fish out of water

[davetnitro]

how long do you suppose a large bass, say a 10 pounder, can survive out of water?



if this had not happened to me today, i would not have believed it.



my friend called me on the phone, saying he had caught a large fish, like trophy size,

from the bank, and that he could not find anyone to weigh/photo it. and that he was

coming to my house to weigh his trophy. let me say this now, i return All of my fish, except an occasional striper. so it was kind of bugging me that he took a whopper out

of the lake. well he shows at my place, 20 minutes from the lake, pulls the fish

off of the passengers side floor of his pickup, and says, i think this thing is still

kicking, he adds i whacked him with a rock, and saw him shiver....????



that's when i said, let's put him in my live well before weighing it, i filled the live

well with the hose, added some rejuvenate, put on the recirc, had a cup of coffee,

and the fish was moving around some in the livewell. told my friend, to follow me to the

lake, if the fish was dead at the ramp, he could have it mounted, otherwise we would let it go... upon arrival at the ramp, i popped open the livewell, and that sucker wanted to jump out!!!! it swam away! that fish was out of the water for a minimum of 20 minutes.







here is the photo, taken in my garage.... oh yeah 10.02 lbs.

 

[Aroldo Hernandez]

Awsome hug, but no red tail yet. Thanks for the quick thinking of keeping the fish alive. He will thanks you one day.

 

[davetnitro]

he already did thank me... he felt great that WE could keep that one alive.



you are right that fish is a month from a spawn. a friend of mine caught a

15.8 in that same lake, it was not ready to spawn either omg... 18???



keep bringing on the planter trout...

 

[Marty Klein]

Cool that you could return the fish to the water alive; hope it continues to live. It would certainly be unwise to draw the wrong lesson from this; that fish is extremely lucky to be alive after being out of the water that long. Your friend's actions were certainly not representative of a new standard for keeping fish out of water.

 

[Mike Zechman]

Awesome fish and its great that you kept him alive, with technology now, you don't ever have to mount the fish, a cousin of mine last year caught a 5.5lb smallie up on the St Lawrence, it was 21.5 inches long, and a trophy for sure, he also wanted it mounted, and I would not let him, so we took the length, weight and girth measurements, and he got it mounted through BassPro's replica place, we also send numberous pics along too, this Smally had a large not on his head, and they matched it exact, and it looks like the same fish