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| I saw one yesterday that I thought was a floater when we 1st saw it she was belly up and appeared to be struggling. As we got closer she rolled over and swam under never to be seen again? At 1st we that she was a goner due to a deep hook or poor release. Then thought she could be trying to get something down the gullet. I'm never seen any fish on its back on purpose though. |
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| I don't think muskies usually swim in a belly-up position... probably a soon-to-be goner. |
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Location: Southwest Pa | Pepper- I seen the exact same thing 2 times yesterday. Both instances were opposite sides of the lake and different depths. 9ft first instance 25ft second. May sound crazy but the fish was acting the same way you described. Seemed dead then swam away with a good bit of energy. It had me and my buddy wondering what the deal was. Especially after the cold front came through I couldn't imagine them at the surface? You by chance wasn't fishing West Branch reservoir? Odd..... |
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| Nope I was in Iowa. I've seen them porpoise before but this wasn't that, looked like a goner till she swam under and looked ok doing it. We stuck around to see if it would come back up and it didn't |
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| Playing dead to avoid over-eager opening day muskie anglers? |
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Posts: 735
Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | Not a muskie but I released a pike ,upper 30's, and as soon as it hit the water it freaked out and got away from me. But it didn't swim away normal. Right after it freaked out it went belly up and swam in about 5 big circles while upside down. I thought maybe it would correct itself but after the 5th circle I tried to drive up to it and net it but as soon as I got 10ft away it started swimming down while still upside down doing circles. This was in a very clear lake and in about 15 fow where I could see the bottom. So,I watched to see if it would come back up. It kept going and about 8ft down it must have righted itself because white belly disappeared. I fished in that exact spot to see if it would float up dead or start doing circles again on the top (would have ate it if it came back up) but that was it it never came back up. |
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| esoxaddict - 5/8/2017 6:38 PM
Playing dead to avoid over-eager opening day muskie anglers?
Not on this lake. No closed season |
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| tanning the belly is trending in the muskie community. probably a teenager fish. |
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Posts: 31
| Now that I think about it, these fish may have had the 'bends', where they are caught in deep water and retrieved to the surface very quickly, and their gut swells by internal pressure. Maybe 'fizzing' would solve the problem. I can't remember the right way to do it. |
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Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | hairy lures - 5/8/2017 10:28 PM
Now that I think about it, these fish may have had the 'bends', where they are caught in deep water and retrieved to the surface very quickly, and their gut swells by internal pressure. Maybe 'fizzing' would solve the problem. I can't remember the right way to do it.
That very well could be it. The fish I mentioned though was caught on a rapala dt 10 and was in 20 foot of water so I assume it was somewhere in the 15 foot range. Is that deep enough to cause fish bends? |
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| I can't remember what all the fishy details were, as, fortunately, it never happened to me..or any of my fish. |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | hairy lures - 5/8/2017 11:28 PM
Now that I think about it, these fish may have had the 'bends', where they are caught in deep water and retrieved to the surface very quickly, and their gut swells by internal pressure. Maybe 'fizzing' would solve the problem. I can't remember the right way to do it.
DO NOT FIZZ MUSKIES a muskies swim bladder is ducted and they can expel air or obtain air from the atmosphere. MUSKIES CAN BE BURPED . The problem a muskie has swimming with an expanded swimbladder is due to it's placement
http://projectnoblebeast.blogspot.ca/2009/10/necropsy-notes-swim-bl...
Edited by horsehunter 5/9/2017 7:48 AM
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Location: Apparently where the Muskie aren't | Very good article. I never knew Muskie were like trout. I would never attempt to fizz any fish because I think It caused more harm than good. I assume this is the same for pike than too. Right? |
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Location: Eastern Ontario | Yes that would apply to any esocid |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Thank you hosehunter for chiming in on this one, fizzing is NEVER an option. |
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Posts: 46
| Pepper - 5/8/2017 9:09 AM
I saw one yesterday that I thought was a floater when we 1st saw it she was belly up and appeared to be struggling. As we got closer she rolled over and swam under never to be seen again? At 1st we that she was a goner due to a deep hook or poor release. Then thought she could be trying to get something down the gullet. I'm never seen any fish on its back on purpose though.
Pepper- I'm about 99% sure that was a grass carp. It had a dark tail. I'm guessing your the other boat that went over to investigate? I think my trolling motor running at 100% at it scared it back to life. |
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| The other guy in the boat saw it better and I thought we bars & red fins. Anyway it went under |
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| Netman, were u with the 4 guys trolling?
Edited by Pepper 5/9/2017 1:07 PM
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| Pepper - 5/9/2017 12:43 PM
Netman, were u with the 4 guys trolling?
No. I was in the green lund. |
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| An upside down belly up fish is never a good sign. Don't fizz a muskie like mentioned above. About all you can do is try to get ahold of the fish by the tail and try to get it to sit upright again. Once you feel it gets enough energy you can try to give it a push downward to see if it has enough strength to swim down to the depths. If it pops back up to the surface you need to watch it and keep a close eye on it so other boats don't run it over on the surface. Continue to work with the fish if it needs help to stay upright again. If the fish is just swimming along the surface and doesn't have enough strength to swim down to the depths, in some cases it can take an hour or more for the fish to finally be able to swim down to the depths and stay down there. In extreme measures, like an hour or more and the fish still can't swim down to the depths on its own...I have taken a long 3 or 4 foot florocarbon leader used for trolling attached to like a 6 oz. weight and wrapped that around the fish and slowly let line out to get the fish down to deeper cold water like in the 20 foot depth range. Then the fish swims out of the wrapped leader on its own never to be seen again and it now has better colder oxygenated water.
Edited by Baby Mallard 5/10/2017 8:56 AM
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muskie behavior