I guess many options exist to dispatch them. Some better than others depending on if you want your boat looking like a crime scene and slime all over. I never let them hit the deck. If you use the gaff and eviscerate them over the side it's like it never happened. Keep in mind MD sold the idea of keeping and eating these fish to enhance the removal of as many as possible. If they hadn't done that most hook & line caught fish would be released alive and I would guess many are by the average bass fisherman. Tuna steaks. It's what's for dinner!!