Jaw Spreader

Used a jaw spreader on a pickerel while fishing with Brian recently. It made removal of a deep-set spinner treble easy, but it looked almost as if the pressure from the coil would split the fish's head in two. 

That was the first time I ever used one. I had my Nikon D7100 hanging from my neck, and when I separated the spreader's prongs, they shot apart from the coil tension, which is very strong. One of the prongs took out a chunk of plastic from my camera, down at a corner by the battery housing. 

I showed the damage to Brian, and said, "Good thing I left my new camera at home." Yeah, that new camera is a $3300.00 value and I certainly wouldn't want a chunk of it ripped out by an eight-buck set of jaw spreaders. 

Applied electrical tape to my old camera. That one a $1500.00 value, no less. 

Works. Not much complaint about it. I'm really more curious if any of you have used spreaders and feel the same I do about possible damage to fish we want to return in good shape.