Fish Froze Up After Being Pulled Through A Weedbed?

[Daniel Lin]

I was night fishing tonight and I hooked onto what I'm pretty sure is the queen of the pond at the community college I fish at regularly after work. I was throwing a Strike King Midnight Special (7/16oz, single colorado) and had to pull through a pretty thick weedbed to get her out of the water. There was definitely an awkward moment when I didn't have my drag adjusted adequately for moving from relatively open water to the weed-filled shallows and I had to pause for a second to max my drag out and wrench her out of there. The spot I was at though, was illuminated by a lamp, and she was visible in the weedbed as I fumbled with my drag. I noticed that her tail was cocked fully to the side and her entire head and mouth was engulfed by weeds. Looking into the water, it was such an unusual sight that I thought I might have just hallucinated a battle with the hardest fighting boot I've ever encountered. She remained like this when I hoisted her out of the water too.

 

Unfortunately, while holding her up by the line while I tried to get all the weeds out of her mouth and face enough to lip her with my gloved left hand and start working on getting the hook out, she unfroze after I got a ball of weeds about the size of a tennis ball out of her mouth and shook free of the hook and landed just out of reach in the extreme shallows. Two flips later she was back in swimmable water and there I was, likely my PB out of that body of water gone without a photo. (My actual PB has no photo either, apparently my phone camera won't start when battery is under 5% and now I make sure my phone's battery is adequately charged before going fishing)

 

Has anyone else encountered any other situation like this? If anything, I learned that if it's not going to be a routine lip and unhook procedure, I'm going to take a few steps back from the water and turn around too. I've lost three other fish in the past week as they kicked off my hook while I was getting ahold of them after pulling them out of the water. This goes in the book of habits I need to get into, just like how I realized I was missing a lot of time observing the water when I turned toward shore to rig up another lure.

[Americanzero]

I see that a lot, would be interesting to know exactly why they freeze like that.

[Paul Roberts]

I think I can answer that one.

 

"Freezing" is an instinctive response used by many fishes when frightened. Bluegills and minnows often do this when approached by bass. Motion invites attack and by freezing prey fishes can sometimes avoid triggering an attack. "Frozen", or "immobile" prey fishes in tanks in fish behavior labs have been described as being so immobilized the researcher can reach right in and pick them up.

 

A hooked bass is a frightened one. One common fear response by bass is to bolt to the bottom, and bury into cover, before "freezing". This happens quite often when fishing in heavy cover, the bass bolting into heavy vegetation, then freezing. I've also had bass wedge themselves into rip-rap, and even had one stuff itself into a muskrat burrow! All I could see was the tail sticking out. Didn't see that one coming. If one wedges itself, sometimes you can wait them out. Eventually they come to and swim out.

 

This bolting for bottom and burying into cover is the main reason why bass are notoriously difficult to collect by netting, especially seines. The bass dive under the lead-line, and if there’s any cover, they’re in it and the net passes overhead.

 

The inability to dive toward something to hide in is one reason I believe that bass over featureless bottoms are so apt to jump when hooked.

[Bassun]

My aunt used to fish a lot in Florida.  I remember her telling me when a fish "holed up" she would pluck the line like a banjo and they would often come back out.  Now I don't know what type of fish she was talking about, or even if it was fresh or saltwater fish she was referring to.  All I know is that it doesn't work if a fish gets you wrapped in deep brush, lol.

[Chris S]

My aunt used to fish a lot in Florida.  I remember her telling me when a fish "holed up" she would pluck the line like a banjo and they would often come back out.  Now I don't know what type of fish she was talking about, or even if it was fresh or saltwater fish she was referring to.  All I know is that it doesn't work if a fish gets you wrapped in deep brush, lol.

Grouper, they back up into the structure and use their gills to hold them in place. I have waited 15 minutes trying to get one to come out. Pluck the line or in my case slack the line and hope that circle hook is still in place. 

[gulfcaptain]

Bass do it, I've seen yellowtail offshore that have buried themselves in a kelp paddy lay there.  They can't see you and feel like they are hidden and waiting for the danger to pass.  Pull them all the way to the boat or be it bass fishing  from shore with a face full of weeds and pick them up without a kick or headshake....of course when they figure out they aren't safe anymore, that extra energy they saved explodes and as your's did, managed to free themselves without letting you get a picture.

[Bassun]

Grouper, they back up into the structure and use their gills to hold them in place. I have waited 15 minutes trying to get one to come out. Pluck the line or in my case slack the line and hope that circle hook is still in place. 

 

Thanks!  I wasn't sure what it was she did that to but remembered her telling me many, many years ago.

[J Francho]

Seems like a simple landing net would resolve the issue.

[Daniel Lin]

Seems like a simple landing net would resolve the issue.

