Charlie,

I'm no expert, but it doesn't seem too hard to heep away from the actual gill structures. I believe they have bony protection between gills and gill flap (the "gill rakers"). Try not to contact/damage these; they can give nasty cuts, and seriously harm the fish. Insert fingers slowly and carefully, and keep them as close to the gill flap as possible. There's a nice depression between the outer gill flap and the jaw bone to place your thumb and help keep it from being bitten.

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Also lots of good fish handling info here on the MInc site:
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Hemi, Very good!
I couldn't have done it. Too many technical terms for me.

You know I was just messing with ya. Don't ya?? 😀

When you slide your fingers in you'll notice a bone below the jaw that you'll grab. If the fish tries to thrash as you are going for the grab let go. For some reason I've never learned this lesson so speaking from experience – don't try to manhandle the fish. This is when the gills will cut you and on a big fish they can open you up – I've got the scars to prove it. To keep from getting fingers and thumb in a bad place make sure you press your thumb and fingers together around the bone in the gill cover.

Also… I see way too many pics of people with their thumb loose or over the top of the mouth or their index finger outside the gill cover. This is just asking for a trip to the hospital for sutures

Here's a pic of the proper Leech Lake Lip Lock.

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Jason, I thought you'd posted MY pics for a moment! 😀

Mine are more close-up, with sutures and blood, though. I won't post them, though I'm tempted to to serve as an object lesson. But I suppose most people are like me, and learn best by making their own mistakes… "><url url="[Permission to view this media is denied]
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that one didnt; the fish is from last year and my cut is from two years ago. A fish did cut through that glove this year though but didnt cut me. That was the last of regular gloves and I moved on to those lindner fish handling gloves.

Okay, okay; here's another object lesson.

Use the Leech Lake Lip Lock shown above, or the following can happen! Remember, the Large Lovely Ladies have quite a lot of mass and are strong, and when they thrash, it can be quite violent and cause your grip to slip in their Esox lucifer slime! [smilie=grandpa.gif]

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I had to pry the Large Lovely Lady's mouth open with my other hand to get this thumb back, resulting in pinprick punctures in the fingers of my other hand from the pincushion of teeth in the roof of her mouth! These pics are of the result, 9 sutures later…
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"mskyprey" said:
Ouch Tom and Jason. Those pictures speak volumes.

You've seen the teeth. Imagine them clamped on your thumb… [smilie=attention.gif]

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