# Catch and release > The fish is undersized, protected or outside the quota, and has to go back. How to play, hold and let it go, and how to cut the leader when the hook is too deep to take out. Source: https://finnfisk.no/en/gjenutsetting Language: en Alternate: https://finnfisk.no/gjenutsetting (nb-NO) --- Field guide The fish is undersized, the quota is full, or the species is protected. Then it goes back, and the next twenty seconds decide whether it lives. Here is how to unhook it, and how to cut the line when the hook sits too deep. [Rules per spot](https://finnfisk.no/fiskeplasser)[Pliers and cutters](https://finnfisk.no/utstyr) ## When the fish has to go back The limits sit in the regulation for the individual water, not in one national list. Read them before you go: you cannot measure your way out of a rule you do not know. - Under the minimum size The minimum size varies by species and watercourse, and sits in the regulation for that water. Measure the fish against a mark on the rod or the net, while it is still in the water. - Over the maximum size Many waters protect the big spawners with a maximum size, or a window where only fish between two lengths may be kept. There the biggest fish is the one you have to let go. - Closed season The spawning season is closed in most watercourses, and one species can be protected while others are legal in the same water on the same day. - The quota is full Daily and seasonal quotas apply however big the fish is. Once the quota is full, the rest goes back, or you stop fishing. - Wild fish and fin clips In several rivers you are asked to release fish whose adipose fin is intact, meaning wild fish. Check the adipose fin before you kill anything. - Salmon, sea trout, sea char Anadromous fish have their own seasons, their own quotas and a duty to report, and some stocks are closed entirely. Where reporting is required, released fish are reported too. - At once, and gently A fish you are not allowed to keep goes back immediately. What you do in the next few seconds decides whether “released” also means “alive”. ## How to let it go Two things kill released fish: a long fight and time in the air. Everything else on this list is detail beside those two. 1. 1 Decide before the fish is in. If the water has a minimum size, a maximum size or a quota, have pliers, cutters and net ready before the first cast. 2. 2 Play it in fast and firmly. A fish played to exhaustion can die hours after it swam away from you. A little more drag is gentler than a ten-minute fight. 3. 3 Leave it in the water. Air is what kills most released fish. If you can unhook it below the surface, the rest of this list barely matters. 4. 4 Wet your hands, and use a knotless rubber net if you use one. Dry hands, grass, gravel, snow and warm rock strip the slime layer that protects the fish from fungus and bacteria. 5. 5 Hold around the fish, never by the gills. One hand loosely under the belly, the other around the wrist of the tail. Do not squeeze the belly, and keep your fingers out from under the gill arch. 6. 6 Unhook it with long-nose pliers, not with your fingers. Push the hook out the way it went in, and turn it so the point comes clear if the barb has a hold. 7. 7 If it has to come up, count to ten. Camera ready before you lift, one lift, low over the water or over the net, and then back down. 8. 8 Let go when it holds itself. Hold it head into the current until the tail takes hold and it swims out of your hand. Never throw a fish back. ## Hook in deep? Cut the line The instinct is to pull the hook out. That is the wrong move once it sits behind the mouth: a fish with a hook left in it has good odds, a fish with a torn gill or a hole in its throat does not. ### Cut, do not pull If the hook is in the gills, the throat or the stomach, it stays there. A fish lives far better with a hook in it than with a torn gill arch or a hole in its throat. ### As close to the hook as you can get Cut the leader right at the hook, not up at the lure. A short end leaves less to snag on, and the fish can keep feeding. A single hook rusts out or works its way free. ### Treble in the throat Do not drag the whole lure back out through the mouth. Cut the hook shanks with small side cutters, one at a time, and lift out the pieces that come free on their own. ### Blood from the gills Bright blood from the gills means the odds are poor whatever you do. Cut it loose anyway, release it as gently as you can, and switch to a single hook for the rest of the day. ### Pinch the barb before you fish Pinch the barb down where fish have to go back. You lose a few on the way in and save nearly