how to save a deep hooked fish

Have you ever hooked a bass in the gills or deep in the throat and it starts bleeding like crazy and almost always is floating upside down in just a few minutes?

Last week I fished a tourney and hooked about a 3 1/2 pounder on a worm and when I got him in the boat, blood was flowing down his side. My hook had got him in the gills and torn them up pretty bad. I immediatly got my Mountain Dew and poured it over the effected area. The citric acid in the drink acts to constrict the capilaries and gives the blood a chance to clot befor the fish bleeds out. I thought there was no chance that this fish would survive, but amazingly it worked to perfection and 3 hours later I could not tell it from the rest of the fish in our live well. We won the tourney with NO dead fish.

I can tell you that I will always have a Mountain Dew, Sprite, Mellow yellow, (any thing with citric acid in it) with me from now on when I go fishing.

.........read the same thing in Bassmaster Magazine a few months ago:cool:. Any drink with citrus acid will help. It won't always work, but will help out and might save a fish or two.

That's interesting I guess I missed that article. How quick could you see it work? Did you just do it once and then put it immediately back in the livewell?

One big thing is to always rinse the blood out of the fish - most fish will die because the blood accumulates on their gills. Not only will one die but if you get blood in the live well others may die as well so always rinse. 2 other tips 1. pour "rejuvinade" or "please release me" in their mouth (a tablespoon or so) this will not only calm them but will help keep them alive even if you can't get the hook out safely. 2. make up a 1 oz or bigger weight with the brass eyelet and attach a clip on it and hook it to the basses lower lip it will keep their head down and help prevent dying. (Tip #2 is straight from Skeet Reese)

good info guys will keep those things in mind.

thanks
chuck

[QUOTE=DJD;371901]That's interesting I guess I missed that article. How quick could you see it work? Did you just do it once and then put it immediately back in the livewell?[/QUOTE]

It worked pretty quick. I poured it on really heavy and got it cleaned out. It was the first time I had tried it and it definatly saved this fish.

I noticed that someone posted that this tip was in Bassmaster mag. Now that I think of it that is probably where I saw it too.

You know it is one of those things that it probably wont work every time, but if it saves every other fish that is not too bad.

thats a real interesting tip. i dont go fishing without my dew and will try this the next time it happens to me. just hope we dont start seeing our bass with bad cases of mtn dew mouth:eek::D

thats awesome. I would have never thought of that