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Posts: 545
Location: WI | Well after a week off chasing rooster's in N.D., I was hoping to get my hands on a nice muskie this afternoon, but it didn't happen quite how I imagined it would. As I was headed to my first spot, I saw something floating up ahead and my fears were confirmed as I got closer, it was a nice upper 40" muskie belly up. I figured is was already dead b/c it was looking kinda bloated but when I pulled up along side but when I grabbed it by the tail I felt a very slight kick. So I spent the next hour w/ my hands buried in 50 degree water doing my best to save it. Every once in a while it would give me a good kick so I would let it go and it would make it about 5 feet and come back belly up. After about an hour if finally started to give me a swimming motion so I let it go and it swam upright on the surface. I circled it for about another 5 minutes and watched it try several times to go deeper, but it just would pop right back up. I then decided to just leave it alone b/c at the very least, it was swimming on its own and I was probably making it waste energy trying to swim away from me. I came back a half hour later and could not find it. Before I got off the lake, I checked the area and the area downwind for about a half hour and didn't see it. So, is there any chance this fish survives? The fish was obviously mishandled as its mouth was obviosly hooked and it had several cuts on its body. When it was caught, I'm not sure. I drove by the lake about 2 hours earlier and nobody was out and I was the only boat when I got there. I did my best. Hopefully it survives and will give me a nice photo opportunity in the future. |
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Posts: 271
Location: davis,IL | The fishes survival might be dubious at best, but you have shown yourself as the sportsman that you are. I am sure that the concern and care shown to this fish is also shown to all you encounter, good job, the future of "our" sport relies on guy's like you. Thanks.
Edited by muskydope 10/31/2008 8:09 PM
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Posts: 82
Location: Owatonna,MN | Hard to say.It's too bad it was mishandled. We still need to educate on catch and release. Whatever the outcome you did the right thing. From your post I would say you unselfishly spent your time working a fish that you did not catch. Thank you for your dedication to the fish.Thats the important thing. Maybe the person who caught it will read this and try harder next time. Maybe they did thier best but we don't know the circumstances. |
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Posts: 4266
| I would have put it in the livewell and left it in there with oxygenated water flowing through it's gills. If it's going to make it, it stands a better chance swimming in rich water and being left to fend for itself.
No matter the outcome, God is giving you a pat on the back.
Fishermen and hunters are just killers and people out to cause pain.
How many PETA people were there to lend a hand?
Good work. You're a good man.
Beaver |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | Scott Webster - 10/31/2008 8:09 PM
Hard to say.It's too bad it was mishandled.
Is this known??? Was it indeed mishandled??? How do you know??? Maybe it was a textbook release and all went well??? And rose only after some time elapsed????
We need not to jump to conclusions even thou it may seem obvious. |
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| Unfortunately, I would be surprised if it lived. I had a similar situation a few years ago on a lake that a friend of mine lives on in vilas county. A beutiful fish about 47ish.
The fished looked to be in good shape, but very recently caught with a fresh hook tear and still bleeding a bit in the mouth. I took the fish to shore and worked with her for about an hour in the shallow water up to my knees. I got her to swim, but she stayed at the top of the water with her back out. The wind was blowing right into the pier all night and the next day about noon she floated back into shore dead. The only differnece was it was earlier in the year with water temps in the 60's.
You hate to see it happen, but all you can do is try...and I always say you never know. I think sometimes they can surprise you. They must be tougher than we think, otherwise I beleive we would see more dead fish around. Even with all of the education available for relesing fish, I think many are mishandled or just plain handled too much by anglers that don't handle that many fish. Excitment kicks in and they lose track of taking care of the fish. |
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| Could this have been a fish caught on a sucker and suffered internal damage from the hooking? |
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Posts: 32885
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | It's more likely it was abducted by aliens and anal probed.
Fish that are handled perfectly die, too.
There's no way to tell what happened to that fish. There's no way to tell what was wrong with it. It may live, it may not. Cudos to the angler for working the fish. |
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Posts: 2024
| Sounds like barotrauma if it was bloated but still "fresh" and had trouble getting deep. Fizzing it might have gotten it to go down, but I wouldn't recommend doing it if you aren't familiar with the anatomy of muskies.
