Eugenio Ucci

Eugenio Ucci and the battle of the Catch & Release

Some time ago you published an article on a topic that has attracted the interest of many friends of the blog. We talked about the most appropriate methodology to unhook the fish with the purpose of safeguarding their lives.There were several different opinions, those who thought that using the disgorger was correct and those who thought that leaving a hook in the fish's body was the best solution. To remove any doubt, I contacted an ichthyologist who has provided a more detailed explanation about it and explained that it is preferable to leave the hook in the fish's body rather than using the disgorger.

To find out more, I decided to contact Eugenio Dest i, surfcaster of national, always at the forefront of the Catch & Release , and it is thanks to him that the waters have finally stirred and even during races surfcastingyou begin to safeguard the fish avoiding the massacre of innocents. In fact, the fishing competitions from the shore, often playing all the small fry, this is because our sea is sometimes very stingy with the fish.

I decided to put a short interview with Eugenio Ucci , that as in the past, has proved helpful in answering my questions.

• It 's true that fish are able to survive with the hook in the body? That survival rates are there? 
do not have statistics in order to give a definite answer to this question, but from my experience I can say that some fish, one on all the conger eel, unable even to swallow the hook. I happened more than once to catch fish with old rusty hooks in the mouth or in the stomach. It also depends a lot on where you are hooked on the hook.

• advise against the use of disgorger or in some cases it is appropriate to use it?

The disgorger must be absolutely eliminated if we want to give more hope to our prey, all the fish that I tried to unhook with the disgorger are dead.However, the solution that brings less damage is always to cut the final.

• What tips to avoid catching small fry?

Depends on what you mean by small fry, out of the race, in my opinion, a bass 30 cm is small fry and should always be released, but in competitions speaking a fish 12 cm should not go in the water without assigning any score. In the championship of the world have to use hooks with a gap of more than 5 mm and 7 mm in the Mediterranean ocean, but this does not prevent the capture of fish by 12 cm.

• Above all, it would be appropriate during the races were raised the minimum measures to avoid the problem at source?

In the race to raise the minimum measures means reducing the number of fish available and dramatically increase their coats, with the consequent decrease of members. A boy approaches the races surfcasting and catching 10 bream 19 cm and are all discarded as undersized is not encouraged to do the second race. It should be absolutely disclosed Catch and Release with unified measure 12 cm, and to give a signal "social" strong in our sport, and to give a future to our competitive passion.

I thank Eugenio Ucci for his availability and congratulate him for the battle of the Catch & Release of which Surfcasting Blog now I will take part, trying to make their own contribution to the cause. The sea belongs to everyone but it is especially fish and therefore should be protected and from this video, which I strongly recommend you see, you'll realize what our situation is dramatic!