Does anyone know why this happens?? Look at the eyes in this pic. Is the walleye just getting pulled up too fast from deep water?? She almost died but after 20 mins I got her to take back off down the hole. Just hope she doesn’t die later.
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How deep were you fishing?
DT
Does anyone know why this happens?? Look at the eyes in this pic. Is the walleye just getting pulled up too fast from deep water?? She almost died but after 20 mins I got her to take back off down the hole. Just hope she doesn’t die later.
Is the walleye just getting pulled up too fast from deep water??
Bingo! yes this is the cause of the eyes bulging out from the body. As you can imagine, the rapid pressure change puts a lot of stress on a fish.
24 FOW,
It probably was the depth you pulled them up from, but another possibility is low oxygen levels. When there is a low oxygen level it causes nitrogen gas to build up behind the eyes of fish but unless you were fishing in a small body of water or an area with a lot of decaying plants it most likely was depth.
That’s crazy… I’ve never ran into that but where I fish is typically 12 to 15 fow
Fished the Missouri River this weekend we were In 47 fow we take our time getting the fish up due to the extreme depths
I fish 30′ of water usually and I never have an issue with their eyes bugging out, curious to see what it really is!
yes, too fast through the column. Fishing 24 feet on LOTW last month and had that happen on a couple dink walleyes. Had to slow down my retrieve so they could be released. In the end only one became eagle bait.
A few times the fish would swim up towards the top faster than I could pull the tip up line up. Thanks for the replies.
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