Sounds like you did all you could. You will be repaid for your efforts some day! |
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Posts: 416
Location: Madtown, WI | So, you spent an entire week trying to kill a bird but then get all worried about 1 musky? We musky anglers are odd folk.
I'm with muskie nut, why jump to conclusions that the fish was mishandled? For all we know, the guy who tried to release this fish might have spent 2 hours trying to revive it. Some fish just die. My hats off to you for your efforts though.
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Posts: 545
Location: WI | I probably did jump the gun w/ the mishandled thing. I was quite frustrated as I had never handled a muskie that I knew in the end was probably going to die and I have had numerous past discussions w/ shore anglers on this particular lake who will make every effort to go after a muskie w/ their panfish and bass gear if they have a follow from a muskie. Just before I left for my trip I had a fella making sure I knew about the 30 pounder he just lost on his 6' spinning rod that's comparable to my walleye rod and he was still hammering away for it. While I do not believe being mishandled is out of realm of possibilities, I also know that crap happens and nobody is immune to it. |
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Posts: 82
Location: Owatonna,MN | Muskienut,
It said in his post that he thought it was mishandled. you and I were not there. If you read my whole post you would see I also said maybe they tried their best. I was giving him cudos for taking the time to try to revive the fish. Yes even well handled fish die no matter who caught it. The only thing we can do is our best. |
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Posts: 231
| sworrall - 11/1/2008 8:42 AM
It's more likely it was abducted by aliens and anal probed.
LOL!! 
Whatever the outcome...That was a great thing you did!
Chas |
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Posts: 272
| I'll second two things:
-it probably died
-it may, MAY have had a chance if you'd have done the old livewell trick. But probably not.
We were walleye trolling this spring out on GB and I got a high 30s pike that absolutely would not go.....in 47 degree water. Not wanting to obviously bring everything in and nurse the thing on shore, we filled the livewell and put 'er in there. 20 minutes in the dark and with fresh oxygen flowing over her gills and she was good to go. She almost wouldn't let me get a hand in her gill she was so wild.
Anyway, nobody knows what went wrong. You're a great person for trying to save one you had nothing to do with. I'd say you've got some karma going in your direction.
-Eric |
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| Since MN has sooooo many big fish,I would of just put it out of its misery and not wasted any fishing time on it..
Stdevos is right..You spend a week shooting birds and than try to revive this half dead musky and even go as far as to put a post on here about it..Think about it once..
THERE JUST FISH PEOPLE |
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Location: Latitude 41.3016 Longitude 88.6160 | raftman you are the man for saving that musky !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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Posts: 545
Location: WI | Guest - 11/2/2008 4:42 AM
Since MN has sooooo many big fish,I would of just put it out of its misery and not wasted any fishing time on it..
Stdevos is right..You spend a week shooting birds and than try to revive this half dead musky and even go as far as to put a post on here about it..Think about it once..
