SCIENTIFIC
John Luef with a tagged Englishman about to be released.
By John Luef
D
Fred Clarke with a tagged Scotsman.
64 • SKI-BOAT January/February 2021
EEP sea angling can give any angler many exciting and thrilling experiences, but there is little to beat the satisfaction of fighting a nice fish on light tackle, landing it, taking some photos and then tagging the fish and releasing it to fight another day. Hopefully it will get caught again sometime in the future, because these recaptures allow scientists to learn a lot about various aspects of the species. In my opinion anglers generally go through a few phases when getting involved in deep sea angling. First the excitement grabs you and you want to get out there as much as possible and you keep nearly all the fish you catch, only releasing undersize and over quota fish. You also fish with heavy tackle so that you don’t lose any fish hooked. Then, after a while, the initial novelty wears off; you have been involved with the sport longer and have caught some nice fish, and you are more aware of the environmental issues which are normally “preached” by clubs, associations and affiliations involved with the sport. You also start experimenting with lighter tackle. At this stage you start releasing more fish and keeping less.
