Mortally Wounded?

[Fishnwire]

A few days ago at camp I caught a decent walleye. There are not a lot of big walleye on this water, so at around 4 1/2 lbs, this was not a fish I wanted to harvest. The problem was that one of the trebles on the plug I was trolling with completely destroyed one of the fish's eyes, no doubt blinding it totally in that eye. After quickly debating what to do, I decided to release the fish. After I did however, I began to wonder whether or not I'd made the right decission. I wonder what the fish's chances of survival are. It may suffer some kind of infection in the wounded eye, or simply not be an effective predator and starve to death. Even if it does survive, would it be able to compete for a mate during breeding season?

 

Maybe I should have just ate it...What do you guys think?

[DRIFTER_016]

It will be fine with one eye, now if it had been gill hooked I would have said cook 'er up!!!

[BillM]

Lots of one eye'd fish out there... It will be fine.

[waterwolf]

let nature decide , a knife takes a fighting chance out of the equation. well done.

[lunkerbasshunter]

if its fatally hooked i would keep it for sure. The hardest thing for me is when catch an out of season fish by accident and i have to let it go, its pretty crummy watching a fish float upside down.

 

I have seen one eyed fish that are pretty big so i would imagine it would be ok

 

Cheers!

[timmeh]

Agreed with the others. If you practiced good catch and release tactics the fish should have a good chance of survival despite the hooking.

[Jonny]

Having caught quite a few pickerel out of water where they can't see even a foot (i.e. Lake Abitibi) I have to conclude that eyesight to a fish isn't always as important as we may think. That pickerel you released may do well enough with one eye.

[jediangler]

I've seen a one-eyed largemouth caught as well as a NO-eyed pike. The pike was skinny but could rely on lateral line senses alone to feed itself. I'd have done the same as you did.

[cram]

I remember reading about some study where they poked the eyes out of a bunch of pike to study how they survived with only their lateral lines, and apparently they were fine. So, i wouldn't sweat it.

 

Dr. Salvenius -- this sound familiar? Anything you've ever read about that was published?

[Terry]

if not Mortally Wounded let it go

if Mortally Wounded keep it, if its a legal fish

[Toronto_Angler]

Its all about the lateral lines...The fish should be fine

[Jonny]

if not Mortally Wounded let it go

if Mortally Wounded keep it, if its a legal fish

 

Not to mention that a mortally wounded fish must not be released...

 

"Releasing a fish that will not survive and allowing the flesh of that fish to be wasted is an offence"

[SBCregal]

if its oos or otherwise not legal to keep....keeping it is illegal whether its wounded or not

[Jonny]

if its oos or otherwise not legal to keep....keeping it is illegal whether its wounded or not

 

With that exception, yes.

[ozaibak1]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Walleye rely on their eyesight more than other fish? That's why they do better at night, and in murky conditions. And when lakes get too clear from zebra mussels, their eyesight declines. I don't know, I'd give this one about a 50/50, I personally would have kept it. It's like living life in a jungle with one eye, sure you might survive but your chances go down.

[Victor]

i have also caught a carp with only one eye... pretty nasty if you ask me but he seemed fine.

 

 

o btw, that's a double header shot, in case some of you are wondering why there's 2 fish lol..

Edited July 8, 2009 by Victor

[craigdritchie]

I've caught one-eyed fish before. Most likely, it will be fine.

 

If in doubt, release it anyway. The way I see it, the fish may have only a small chance of survival, but it will have no chance whatsoever laying in the bottom of your fridge.

[Puckhead]

If in doubt, release it anyway. The way I see it, the fish may have only a small chance of survival, but it will have no chance whatsoever laying in the bottom of your fridge.

 

And clearly no chance of survival in my belly! mmmmmm..... one eyed pickeral..... I wonder if that makes it taste even better?

[Burning Babies]

I've seen many big bass missing one or both eyes. Interestingly, not as many walleye. I have also seen a fair number of fish with damaged or broken gill arches that survived. Bottom line line is, the fish probably has a chance as long as it's not doing the back stroke, and it can only help the fishery to release it.

 

"Releasing a fish that will not survive and allowing the flesh of that fish to be wasted is an offence"

 

These kinds of laws are interesting. This one requires more ichthyological expertise than the casual fisherman has, and like most iterations of the "wasting fish" law, seems totally unenforceable. I suppose it's not my place to criticize it though.

[Bondar]

one eyed rainbow , it did have an eye at one time but was damaged somehow was a fat healthy fish well minus an eye of course