Muskies and Bleeding

[Red Childress]

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.