How do I hold a fish without getting hurt or hurting the fish?

The universal rules

• Wet your hands first. Dry hands strip the fish's protective slime coat.
• Don't grab the gills. You can damage the fish.
• Don't squeeze hard. You can rupture organs.
• Don't drop the fish. Handle it over the water or a soft surface.
• Use pliers to remove every hook. Don't try with bare fingers.

Bluegill, crappie, sunfish

Hold around the body with one hand, fingers wrapped around the back behind the head. Their dorsal-fin spines (the row of spikes on top of the back) are sharp but won't cut through skin if you grip firmly from below. Use pliers to grip the bend of the hook and back it out the way it went in.

Bass (largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, Alabama)

The standard hold is by the lower jaw, with your thumb inside the mouth and your forefinger under the chin (anglers call this "lipping" the bass). Bass have no teeth that hurt; the inside of the mouth feels like sandpaper. Keep the bass vertical, don't bend the jaw sideways (it can dislocate the jaw), and support the weight with your other hand under the belly if the fish is over a pound.

Catfish (where new anglers get hurt)

Catfish have spines on the front of the dorsal fin (top) and the two pectoral fins (sides, just behind the head) that lock into an upright position when the fish is stressed. The spines are sharp enough to puncture skin and the sting hurts for a couple of hours.

The safe grip from behind: come over the top of the fish from behind the gills, slide your hand forward so your palm sits on top of the head and your fingers and thumb wrap around behind the spines, not around them. Use pliers to remove the hook.

If a catfish does fin you: wash the puncture immediately with clean water and soap. The pain is sharp but goes away in a few hours. Watch for redness or swelling that gets worse over a day; that's an infection and needs a clinic visit. Roane Medical Center in Harriman is the closest hospital to most of the lake.

Anything you don't recognize

Hold it by the body from below, away from your face, with pliers ready for the hook. Take a photo from the side before releasing if you want to identify it later.

What did I just catch?

Common Watts Bar catches and how to tell them apart:

Bluegill. Round flat body shaped like a small pancake. Deep blue or purple gill plates. A black ear-shaped tab on the rear edge of the gill cover (this is the giveaway). Orange or yellow belly. Small mouth. The most common Watts Bar catch.

Other sunfish (longear, redear, pumpkinseed, green sunfish): same general body shape as bluegill but with different colors (orange spots, blue-green flecks, longer ear tabs). All are sunfish, all behave similarly, all are fine to eat.

Crappie. Silvery body with dark blotches (black crappie) or vertical bars (white crappie). Mouth large for the body size; the inside of the mouth is white and tears easily.

Largemouth bass. Olive-green back, white belly, dark horizontal stripe down each side. Upper jaw extends past the back edge of the eye when the mouth is closed.

Smallmouth bass. Brown or bronze body with vertical bars or blotches. Upper jaw stops at the eye, not past it. Less common from a bank or dock; more often a boat catch in lower-lake rocks.

Channel catfish. Long, smooth body, gray-blue on top, white belly, deeply forked tail, four pairs of whiskers (barbels) around the mouth. No scales. Spines on the dorsal and pectoral fins are sharp.

Drum (freshwater drum, also called sheepshead). Round silvery body, deep humped back. Makes a croaking noise when you hold it. Common bycatch when fishing for catfish.

White bass or stripers. Silvery body with horizontal black stripes. Stripers are bigger (often 3 to 20+ pounds), white bass smaller (under 3 pounds).

If you can't match what you caught, photograph it from the side and call the TWRA hotline (1-800-262-6704) or post on the agency's social media for an ID.

Hook in a finger (it will happen)

Don't pull straight back; the barb will tear flesh.

If the hook is barely in (just the point), back it out the way it went in.

If the barb is buried, the standard field method is push-and-cut: push the hook the rest of the way through the skin until the barb comes out the other side, snip the barb off with pliers, and back the smooth shaft out the entry hole. Clean both holes with whatever you have, bandage, watch for infection.

If the hook is in or near a face, eye, joint, tendon, or anywhere that bleeds heavily, skip the field fix and drive to a clinic. Roane Medical Center in Harriman (865-316-1000) is the closest hospital to most of the lake.

How to release a fish so it lives

Wet your hands. Hold the fish in the water by the lower jaw or by wrapping the body. Move it gently forward so water flows through the gills (don't move it backwards; that runs water the wrong way through the gills). When the fish kicks out of your hand on its own, it's good to go. Don't toss the fish back in; lower it.

For deep-hooked fish: cut the line as close to the hook as you can and release. Don't dig for the hook.

Watch on YouTube

• How to hold a bluegill
• How to lip a bass (beginner)
• How to hold a catfish without getting stuck
• How to remove a fishing hook from skin (push-through method)
• Catch-and-release: how to revive a fish

Related guides

• Baiting and rigging
• Casting and hookset
• Fishing rules and limits for what you can keep
• Main fishing page for species detail