Ive read when handling fish when you use gloves instead of your hand the glove will pull off certain slimy parts of their skin off and sometimes it will affect them to where when you return them back to the water they can die later. How much of this is true and if so do they make any gloves that are made of certain materials so it doesnt pull off their slimy coat?

Bare WET hands for handling fish..

We use wool for fish handling at work. I really don't know how it is on the slime coat, but that's what we use.

  Why do you need gloves?  Because of the cold? What type of fish are you referring to?

  You don't need to handle the fish to take it off your hook and release it.  Simply grab the bass by the lower lip, pull bass out of water, unhook bass with other hand while holding it by lower lip, return fish to water.  No need to give bass a MASSAGE before releasing.

If you feel as though you must pet your fish, then I don't think you're going to remove anymore slime from the fish by stroking it once or twice than it would lose by flopping on your boat deck or shore.

This past spring I worked with a group of volunteers to remove fins from several thousand fingerling landlocked salmon. If I remember correctly NH Fish and Game gave us soft cotton gloves that we got soaking wet then snipped the fin and released the fingerling into a trough leading back into a F & G tank.

Gloves with a PVC coating will remain slick and won't remove the slime coat of the fish. Good luck holding on to the fish though.

Why do you need gloves? Because of the cold? What type of fish are you referring to?

You don't need to handle the fish to take it off your hook and release it. Simply grab the bass by the lower lip, pull bass out of water, unhook bass with other hand while holding it by lower lip, return fish to water. No need to give bass a MASSAGE before releasing.

If you feel as though you must pet your fish, then I don't think you're going to remove anymore slime from the fish by stroking it once or twice than it would lose by flopping on your boat deck or shore.

BINGO.