03-19-2014, 12:11 PM
[#0000FF]You are wise to be prepared before your first "close encounter" with a spiny kitty. As a general rule, the smaller (up to about 20") cats have the sharpest spines. After they are a few years old the points on the pectoral and dorsal spines become worn down a bit from the activities of spawning and hunting food in rocky terrain. But even the blunted spines are hard and can cause damage to you or your gear.
You should always carry a good (big enough) net to scoop and control a cat before bringing it on board your boat, tube or toon...or before handling it on shore. Then, a pair of lip grippers can help you hold and control the fish without having to grab it with your hands.
I don't advise using the thumb grip on the lower jaw, like bassers like to use. Even smaller cats have powerful jaws and can chomp pretty hard. They don't have big pointy teeth but their raspy ones can remove skin.
Once you are more experienced with handling cats you can comfortably and safely grab them in one of several grips. But do not just grab them as you are swinging them up out of the water. First get them in a net and wait until they quit flopping enough to get a firm and safe grip.
In the attached pics you will see the most favored kitty grips. Many catters grip from the belly...running their thumb under one pectoral fin and allowing the second to protrude between their first and second fingers. That is probably the best for most folks. But the bigger the cat the bigger your hands have to be to hold and control them. Really bigguns are not easy to grip and handle. Better to stick with mechanical lip grippers and hold them down on a flat surface while working to remove the hook, etc.
If I am going to keep a cat...and put it in my wire basket...I always use a pair of stout side cutters or pliers to break off the pectoral and dorsal spines before releasing my first grip and putting the fish away. Ditto for using stringers. Removing those spines can prevent damage to you or your gear later and makes it much safer to take them off a stringer or out of a basket or live well. It also makes it easier to clean or fillet them. Those pectoral fins on the side can be locked in place and that makes it tough to hold the fish down for the filleting process.
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You should always carry a good (big enough) net to scoop and control a cat before bringing it on board your boat, tube or toon...or before handling it on shore. Then, a pair of lip grippers can help you hold and control the fish without having to grab it with your hands.
I don't advise using the thumb grip on the lower jaw, like bassers like to use. Even smaller cats have powerful jaws and can chomp pretty hard. They don't have big pointy teeth but their raspy ones can remove skin.
Once you are more experienced with handling cats you can comfortably and safely grab them in one of several grips. But do not just grab them as you are swinging them up out of the water. First get them in a net and wait until they quit flopping enough to get a firm and safe grip.
In the attached pics you will see the most favored kitty grips. Many catters grip from the belly...running their thumb under one pectoral fin and allowing the second to protrude between their first and second fingers. That is probably the best for most folks. But the bigger the cat the bigger your hands have to be to hold and control them. Really bigguns are not easy to grip and handle. Better to stick with mechanical lip grippers and hold them down on a flat surface while working to remove the hook, etc.
If I am going to keep a cat...and put it in my wire basket...I always use a pair of stout side cutters or pliers to break off the pectoral and dorsal spines before releasing my first grip and putting the fish away. Ditto for using stringers. Removing those spines can prevent damage to you or your gear later and makes it much safer to take them off a stringer or out of a basket or live well. It also makes it easier to clean or fillet them. Those pectoral fins on the side can be locked in place and that makes it tough to hold the fish down for the filleting process.
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[signature]