Incredible Fish Survival Stories

[Rich]

Brought up in another thread about pike, there was some cool stories being told of just how hardy pike can be.

 

One member mentioned a filleted pike, swimming off into the depths. I've personally seen a pike dropped on a rock, neck snapped, get it's neck punched back into shape, and swim off. I also went on a meat mission with some folks from germany once. We kept a lotta pike, but I got my PB during the week, which they kept (20lbs) and man oh man when that thing was laying in the boat I went at it with a baseball bat "trying to put it out of its misery" quick, well i caved his skull right in. He still flapped around in the boat. We put him on shore in the sun, swam for three hours, and when we went to fillet him, we could not keep the thing still. Like it was just out of the water and into the boat. Insane.

 

Anyway, would like to hear more incredible stories of pike or any other fish's survival you have witnessed.

[Musky or Specks]

Rich, back when I was younger we use to eat a lot of mud-pout.We would fish for them at night until we had a five gallon pail full with almost no water in it. Then when we'd get home we'd clean them all which would take a lot of time and involved only removing the tail portion. Fill a garbage bag with the heads entrails still attached. 12 hours later they are still moving in the garbage bin, Bullheads are the hardiest fish around.

[Sinker]

I once dropped a bullhead in the bilge of my boat, by accident. It flipped its way so far up under the floor, I couldn't reach it. I figured I'd get it out at home with a long stick or something. Well, I forgot about it.

 

A week or so later I'm fishing again, and all of a sudden there's a racket under the floor of the boat.

 

That catfish lived in there for a full week, in millimetres of water, in the heat of summer. It blew my mind!

 

I got it out and released it!!

 

S.

[Dontcryformejanhrdina]

Just consider yourself lucky you found it again lol.

[Christopheraaron]

Threw about 5 nice perch on the ice this winter when it was about -10, and bled them out (slit the gills), they had to be there at least 2 hours, then I threw them in a sealed ziploc (frozen solid by then), went to clean them about 5 hours later and they started flopping around in the sink!

[mike rousseau]

Dad had a musky he had a hard time reviving... So he brought it to the boathouse and left it in the minnow tank overnight... It was barely breathing after a few hours trying to revive it... It was belly up when dad went to bed... Got up the next day and the fish was fine... Was released...

[FloatnFly]

Threw about 5 nice perch on the ice this winter when it was about -10, and bled them out (slit the gills), they had to be there at least 2 hours, then I threw them in a sealed ziploc (frozen solid by then), went to clean them about 5 hours later and they started flopping around in the sink!

 

 

we've had that happen with pickeral (aka walleye) its the nerves of the fish kicking in

[Christopheraaron]

we've had that happen with pickeral (aka walleye) its the nerves of the fish kicking in

But were they swimming in the sink?

[FloatnFly]

no not swimming, but the tails were moving

[ehg]

I once dropped a bullhead in the bilge of my boat, by accident. It flipped its way so far up under the floor, I couldn't reach it. I figured I'd get it out at home with a long stick or something. Well, I forgot about it.

 

A week or so later I'm fishing again, and all of a sudden there's a racket under the floor of the boat.

 

That catfish lived in there for a full week, in millimetres of water, in the heat of summer. It blew my mind!

 

I got it out and released it!!

 

S.

Bullheads are unbelievably tough.

One winter there was a thaw and flash flood on Oshawa Creek. This was followed by the coldest weather of year right after.

Went down a few days later and the shallow ponds left on floodplain were frozen solid. An assortment of fish were frozen dead in ice, Chubs, sunfish, small bass etc. The only fish that were still alive at that point were the bullheads, Was amazed too.