Muskies and Bleeding

I was watching an episode of Simply Fishing last week and Bob Mehsikomer caught a fish and it started to bleed around the gills/gill plate. He did not worry about it because he said "blood in a fish will not coagulate (clot) when exposed to air...as soon as this fish is placed back in the water, the bleeding will stop in most cases."

I did not know this. I purposely kept my lone musky back in '95 because she was bleeding too much or at least I thought she was. I had been told that if bleeding is coming from the gills, you might as well club it.

My knowledge has increased 10-fold since then. Now, you hear stories about fish surviving with their gills ripped out or jaws dislocated being caught by another angler (or same angler) months later. These fish are pretty darn tough, probably much tougher than we currently think.

I have noticed this while bass fishing but I guess I never put it all together.
When we were re-locating fish to a pond I hooked one deep and put it in the livewell thinking it wasn't going to make it. It quit bleeding right away and made it the rest of the day in the livewell and we released it into the pond.
I didn't questioned it a bit, it looked perfectly fine 2-3 hours later.

The king of the freshwater maybe but all in all they are delicate fish compared to other species, expecially when the water is warmer. We all need to do all we can reduce the stress on the fish as much as possible, have the camera ready, really ready, and get them back right away. I've learned you have plenty of time hanging onto them once unhooked and being held onto waiting for them to take off. That's when I turn them to each side and check them out good looking at the markings or any scars it may have, fin clips if at Chaut. whatever....Water pics are cool too!!

I'll chance them not making it before I'll go the club route....
That is the one good thing about this and all sites, there is so much that can be learned from more experienced people or the mishaps of others that they learned from and were willing to share.

I have a fish on my wall that I killed back in the day, over stressed it I think running too light of line, mono. It was hooked bad too. I sat right down in the river with the fish forever trying to get it to take off. The right equipment on board is a must!!!! Don't end up with a story your not so proud of!!!

One think that I have noticed is the bigger the musky the easier they get stressed.Sometimes the little guys can go through a lot and as soon as they retouch the water they are gone in a flash.The very first thing I do when the musky is in the net is look at the fishes eyes. If they have any glossing starting,like a cateract forming over the eyes,they are to stressed to remove from the water.Doing so will usualy mean a fish that swims away with instincts but is found floating on its side dead later.Then you get these guys that think they need to move the fish back and forth while they hold them under the water by the tail section.When you pull them backward forcing water backward through their gills your actualy drowning the fish.You need to just hold the fish under the water faceing into the current or wave direction,keeping them straight up.The little dorsal fin will start to move from side to side just before the start to struggle with your hand hold,then they are ready to go home.I would say the amount of time one keeps a musky out of the water is the biggest cause for delayed mortality.
Another sign of a musky being overly stressed will be heavy bleeding from the tail section,especialy on long hard faught big females.

Capt. Larry