Keeping your Bass Alive!!!!!!!!

[Kirk]

A public service message. With the hot temperatures we are experiencing extra precautions need to taken to keep fish alive. As a tournament angler, you owe it to your fish for them to arrive alive, and be released alive.


Here is an article and video on how to keep your summer bass alive.

Keeping your Bass Alive.

 

[RUGER]

Ever heard of adding sprite to the livewell to help keep them alive ?

 

[tophat]

The best this thing to do with your bass if you fish ledges is to fizz your fish. Google vent a fish and it will explain it more.

 

[DKO77]

Yep , I watched em do it to a 6 pounder at the dock and she swam off purty as you please.

 

[Kirk]

Ever heard of adding sprite to the livewell to help keep them alive ?

Heard of a little bit of everything. Salt, hydrogen peroxide, and Sprite.

I use frozen 2 liter bottles of water. They don't melt as quickly and they don't release chlorine into the water like a bag of ice will. I always use "Rejuvenade" to keep them lively.

 

[TN Larry]

Ice frozen in jugs, Rejuvenate to the live well, needling or fizzing when they need it, and constantly running the recirculation pump is what we do in the summer. It takes a lil time fooling with them but worth the effort to keep them alive.

 

[AllOutdoors]

Ice frozen in jugs, Rejuvenate to the live well, needling or fizzing when they need it, and constantly running the recirculation pump is what we do in the summer. It takes a lil time fooling with them but worth the effort to keep them alive.

This sounds good to me.

And for the sprite as Ruger asked about..... it seems to work great to stop the bleeding of fish. Even fish hooked in the gills. I haven't tried it but remember Joe Thomas and Jonathan Van Dam saying something about using soda to stop the bleeding.Just a few drops from the sprite or soda to the area bleeding is supposed to work.

 

[wobblegobble]

Hookedup will just filet em!LOL

 

[chunkandwind]

Ever heard of adding sprite to the livewell to help keep them alive ?

Sprite or any other lemon/lime soda will stop a fish from bleeding. The citric acid does the trick. Just pour it down their throat and through the gills.

 

[SilverFox]

My partner caught a 20 plus inch smallmouth back first of the year on a crank bait. It was bleeding like a stuck hog... Clots of blots on the carpet. I've never seen one bleed that bad. I poured about a 1/2 of a mountain dew slowly down his throat and over his gills and stuck him in the live well. We fished around another hour or two. The live well water turned orange but the fish lived. We turned him back loose at the ramp and he swam off like he was just caught. My only experience using the drink trick.

For summer fishing I fill the live well first thing in the morning and put it on recycle. I then add frozen water bottles... I use orange juice bottles but any will work. I drop the temp about 10-12 degrees below the surface water temp on my finder so... If it's 90 I get the livewell down to 78-80. I then add the please release me. I recycle it on a timer with about 2 minutes on and 2 minutes off... Even before I catch an fish. I use a floating pool thermometer from Walmart for keeping the temp right. If it heats up I pull another frozen jug out and add it. Usually only 2 bottles are needed for all day of a tourney. For the recycle pipe, I angle it so that the water enters at a 45 degree angle. I don't know that it helps but it seems to turn the water better and hopefully it helps put more O2 in the water.

 

[Headhunter]

In my opinion, in this heat the best way to keep bass alive is to let them go. Riding around in a livewell, no matter what you do, no matter how lively they seem, is not good for the bass at all when water temps get really high. Tournaments kill as many if not more than the people who eat them. One of the largest boat docks on Kentucky Lake (the owner loves fishermen and tournaments and of course part of the reason is they bring him business) but he will tell you to show up the next morning and look at all the dead bass around the dock. There is a reason some tournament have a release boat that carry the bass out in the middle of the lake and it is not to insure they will live. Catching fish in the HEAT, especially deep, carrying them in a livewell for several hours, is not a good thing unless you plan to eat them. I like tournaments and have nothing against them, but it does crack me when tournament fishermen raise heck about someone legally keeping a bass, when they carry them around in a livewell in the HEAT.

 

[Unicam]

In my opinion, in this heat the best way to keep bass alive is to let them go. Riding around in a livewell, no matter what you do, no matter how lively they seem, is not good for the bass at all when water temps get really high. Tournaments kill as many if not more than the people who eat them. One of the largest boat docks on Kentucky Lake (the owner loves fishermen and tournaments and of course part of the reason is they bring him business) but he will tell you to show up the next morning and look at all the dead bass around the dock. There is a reason some tournament have a release boat that carry the bass out in the middle of the lake and it is not to insure they will live. Catching fish in the HEAT, especially deep, carrying them in a livewell for several hours, is not a good thing unless you plan to eat them. I like tournaments and have nothing against them, but it does crack me when tournament fishermen raise heck about someone legally keeping a bass, when they carry them around in a livewell in the HEAT.

I agree with this.

I think warm weather TX should weigh, measeure take a pic and release.

 

[MidTennFisher]

In my opinion, in this heat the best way to keep bass alive is to let them go. Riding around in a livewell, no matter what you do, no matter how lively they seem, is not good for the bass at all when water temps get really high. Tournaments kill as many if not more than the people who eat them. One of the largest boat docks on Kentucky Lake (the owner loves fishermen and tournaments and of course part of the reason is they bring him business) but he will tell you to show up the next morning and look at all the dead bass around the dock. There is a reason some tournament have a release boat that carry the bass out in the middle of the lake and it is not to insure they will live. Catching fish in the HEAT, especially deep, carrying them in a livewell for several hours, is not a good thing unless you plan to eat them. I like tournaments and have nothing against them, but it does crack me when tournament fishermen raise heck about someone legally keeping a bass, when they carry them around in a livewell in the HEAT.

Agreed. If you're not going to eat them (there is nothing wrong with choosing to do so) then just take a pic and let them go. These tournament fishermen are kidding themselves if they think these bass survive and need to get off their high horse about releasing bass and wanting to crucify those who eat bass.

 

[Winchester]

The soda deal works great on a bass that is bleeding, ive used it several times myself and its uncanny how quickly it stops the bleeding, Peroxide will also work but its easier to keep soda on hand it seems! Fizzing them is a must as well if caught in deep water. A 'Kool Well' will save you lots of time in keeping your livewell water temp down about 8-10 degs this time of year as well.