Dehookers

Question

I see you using these fish flippers or de-hookers in alot of shows but have never tried one myself,  what are some of the reasons you prefer using these as opposed to netting or lipping a fish?

Answer

Dehookers (also know as release tools), or fish flippers as we like to call them are a very important tool to have on your boat just like you would always keep pliers with you. We use the dehooker many times instead of netting or lipping a fish is because a lot of times we are not going to keep a fish so the less you can handle a fish the better the fish is when you release it. Netting a fish can cause a lot of slime loss from the fish coming in contact with the net and then the deck of your boat. Trying to grab a fish with your hand can sometimes be a hassel and especially a fish with a plug in its mouth. We use these dehookers so there is no need to harm fish that we know we are not going to release. There are also great when releasing a fish that has a mouth full of treble hooks attached to a plug.

Berkley makes some very well designed dehookers. They just released their newly designed models. Both models have floating textured grips, the standard dehooker comes in red and their deep water dehooker which has a ventilator spike to pop the air bladders on bottom fish such as tilefish comes in black. Both are reasonably priced and are a must for every fishing boat.