Another fish gripper tool....

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jhtml?id=0012971013780a&navAction=jump&navCount=26&indexId=cat90003&podId=0012971&catalogCode=IF&parentId=cat90003&parentType=index&rid=&cmCat=MainCatcat20166&hasJS=true

Scwafish Sean and Chuck swear by these.....I'm thinking of getting one myself. Landing a fish that has a lure with 3 sets of treble hooks on a net is not a good thing  

It's Cheap and it floats  

price is right, but if trust the fish to a device that does'nt spin when your holding it chances are the fish will spin right off when you least expect it.  I suppose if you could get 'em on a stringer clip first?  I've lost some nice fish with this style so I went with a Boga and never looked back.

my .02,
ken

Don't let em spin!    The only thing I have had come off from spinning or thrashing in the past is bigger lings, so I brab 'em and fling the into the foot well and then put a leg on them...done.  Interestingly, any style of lip grippers don't seem to work well on cabezon because the shape of their mouth is flat...nothing to grip.

I just use a heavy leader and handline them into the boat, or grab the jig by the head and lift them over.  Why mutilate them more by grabbing them by the face with a big pliers?    I guess the ones with the integrated scale have some greater utility.

I used a pair of pilers.  Regular hardware store stuff.  I just wrap some black tape and coated wire and attach it to my yak.  I can get a big undersize Ling with them.  This year those Lings will be legal.

I know I'm LOW TECH!!!

Ken

Not all fishing involves heavy leaders or jigs, lings are just the only ones I have had spin off.

Grabbing the lip with the gripper, removing the hook easily, and releasing quickly is less harmful on most fish than netting it or grabbing it with gloves.  Most nets cause fish to loose some scales and protective slime.

Using a gripper has helped me avoid getting those nasty puncture wounds and infections on my hands that I use to get from handling rockfish and stripers.

Alex has that problem.  His skin peels off and burns, ect.  I've never had a problem, even lipping 10lb cabbies.  I guess my hands are pretty tough, I have mild psoriasis and (fortunately) the only symptom is heavier skin on my hands and fingers.

In the past on FW I usually would use a needle nose pliers to grab a trebble hook on fish that I didn't want to keep and shake him free.

Don't think I ever told any of you what happened to me on a trip to Davenport last summer.  Was out for several hours, caught a decent number of rockfish, then headed in.  Kind of felt myself a little out of breath as I was packing up, and headed up over the hill to SJ.

As I was cresting the summit, I really felt my lungs tightening up, and began feeling flush in my face.  I have occasional asthma, so took an inhale of albuterol.  Made it home, met my wife and kids, and they all asked why my face was so red.  Then the swelling began...

Had my wife take me to the ER, who pretty quickly took me in, put me on a nebulizer with O2 and more albuterol, stuck me with an IV and loaded me up with what was probably equivalent to Benadryl.  After an hour, the MD came in and hardly recognized me as the swelling had gone down.

The only thing I can attribute the allergic reaction to is getting stuck with some of the rockfish spines.  I've been out multiple times since then, and despite my caution, have managed to get stuck again -- I even manage to stick myself when cleaning the fish at home.  I do believe there is a toxin in the spine that caused me to have the reaction, but, so far, it is a one-time occurence.

I'll probably end up getting gloves like Joel posted, or some grabber.  I also carry around Benadryl, as well as will probably end up getting an Epi pen.  Anyone else ever experience this or heard of something similar?

-- Dave

Some members of the sculpin family can do this, but generally speaking those are more socal varieties the "scorpion fish".  Cabezon (a sculpin) also have highly toxic eggs, but I havent heard anything about their spines having any type of mojo.

oops that was me

I use that Cabela's fish lip gripper... for 8 bucks its a great investment.  

I find it particularly helpful with those feisty stripers when sturgeon fishing... when you crank em in they still flop all over the place, and with a two hook rig, it's much easier to handle them with that lip gripper than with bare hands.