle hook
3. Treble hook
J-hook
Circle hook
Treble hook
Below are brief descriptions of the hooks, along with a safety rating, with 1 being the most unsafe and 3 being the safest.
J-hook: The universal fishing hook, the J-hook is the most widely used hook in the world of fishing. When fishing with a J-hook, you need to strike to set the hook in the fish's mouth, if not the hook may end up getting swallowed by the fish, resulting the fish getting gut-hooked.
Safety rating: 2
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Circle hook: Mostly used when baiting. The circle hook ensures that the fish gets hooked at the side of the mouth, preventing the fish from getting painfully gut-hooked. There is no need to set the hook when fishing with circle hooks - the fish will set the hook when it moves about. Once you feek the fish tugging, immediately start reeling in line.
Safety rating: 3
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Treble hook: A 3-point hook that mainly comes with lures. Nobody really uses these hooks on baiting rigs. This hook is the most hurting of all the hooks as the fish gets hooked on many areas, increasing the likelihood of injuries, especially if the fish is accidentally foul-hooked.
Safety rating: 1
General guideline for which hook to use when fishing:
- When baiting, always use circle hooks. Not only will you catch more fish, the fish caught will also not be gut-hooked, ensuring their survival.
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- You can use J-hooks in any scenario, however when you feel the fish bite down, set the hook immediately, if not the fish may swallow the hook and get gut-hooked, potentially killing it.
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- Treble hooks are not recommended when doing CNR fishing due to the amount of injuries they do to the fish. When using treble hooks, debarbing is a must to reduce injury to the fish. Most pay ponds are CNR and they do not allow the use of treble hooks, only debarbed single point hooks for luring. Some ponds do allow treble hooks but only debarbed ones.
A single hook. It has a slightly bigger eye than J hooks.
A paypond in Kentucky, USA.
DEBARBING:
If you take a look at the above pictures, there is a barb sticking out from the hook. All the hooks above are barbed hooks. Barbed hooks hold on to the fish's mouth better but they do more injury to the fish. Debarbed hooks will come off clean with little injury to the fish, while barbed hooks will rip flesh out when taken out.
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How to debarb hooks
you need:​
- a plier
- the hook you want to debarb
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1. Grab the hook tightly with your hand and hold the plier in the other hand
2. Bring the plier at the barb and clamp down hard
3. The barb should bend down without its tip exposed or it will break off
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*Alternatively, you could buy debarbed hooks from tackle shops. These hooks come without the barb.
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A standard fishing piler.
On the left, a barbed hook. On the right, a debarbed hook.
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That is all for CNR fishing, we hope you can take up and practice CnR fishing. Only bring home your catch if the fish has no hope of surviving. Wounds everywhere and not recovering even after a long time are symptoms of a weak fish.
References:
Takemefishingorg. (2016). Takemefishingorg. Retrieved 18 August, 2016, from https://www.takemefishing.org/how-to-fish/how-to-catch-fish/how-to-release-a-fish/ In-text citation: (Takemefishingorg, 2016
Fishandboatcom. (2016). Fishandboatcom. Retrieved 18 August, 2016, from http://fishandboat.com/education/learning/fish_funda/catch_release.htm
In-text citation: (Fishandboatcom, 2016)
Fixcom. (2016). Fixcom. Retrieved 18 August, 2016, from https://www.fix.com/blog/catch-and-release-fishing/
In-text citation: (Fixcom, 2016)