Sorry, I guess I was asking Tin Man and anyone else who responded. I was just curious because while in the water lipping a striper is arguably the best technique there is to immobilize the fish and getting the hook out quickly without doing any unnecessary harm to either the fish or the angler.
Personally, I absolutely see no problem in lifting school fish up vertically by the lower lip to look at them, guesstimate their weight, whatever. I'd agree that you don't want to go twisting them around or overly contort their jaw. I really think it is mostly common sense.
Along that line, at some point it seems to make more sense to me with bigger fish to lift them with one hand on the lower lip and one on the tail or cradled underneath to support the body. not sure where that cutoff is physically in terms of possibly harming the fish, but it just makes more sense to me at some point. i have no idea about damaging a fish's internal organs by hanging it vertically, but suspect the same could be accomplished by handling the gut of a fish too roughly, if at all. my personally confirmed "by catch" usually have one of two problems--1) a deep hookset that I take too long trying to get out rather than just cutting the line, or 2) a gill hooked bleeder. I can not ever recall having mishandled a bass to its death that didn't involve the fact that there was a hook still stuck in some place vital.
Personally I think bass are amazingly tough fish, especially the schoolies, which I have found on many occasions to outfight their larger bretheren. I am in no way suggesting it's ok to mishandle a striper when releasing it or that educating those who don't know how to isn't important--it's critical. But when Nathan suggested we should handle stripers like trout I thought it was slightly overboard (no offense Nathan). I actually put on my bass hat and thought that I would be offended if a fisherman compared me to a trout

(which in my mind is an infinitely more delicate creature).
Maybe I'm on permenant defense since some PITA fool lectured me on the cruelty of fishing recently.
I guess I just don't want anybody yelling at me on the water next summer 'cause I lipped a bass.
Tight lines and clean releases,
Jeff