I'm not one to publicly bash tackle companies and I hope this message does not come across that way. That is not my intent. The Berkley Lip Gripper is designed to be a safe catch and release device but from what I've experienced lately this may not be the case.

I have been using a BogaGrip for about a year now. I kept hearing numerous reports from across the country about this device and how great it was. They were right - it is probably the best addition to my float tubing arsenal I have added in a long time. It makes catching and releasing toothy critters such as halibut a breeze. I have caught and released countless fish with no problems.

About a month ago a friend of mine bought the Berkley Lip Gripper. For those of you who don't know the Berkley Lip Gripper is basically an inexpensive version of the BogaGrip. Last week he landed a barely legal halibut. He lifted it out of the water, it was thrashing a little (like they always do) and all of the sudden it fell off and crashed back into the water. I couldn't believe it. I have landed countless fish with my BogaGrip and have never had a fish fall off. He fought the fish back to the tube and noticed that the bottom jaw was all torn up. It turned out that the fish's bottom jaw broke and the gripper ripped through the flesh. It was pretty gnarly looking. Thankfully the fish was legal. I'm pretty sure a fish in that condition would not survive.

I couldn't figure out how that could've happened. The "gripping part" of the Lip Gripper is slightly different than the Boga but not enough to cause something like that to happen. We wrote it off as a freak occurence or thought maybe it's jaw was broken prior to the catch.

Last Sunday the same thing happened again with another legal halibut (about 23 inches). This made me realize that this was probably not a freak occurance. I posted a question on a few various message boards, got some information, opinions, and came up with a theory.

The BogaGrip has a built in scale and therefore the "gripping part" of the device is on a spring and can bounce up and down while the handle remains stationary (in your hand). In addition to that the "gripping part" is on a swivel so that the fish can spin around and/or twist once landed. The Lip Gripper is rigid from the handle to the "gripping part". We have concluded that the twisting of the fish without having any "give" on the part of the landing device is most likely the main cause of the broken jaws.

Everyone I have talked to or heard from has never had this happen with the Boga. One person even mentioned that he has landed many large snook with the Boga with no problems (apparently snook have weak mouths). I have not heard much other information about the Lip Gripper.

He won't continue using the Lip Gripper. There's no need to injure anymore fish. We will however conduct a few tests on legal fish we keep. If anyone else has had a similar experience with this device I would like to hear about it.

If you use a Lip Gripper please take extra care in landing fish you intend to release or fish that are not legal sized.

Thanks alot for the heads up. That is some really good info to pass around. I would feel bad trying to safetly release a fish and end up breaking its jaw.

Pete, you should tell Berkeley about this. Maybe they'll redesign it and give you some freebies to field test. Thanks for heads up.

We're planning on it. I don't own one but Bryan does and he's planning on contacting them.

Since I posted this message I have gotten quite a few responses from people who have had similar experiences.