Has anyone ever seen or heard of this?

[AvonAngler]

OK so yesterday, I went down to Green Lake near Spicer to fish with my buddy in his perm he has out there. Fishing was OK and I managed a couple eyes in the evening. After catching them, we put them on the ice and snow outside the front door. They were out on the ice for over two hours before we left. When I picked them up as we left, they were solid walleyecicles and I put them in a plastic grocery bag and then into the trunk of my car, so they'd stay frozen on the trip home. Normally it's about an hour drive from where I live down to Spicer, but with the snow yesterday, the drive took me over an hour and a half.

So I get home and put the eyes in the sink and fill the sink up with cold water to get them to thaw a bit before I fillet them. I went to unload the rest of my fishing stuff out of the car and do a few other things. I walked back in the house from the garage and hear all this splashing and thrashing in the kitchen and I'm thinking what the heck is that? Boy was I shocked to see one of the eyes upright, breathing, and swimming in the sink!!!!!

How in the world?? I mean these fish were frozen solid for two hours on the ice and then were in a plastic bag in my trunk for another hour and a half. Has anyone ever seen this before?? I have to admit it definitely startled me!

[daylate$short]

I have had the same thing happen to me at least twice. very strange! Almost makes you want to release them!

[Skeets]

That is one tough walleye!

I have kept crappies in a 5 gallon pail overnight with snow covering them in the garage. The next morning a few of them were still alive and flopping!

I think it has to do with the body temp of the fish.

Warmth kills the fish almost instantly.

Cold keeps them alive longer.

[Raider4ever]

This would happen with bluegills and crappies after ice fishing. My Dad knew this trick and he would throw 'em into some warmer tap water in the sink when we got home and after about 5 minutes, he'd "yell" at us to quit playing in the sink. We'd say we weren't, he'd say "then who is!", we'd go check it out and viola, we would have Bobby Bluegill and Chris Crappie in our "Aquarium". My brother an I thought this was the greatest thing since sliced raisin bread. My Dad would clean them after about five minutes. For a little kid, it was the greatest.

[gopher_nation]

Pretty much anything that is living can go into a "suspended animation" when it's very cold. Heart pretty much stops so very little oxygen is needed. Cool little biology experiment!

[Rory]

I never seen it with panfish like you are saying, but I have seen it with northren in the winter. You think that they are ice cube and dead, put them in to some warm water and presto they are alive again. Dogfish are like that in the summer too kinda they can be out of water for sometimes a half hour 45 mins and still be alive. WEIRD