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Another thread brought up the issue of reviving fish. This got me thinking about how many fish I have had to revive and under what circumstances. Now my memory is not what it once was and it never was very good but a real unscientific review yields the following.
Over the years, I have rarely had to revive a fish for over a few seconds and this is mainly getting it pointed in the right direction. For purposes of discussion, I'm defining revive as a process taking over 30 seconds.
For those few that I have had to revive, I can't remember an instance of a winter fish or a fish taken in water temp of less than 48 degrees needing it. Only rarely is it needed in summer fish but then I rarely fish water temps over 60-62 degrees. For those summer fish that have needed reviving, all I can remember except one were bucks. This seems to make sense as hens tend to dramatically run and jump about and tire themselves out quickly while bucks seem more pre-disposed to hunker down and sulk which tends to lengthen the struggle. One exception to this was a hen some years back that took softly but once I set the hook, she headed for the sea and almost spooled my 4" Bougle. She did require significant reviving but it also took a long time cranking her in from 200 yds. downriver.
I'm a big believer in getting the fish in a quickly as possible and also believe in keeping them in the water. I suspect that both these contribute to low revival rates. With only a few exceptions can I remember a fish that took longer than 10-12 minutes to beach and the vast majority are over in less than 6-8.
Does this "data" seem to jibe with what others are seeing?
Over the years, I have rarely had to revive a fish for over a few seconds and this is mainly getting it pointed in the right direction. For purposes of discussion, I'm defining revive as a process taking over 30 seconds.
For those few that I have had to revive, I can't remember an instance of a winter fish or a fish taken in water temp of less than 48 degrees needing it. Only rarely is it needed in summer fish but then I rarely fish water temps over 60-62 degrees. For those summer fish that have needed reviving, all I can remember except one were bucks. This seems to make sense as hens tend to dramatically run and jump about and tire themselves out quickly while bucks seem more pre-disposed to hunker down and sulk which tends to lengthen the struggle. One exception to this was a hen some years back that took softly but once I set the hook, she headed for the sea and almost spooled my 4" Bougle. She did require significant reviving but it also took a long time cranking her in from 200 yds. downriver.
I'm a big believer in getting the fish in a quickly as possible and also believe in keeping them in the water. I suspect that both these contribute to low revival rates. With only a few exceptions can I remember a fish that took longer than 10-12 minutes to beach and the vast majority are over in less than 6-8.
Does this "data" seem to jibe with what others are seeing?
