Reviving the bigger guys.

Last night I landed a 54 in LS. Caught my breath after landing in, taped it, took the hook out and tried to get a picture.
Then lifted it back over the side of the boat to get ‘er going again.
It seems like the bigger guys will many times, take 10 to 15 minutes before they swim away. I had a heck of a time holding her tail and trying to support her belly to keep her horizontal. She always wanted to go vertical or swing down stream. I’ve always heard that if you wanted to drown a fish , point it’s head down stream and the water flowing into the gills will kill it. I have no clue if there’s truth to this or not, but I don’t take any chances.

So to over come this, I renetted her and held her in the current facing the correct way. Once she started kicking in the net, with a littl manuvering I released her. I’m thinking it helped the fish revive faster and it certainly helped me out. Beats hanging over the boat for 15 minutes.

On another note, I was told or read that if you “twang” the line on your rod a few times with a big fish on they will jump. I tried this with the 54 last night. With about 6-8 twangs…the line went limp and I reeled as fast as I could with the sturgeon coming up with about a third of her body out of the water…right next to the boat!

Does it work? Or just a coincidence? This only happened on one fish. Help me out Myth Busters!!

I can see it already. A floatilla of boats twanging their lines.
This isn’t a snipe hunt is it Brian?

I think I once heard that if you shout at the top of your lungs, “Your mamma’s a lamprey”, they will also jump.

Good call on the reviving. I haven’t caught enough big ones in the late summer to experience any fatigue….at least for the fish.

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I can see it already. A floatilla of boats twanging their lines.

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I can see it now…we’ll call it “A Musical on the St Croix”.

No, no snipe hunt. Like I said, I tried it once and it seemed to half ways work.

I would jump too,if I heard you twanging the theme song to Deliverance in the middle of the night!!!Nice fish BrianK

Brian,

I’d worry that dragging a big fish around in the net would harm it by splitting fins, removing slime coat, and possibly digging into its skin. Some guys think that putting a fish in the livewell can revive it by super-oxygenating the water. Most guys don’t have 50-60″ livewells to do this with big muskies, sturgeon, etc. My thought is that hanging over the side of the boat to hold the fish is the right thing to do.

For me the last thing I would worry about is the slime coat. They replace that pretty quick as it is not just a barrier but a way to shed microbes, bacteria and fungus. Now I wouldn’t towel a fish off before releasing it either.

I think that it is true that facing it downstream might suffocate a fish. I have also heard you should never rock a fish back and forth to revive them. The gills are designed to take water in one way and get oxygen. I think the net idea is a good one. Yeah, I gave you sort of a compliment.

Does doing fish CPR help? IE….Spit water out of your mouth and through theres

Not sure if it helps, but Brian does that. Although I think he slips it the tongue, so I am not sure what he is trying to accomplish.

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Yeah, I gave you sort of a compliment.

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Pug givith and Pug taketh away.

Just venting because I didn’t get out enough this year, still haven’t gone sturgeon fishing and in a year of PB, I some how had my PW. I think #1 and #3 are related. However I was fortunate enough to touch a 30# + flatty this year. That was bitter sweet.