I just want everyone to know, This fish was caught by my 16yr old brother who has never really fished before. He was very timid and the pic didn't come out good at all as he was rushing me to take the fish from him. I only had him take a pic of me holding the fish because he didn't really want to hold it again and we needed a good pic. I can't take the credit but at least wanted to post this beauty for all you to see. I was very happy for him and will work on him becoming comfortable on holding these fish. He hooked another one that had to be at least 45+ but lost it at boatside. Good day for a kid who's never fished, huh?

No, It's actually a berkley 60pd lip grip with tape measure and does not swivel. I usually wouldn't use one but recently had 2 surgeries on my hand/finger including a skin graft so I have to be extra careful handling muskies with gill rake and teeth. The last thing I need is to shear of my grafts so I've been using 2 gloves and the lip grip to hold them. I've been placing my one hand on the lip grip and the other underneath with my thumb and index finger on each side of his body to prevent him from twisting then sliding my hand down his belly to support him for pics. I have to say that the lip grip works fantastic and locks down securely plus your able to quickly measure and get the fish back in the water. As soon as my hand is 100% healed I'll go back to using my hands with gloves and grab the gill plate. The lip grip does make dehooking the fish a lot easier since you have so much control.

Yeah, that was my biggest concern with the twisting and possibly breaking their jaws but if you support them underneath and move with them when they move then it works out fine. The key is to not hold them so tight with the lip grip and move with them if they shake. The grip won't unlocked unless you manually do it yourself so there's no need to hold on to the equipment so tight. When he started to move his head back and forth, I moved with him so there's no real pressure on his jaw. Great tool but I still think using your hands works out the best