all of them on the way out. A single hook does the same job as a treble on a lure. ### Carry the tools on you Long-nose pliers, small side cutters and a line snip in your pocket or on a lanyard. Tools in the pack twenty metres away are tools you do not have when it counts. ## How to hold the fish The grip that suits a perch is wrong on a pike. What they share: wet hands, no fingers in the gills, and the body supported. - Trout and char Thin skin and a loose slime layer. Everything that touches the fish must be wet, and one roll in the grass is enough to give it a fungal infection weeks later. - Grayling A soft mouth the hook tears easily, and a big dorsal fin that carries no weight. Unhook it in the water, and support the fish under the belly. - Perch Lay your hand over the back from behind and the spiny dorsal folds down. Watch the sharp edge on the gill cover. Perch handle being handled well. - Pike Horizontal, always. Grip under the gill cover in front of the gill arches, the other hand under the belly. A big pike held vertically takes internal damage even if it swims away. - Big fish Over a kilo the jaw does not carry the weight of the fish. Two hands, the body horizontal, and the lift low enough that a slip lands in water. - On the ice Gills and eyes freeze in seconds. Hold the fish over the hole, unhook it with bare wet hands, and never lay it in the snow. - Warm water Above 18 to 20 degrees trout and salmon are on the edge, and released fish die more often even when they swim off nicely. Fish early and late, or leave the water alone. ## When it will not swim off ### Head into the current Support the fish upright with its head into the current, so the water runs the right way over the gills. Then you wait. It can take a minute, it can take five. ### In still water Move the fish slowly forwards, in a figure of eight or a gentle circle. Do not pull it back and forth: water running backwards through the gills does not help, it harms. ### Let the fish call it Feel the tail take hold and the fish push out of your hand. Let go too early and it turns on its side, and then you have to bring it back in. ### Watch it go A fish that rolls onto its side five metres out is food for the gulls. If it stays there, bring it gently back in and repeat until it holds itself steady. ### Fish brought up from deep water From many metres down the swim bladder can expand, and the fish cannot get back down. If you are fishing deep where fish must be released, move shallower rather than releasing fish that stay on the surface. ### Do not pass it around The fish is going back, not on show. One person handles it, the rest watch. Every hand-over is more seconds in the air and another chance to drop it on the rocks. ## Fish that must not go back Releasing is the rule for a fish you cannot keep, but not without exceptions. - Pink salmon An alien species in Norwegian watercourses, and it must not be released. Kill it and report the catch to the county governor or the river owners’ association. Check the current guidance before the season. - Other alien species Releasing a species where it does not belong helps it establish. If you are unsure what you have caught, photograph it and ask, but do not move the fish. - A fish that is dead If the fish dies before you get it back, separate rules apply in several watercourses, and some require it to be reported or handed in. Read the regulation for that water, and do not leave it lying there. - Never from one water to another Never move live fish, water or wet gear between watercourses. That is how minnow, crayfish plague and the salmon parasite Gyrodactylus salaris spread. Dry and disinfect your gear. Minimum and maximum sizes, quotas, closed seasons and reporting duties live in the rules for the individual water, and they change from season to season. Everything here is advisory: always check the water you are going to fish. [About Finnfisk and the sources](https://finnfisk.no/om) ## Common questions ### Do I have to release the fish? - Yes, if it is under the minimum size, over a maximum size, protected or outside the quota. Then it goes back at once. Otherwise it is your choice, but a fish you are not going to eat does more good in the water.[How to put a fish back alive](https://finnfisk.no/gjenutsetting) ### How do I release a fish without harming it? - Play it in quickly, keep it in the water, and handle it with wet hands or not at all. Unhook it with pliers while it stays submerged. If the hook is in the gills or the throat, cut the leader close to the hook rather than pulling it out. Hold the fish facing the current until it swims off by itself.