![]() ![]() The buck was bleeding so heavily that I couldn’t keep the water clean and soon he was obscured by crimson in the tank. While they tagged and measured the salmon, I constantly scooped blood out of the livewell with a 5-gallon bucket and replaced it with fresh water. It quickly became obvious that the fish had a severed gill arch as it was pumping an alarming amount of blood.įishing had been slow so far that week, so the biologists decided to outfit the king with an acoustic tag anyway. When we got the fish to the boat, the K15 was barely visible in its mouth. A dusky buck of nearly 30 pounds mashed my Kwikfish and took it down deep…way deep. The most blatant example came one October while targeting fall kings on the Yuba. “The Bleeder” Despite a massive loss of blood, this big buck was found spawning upstream! A couple did die, but we also had several amazing stories of survival. 4 & 5 spinners) -– all of which I figured were dead. Might as well bonk it, right? Well, not so fast…Īfter tagging hundreds of Chinook on the Yuba and Feather rivers in Northern California, I’ve had a handful of our fish hooked deep in the gill arches (mostly hooked on No. One of the longstanding beliefs I’ve held onto over the years is that a salmon or steelhead is likely going to die if it is pumping blood from its gills. So, here are just some random observations from our experiences – ones that I think may surprise you a bit… If it Bleeds it Dies? As always, he was extremely interesting talk to and had a lot of info to share as well. ![]() Some of the most compelling stuff had to do with the relationship between hook placement in a fish and its chance for survival.Īs I started reflecting on some of my experiences, I got on the horn with noted Northwest guide and fellow “science angler” Bob Toman, who has done even more salmon tagging than I in Oregon. ![]() These have all been tracking programs to look at the spatial and temporal distribution of both spring and fall kings…but some very interesting anecdotal information has come out as well. Over the past several years, I’ve had the good fortune of being hired by various agencies to catch - with rod and reel - Chinook salmon for acoustic tagging studies. I used to think that a fish bleeding like this couldn’t be released…but that’s not entirely true. ![]()
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