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Posts: 90
Location: Athens, Ohio | I boated a 52" this summer, first "real one". She had some bleeding from the gills afer I wrestled her in the boat with the help of Dad and a collapsible walleye sized net. She wasn't bleeding out, but had a moderate amount of blood from one gill plate. Turned her loose. Did I kill her? I have NO experience with fish of this size and the thought of that fish dieing has bothered me since.
How much can they take? Maybe an impossible question, but I had to ask. |
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Posts: 494
Location: midwest | This question is possible to answer.. No you did not kill this fish. This fish may have died from delayed mortality from gill raker damaged incurred during the fighting/hook removal/landing of it but, you released this fish to allow it to have a chance to live and recover from the damage. This fish obviously swam away, which gave it a much better chance of survival than if you made a decision to keep this fish for the wall because she "might" not make it. Congratulations on the catch and release of your 52. |
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Posts: 1185
Location: Wishin I Was Fishin' | Well said Mr. King!
Mr. Big, if you are going to continue fishing for muskies, and I would certainly think so after a great catch like that, I would highly advise getting a Frabil or Beckman musky net. The bigger the better. |
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Posts: 280
| If the fish died from delayed mortality, of course YOU killed it. It would not have been injured had you not drove hooks into it's face and pulled it into a foreign and unkind environment.
As was said, you will never know unless it's found floating which may not be the case in many instances. It may be laying on the bottom.
Many fish have been caught with one or possibly more gill rakers missing and healed. That fact alone is not necessarily a death sentence.
Don't feel bad.....fish die even with C&R.
DougP
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| Thats exactly what I was thinking Fins355.
Congrats on the 52incher dude!  |
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| Great catch. You might have done everything right and the fish still might die. That's not your fault. Besides unless you were at Lac Seul, the Ottawa River, or Georgian Bay, you had a right to keep the fish. N'est pas? But if you were fishing for muskies without an adequate net, that wasn't smart. You don't have to spend a fortune, but if you're going to fish for skis, get a net adequate to handle them. It's not just that you don't want to hurt the fish by fighting it into an undersize net. You don't want to get hurt yourself. An uncontrolled fish can result in treble hooks tearing through human flesh and muscle. Not pleasant.
Of course when we accidently hook a ski, we do what we have to do. |
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Posts: 90
Location: Athens, Ohio | Thanks for the valued input. A REAL net is arriving today! |
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Posts: 697
Location: Minnetonka | I watched an old musky lion hand-land a 49-incher last night and it occurred to me that, if I didn't have a musky net, this would definitely be the way to do it... and it was also added excitement. "That's part of the fun!", he said. I know this isn't the safest approach for us humans, but it's another solution for respecting the 'SOX!
Andy |
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Posts: 540
Location: MN | There was a old lion in your boat last night? I just saw 3 dudes? |
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Posts: 132
Location: Missouri | fins355 - 9/23/2010 7:21 AM
If the fish died from delayed mortality, of course YOU killed it. It would not have been injured had you not drove hooks into it's face and pulled it into a foreign and unkind environment.
As was said, you will never know unless it's found floating which may not be the case in many instances. It may be laying on the bottom.
Many fish have been caught with one or possibly more gill rakers missing and healed. That fact alone is not necessarily a death sentence.
Don't feel bad.....fish die even with C&R.
DougP
DITTO.... If the fish died from you catching it the YOU killed the fish. It's part of the sport. Not every fish is going to live, we can just hope that it does. |
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