Fish grips are usually looked at by the media as favorable and when someone looks at the reviews and reads what is written they are led to believe that it is beneficial to the conservation of fish, which could be injured when being caught. It cannot be denied that grips can be helpful. The problem lies in that grips are usually not used as they are intended. Grips are meant to handle and control the fish in the water, not for landing them and holding them out of the water.

 What most anglers do when they use grips they like to use the grip to lift the fish over the side of the boat, and hold the fish for a picture using the grips. This is getting even worse over time because grips today are coming with longer handles and security straps to make using them to land fish even easier even though it is not their intended use.  They are steel, aluminum or hard plastic. The jaws have been modified to the extent that they now can go through flesh instead of just holding the front end of the fish stationary. The proper way to lift and land a fish can be easily done with your hands and we have a blog on that here.