hooking mortality

[ikatcher]

With all the rigging that goes on in this lake, I have to share this. I have always cut the line on deeply hooked fish, but have always wondered if those fish survive. I was up on Rainy Lake and my 11 yr old catches a 14 inch walleye. She starts removing the hook when she tells me, hey there is another jig in its mouth. you could only see the head of the jig, the rest was deep in its gullet.We kept the fish and when I cleaned it I removed the jig and it is a 3/8th ounce long shank. the jig head pretty much blocked the opening and i am wondering how anything could get by this jig. The fish looked healthy and still wanted my daughters jig. I have caught fish before that have had hooks in their mouths but never down in the gullet like that.This fish could have just been hooked that day but at the time there was not a boat in sight. I posted this in the Mille lacs forum because of the number of people that fish on this lake.

[northender]

With all the rigging that goes on in this lake, I have to share this. I have always cut the line on deeply hooked fish, but have always wondered if those fish survive. I was up on Rainy Lake and my 11 yr old catches a 14 inch walleye. She starts removing the hook when she tells me, hey there is another jig in its mouth. you could only see the head of the jig, the rest was deep in its gullet.We kept the fish and when I cleaned it I removed the jig and it is a 3/8th ounce long shank. the jig head pretty much blocked the opening and i am wondering how anything could get by this jig. The fish looked healthy and still wanted my daughters jig. I have caught fish before that have had hooks in their mouths but never down in the gullet like that.This fish could have just been hooked that day but at the time there was not a boat in sight. I posted this in the Mille lacs forum because of the number of people that fish on this lake.

Not unusual the past couple years to get walleyes at Mille Lacs with 2-4 hooks in the mouth. Cut one off and you might catch the same fish back with your hook in the mouth five minutes later. Very common these days of starving walleyes.

[RumRiverRat]

The Walleyes on Mille Lacs are starving?

Maybe we should have a benefit concert.

[tom fellegy]

14in walleyes eat 3,4,5 inch and bigger minnows all the time, way bigger than a 3/8oz jig. i don't think a 3/8oz jig will obstruct the throat unless the hook has penatrated both sides and is holding the throat closed

[Troy Smutka]

If in doubt, cut the line. Fish can eat with quite a bit in their mouth, and even gullet. I caught and released a 17-inch walleye last weekend up on some shallow rocks that had a crayfish visible in it's gullet, but still wanted a large leech.

[kgpcr4]

We have all seen the "floaters" out there that did not make it. to think otherwise is foolish. C&R has hooking mortality. Warm water increases mortality. There are many problems with the lake right now and its not just netting. The crash of baitfish is critical to the lake.

[northender]

If in doubt, cut the line. Fish can eat with quite a bit in their mouth, and even gullet. I caught and released a 17-inch walleye last weekend up on some shallow rocks that had a crayfish visible in it's gullet, but still wanted a large leech.

One more time--the whole mess is directly and indirectly caused by the netting.

The slot limit over all the years created the bait fish crash, nothing else(zeebs were not there when the perch numbers started dropping fast). All the released big fish, way over the amount the lake can handle, ate down the various forage fish including the perch young of the year and lately, the past 4 year classes of the walleye young of the year. The slot limit has been and is in place only to accommodate the netting harvest numbers. The slot limit would not have been put into place, and wasn't until the netting started. The netting is the main source of all the problems.

All of this is per the DNR in Aitkin, some on the record and some they won't say publicly to this point.