THERE JUST FISH PEOPLE
Guest, this wasn't very tough to think about. ND pheasent-natural, self-sustaining population of birds w/ a relatively short life expectency. I'm guessing most the birds shot are 2 or 3 years old and delicious. Muskie from this 180 acre lake I fish-not a self-sustaining population that given the opportunity can live quite a long life. I'm 25 and this is only my second year fishing for muskies, but even I understand that this fish probably got put in the lake sometime around puberty and the start of high school. Takes time for a fish to get this big and takes even longer in such a small body of water. So why did I try saving it, b/c I don't want to be that guy that whines about there being no fish or big fish in a lake, but is unwilling to do something about it when the opportunity presents itself. Why did I post this? B/c I honestly didn't know if the fish had a chance to survive and wanted to know. |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | And I for one am glad you did post the story. This is a good discussion. |
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Posts: 61
Location: Sioux Lookout On Canada | The mortality rate is something we may never know. I remember catching a 43" northern on a shumway bucktail and within five seconds of the bite and fight it just died. It wa dead weight from there on. Did it die of old age? Was it really its last supper? It did not take the hook deep and it appeared to never have been hooked. Another example is the 51.5" muskie on Lac Seul that was caught three times. Each time it fought hard and swam away. Maybe some fish really do have their time. In nature, living things are known to give it all they have for a meal, or to reproduce, or to flee from their prey. Just some thoughts... either way I commend you on your efforts. A lot of people would just drive by looking for a catchable fish. Some guys would take pictures with that fish to claim credit... you did what you could. |
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Posts: 484
Location: St. Louis, MO., Marco Is., FL, Nestor Falls, ON | I am surprised that no one commented on the bloated appearance of the muskie when he first saw it floating belly up. This often indicates a muskie that has been caught very deep in the water and brought up quickly. Muskies can't burp up air like lake trout when being brought up. Their bellies just bloat up and they can't get back down to the depth need to equalize the pressure. I know I will start some discussion, heated perhaps, about deciding when it is proper to fizz a fish in this condition. The only alternative I have heard of was some guy who used a sash weight and a reverse barbless hook to take a bloated muskie back down to depth. Then jerking the barbless reverse hook free. It made some sense. What do you all think?
Edited by rpieske 11/2/2008 11:54 AM
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Location: Yahara River Chain | rpieske - 11/2/2008 11:53 AM
I am surprised that no one commented on the bloated appearance of the muskie when he first saw it floating belly up.
Aw but esox50 did he said "Sounds like barotrauma if it was bloated but still "fresh" and had trouble getting deep. Fizzing it might have gotten it to go down, but I wouldn't recommend doing it if you aren't familiar with the anatomy of muskies" |
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Posts: 416
Location: Madtown, WI | rpieske or anybody, how deep are we talking? I've heard this mentioned before in other conversations but have never heard of a definitive depth that this could potentially lead to problems. Or does it depend more on how fast you bring up the fish rather than how deep? |
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Posts: 2024
| Bob, great minds think alike!
Stdevos and others, Google "barotrauma fizzing" and you will get 3-4 .pdfs with excellent information on this physiological disturbance (albeit in other species). My limited understanding of the issue is that the occurrence of this event is dependent on a suite of factors including lake characteristics, species, depth, and rate of speed fish is brought from depth. I think it would be difficult to determine one set depth that this occurs at. |
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| rpieske - 11/2/2008 11:53 AM
I am surprised that no one commented on the bloated appearance of the muskie when he first saw it floating belly up. This often indicates a muskie that has been caught very deep in the water and brought up quickly. Muskies can't burp up air like lake trout when being brought up. Their bellies just bloat up and they can't get back down to the depth need to equalize the pressure. I know I will start some discussion, heated perhaps, about deciding when it is proper to fizz a fish in this condition. The only alternative I have heard of was some guy who used a sash weight and a reverse barbless hook to take a bloated muskie back down to depth. Then jerking the barbless reverse hook free. It made some sense. What do you all think?
I had this same thing happen to me last week. The ski would not go down. After about 45 minutes of trying to revive it I came up with a similar idea as a last resort. I took a short poece of mono and a small hook with barb bent down. I put a loop on the other end of mono and threaded it on to my lure retriever. Then slowly pushed the ski down to about 10-15 feet. After about 5-10 minutes I could feel the ski tring ot get free, so I just twisted the retriever to unhook the mono. We stayed in the area for an hour and never saw it agian. I hope it made it. Not sure if this was a good thing to do but I was running out of ideas.
Any ideas on this would be welcome.
Msuki4Life |
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Location: Madtown, WI | Msuki4Life,,,that is an interesting way to handle the situation..can't say I would have thought of it! Kinda of coola ctually...who knows if it worked...but still creative thinking...
Cory |
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Location: The desert | Did it survive?
No. Good effort though. |
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Posts: 1291
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | A method I have found to work for these "bloated" fish is to put their back against the side of the boat and take one hand and put modest pressure against the rear of the stomach area near the anus and push forward towards the head pushing the excess air out. May not always work, but better than doing nothing and in my mind "fizzing" isn't an option for most. |
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Will it survive?