Keep ‘Em Alive Fall Bass Care Tips
We have all been in a situation, whether it’s in a tournament or just fun fishing, when a fish may die in your livewell. It will put a damper on anyone’s day, especially tournament anglers. In tournaments, you can be given weight penalties for any fish that dies. You are also not allowed to cull a dead fish out of your boat during the tournament. How can we avoid bringing dead fish back to weigh-ins? I will be going over some tips and tricks to keep all your fish alive and healthy to the scales.
The first tip I would suggest is first checking your livewell. Even in the fall months, your livewells can be one of the most common causes for your fish to die. Make sure all pumps are running as they should and that your livewells are clean and free of any debris. If there happens to be a hot day in the fall, make sure you cool the water down in your livewells whether that is putting ice in your livewells, or I like to freeze milk jugs of water and place them in the livewell before taking off for the day. Let’s talk about a topic that usually is not talked about in fish care: using the correct tackle.
Have you ever been in the water and hooked a fish too deep by accident? You sit back and ask yourself how did that happen, or could have I avoided this from happening? The short answer is there is always something that you can do to avoid these types of things from happening. The most important thing is to know if you are using the appropriate fishing tackle. Many anglers use a lot of hooks with barbs on them and when using these types of hooks you run the risk of gut hooking a fish. As an alternative you can use barbless hooks or circle hooks to avoid hooking a fish too deep. The last topic I would like to discuss has to do with my fishermen who like to fish deep.
When you are out fishing, do you ever wonder why fish float to the top of livewell or cannot stay off their backs? What you are witnessing is what is called barotrauma. Barotrauma is when a bass is caught in deep water; the reduced water pressure causes a fish’s swim bladder to expand with air. To relieve a fish of barotrauma, you will need to fizz the fish. When you fizz a fish, you are releasing the air in the swim bladder. This can save the fish’s life. So next time you are fishing, always have a kit to be able to fizz a fish.
I hope these few simple but important tips help anglers have a more successful day on the water this fall.