im right there with you dreams... workload is increasing fishing time decreasing. growing up is stupid!
Sorry might have missed this comment. You can easily gillgrip pike and zander, done that meny times my self, my brother too.I use grippers for all of my larger catches and I never see any physical problems with the fish afterwards, you really can't be holding walleye without them (which are relatives to Zander to give you an idea of what they look like since you're over in Europe and probably don't have walleye).
and technically carp are invasive yes but they live everywhere in the continental US and there's no getting rid of them now or ever so I treat them like natives. I love carp, such friendly easygoing fish