nine lives minnows

[grumpymoe]

funny thing happened new years day. had a good day fishing and caught limits of northerns and one undersize walleye. when i filet my fish, i generally check the guts to see what they are feeding on. this one smaller northern had 2 small perch and 3 of our chubs we were fishing with. ( i think they must have been from my better half)-anyway i slit this one open and out pops 3 chub just flippin all over. my wife says, they're still alive. no way-they've been in there at least an hour or more. she pops them in the minnow bucket and they are still swimming this morning.. now thats one tough chub---TRUE STORY--they live to catch again

[fishercat]

That is what you call a bonus fish.

[JerryofWNY]

A fine example of catch and release.

[BuckShotJon]

Yup seen that before in pike, had a bluegill last year that was still alive in a pike. The pike was caught near the end of the day and we still fished 30 minutes on the ice, 1 hour drive home and 15 mintes before the pike was cleaned. The bluegill lived until the next day in the minnow bucket.

Jon

[acsacmboy]

macho perch and bluegill(now chubs). strong lil buggers. you would think there would be some water(nasty acids too) in the pikes stomach so the bluegill could "breathe". the pikes body system mustve shut down when i died so it couldnt digest the fish so it lives . just a thought.

[grumpymoe]

acsacmboy--your point about the acids in the stomach creates even another thought-how the heck can it survive even for an hour or so. this fish had partially digested perch minnows in it and other than some hyper wiggling when first opened, these survivors did not move a gill cover or move their mouths as you would expect until placed in water. on saturday, they are going down the hole  

[acsacmboy]

maybe the acids recided so it didnt kill them.
i was showed not a trick but something cool fishing for perch one day. we got our limit or perch, and they were frozen from being on the ice for about 2 hours. the guy put them in his tub and put some hot water in. of about the 50 perch, 10 came back to life even being frozen for two hours.
maybe those fish in the stomachs did the same thing but when it got cut open, the minnows came to life??

[TroutFishingBear]

Fish like bluegill and chubs are tough fish, thats why they can live out of the water a long time. Catfish are like that too, I've had a catfish out of water for 5 hours, put it in a horse troph, and it lived for a week.
as for the acid, fish have extremely slow metabolisms in the winter, so,  because of this, the food was digested very slowly

[pot-belly-perch]

well I know  some fish like perch & pickural & pike are tough fish I get off the ice have to drive an hour to get home  & maybe fixed something to eat before I gut them
and most are still alive in the  bucket


Steve   8)

[mooseslayer]

A FEW YEARS AGO I TOOK 5 DAYS OFF FROM WORK AND ME AND SOME FRIENDS RENTED A CAMP ON A REMOTE LAKE.BECAUSE WE WERE 100MI.FROM NOWHERE AND FISHING FOR LAKERS WE WANTED A TOUGH REUSABLE BAIT.WE SETTLED ON 6IN. SUCKERS. SOME OF THEM WERE HOOKED+REHOOKED 5 TIMES AND WERE JUST AS LIVELY AS THE FIRST DAY WE PUT THEM ON.SOME CAME BACK HOME WITH ME AND SURVIVED TO BE FISHED ANOTHER DAY.THATS SOME TOUGH BAIT!

[olds-Pa]

Had the same thing happen last year with walleye we caught. Got two of our shiners back alive after at least two hours in the fishes stomach. We put the shiners in the pond after their ordeal. Like it was double jeoprady or something. They no doubt were eaten by a blue heron last spring anyway.   ........ ......... ......... ......... ......... olds