From shore though? Recently I've been taking one, or at most two rods (BC and spinning) and a waistpack with a single 3600 and two pouches of soft plastics. A landing net would have to go on my back, fly-fisherman style, and would be of debatable use if I'm not halfway in the water, a la fly-fisherman.

[J Francho]

Yes, from shore.  Debatable?  It's debatable whether you caught a PB or not - no pics.  See what I did there.

 

Just get a cheap net with a 30" or so handle, and toss it on the ground where you are.

[Bassun]

Yes, from shore.  Debatable?  It's debatable whether you caught a PB or not - no pics.  See what I did there.

 

Just get a cheap net with a 30" or so handle, and toss it on the ground where you are.

 

I have to agree that I pretty much always have a net available even when bank fishing now (full size).  Landing big fish on light line at a bank is asking for trouble elsewise.  Same thing with wading, I keep one on my back but it's just a shorty.

[Chris S]

No one mentioned this but I keep a set of Boca Grips with a scale on it with me bank fishing, at the very least if I get those Bocas in the fishes mouth I can hang on better than twisting my thumb off. I catch Walleye from time to time and those Bocas sure are handy  

[lectricbassman]

Had a crappie do this to me once. I threw it back in and it sunk to the bottom. I thought it was dead and was thinking i should have kept it for a meal. Few seconds later it darted off

[ClackerBuzz]

always lip the bass BEFORE you remove the weed blindfold. and make sure you have a firm grip b/c they go ape ship if they didn't get to initially fight. I don't know the science behind why they go paralyzed but i use it to my advantage. from a boat i don't mind picking up my finesse rod and using it around weeds b/c i know even 6lb test is strong enough to get a weed blind fold around their eye's. after that it's lights out and I just troll over and scoop them up.

[Darren.]

 

Just get a cheap net with a 30" or so handle, and toss it on the ground where you are.

 

Agreed. If 30" isn't enough, they make 'em longer (obviously) 

and if you still have trouble and want a telescopic net, you can 

opt for the kind carp fishermen use, up to 20+ feet:

 

http://www.allfishingbuy.com/Landing-Nets.htm

[J Francho]

This is the net I use.  It is a little pricey, but it's outlived other nets I've had costing nearly as much.

 

http://www.leveragelandingnet.com/

[Darren.]

This is the net I use.  It is a little pricey, but it's outlived other nets I've had costing nearly as much.

 

http://www.leveragelandingnet.com/

 

These are on my radar. Local kayak store has begun to 

carry them. Love the leverage of using your forearm.

[Daniel Lin]

Holy crap that's pricey for a net. Off to the fabrication shop I go...

[J Francho]

These are on my radar. Local kayak store has begun to 

carry them. Love the leverage of using your forearm.

 

Yeah.  I use it in my boat, too, and now I don't need a "net boy" to screw everything up.

[Bassun]

Holy crap that's pricey for a net. Off to the fabrication shop I go...

 

I was just thinking of a couple cheap ways to gain the benefits of the leverage net myself.  I see two super easy ways to modify my net. 

 

A: Add a "pistol" grip on top and an arm guide on the back using the same net.  It wouldn't be as fancy, nor have the exact same torque, but would make one handed operation much easier.  

B:  Get a "forearm crutch" and affix the net to the end of that // affix the grip and forearm guide to the existing net.  Either way could be an interesting mod.

 

I'm interested to see what you fob up in the shop.

[J Francho]

Your letter B is how the leverage net was born.  The folding aspect came after. Kaykers have been doing that for years.

[Daniel Lin]

I was just thinking of a couple cheap ways to gain the benefits of the leverage net myself.  I see two super easy ways to modify my net. 

 

A: Add a "pistol" grip on top and an arm guide on the back using the same net.  It wouldn't be as fancy, nor have the exact same torque, but would make one handed operation much easier.  

B:  Get a "forearm crutch" and affix the net to the end of that // affix the grip and forearm guide to the existing net.  Either way could be an interesting mod.

 

I'm interested to see what you fob up in the shop.

I was mostly kidding..... the shop I had in mind is back home.... 12 hours away. I have some basic car tools here in Mississippi but that's it, unfortunately.

[Bassun]

Ah, well heck.  i thought we were gonna see some inventiveness, lol.

[Bassun]

Your letter B is how the leverage net was born.  The folding aspect came after. Kaykers have been doing that for years.

 

Being serious, does the the leverage net really make it "that" easy?  I can see how it could, but then again, I'm expecting it to vs experiencing how it does.

[Paul Roberts]

OK... I guess the question doesn't seem to be "why do they freeze?"... it's "What do I do when they have a face full of weeds?"

 

The answer is an easy one. As ClackerBuzz suggested, lip em first, then clear the weeds. Hanging a PB, with a mouthful of weeds, from the line is a disaster waiting to happen. Broken line, overstressed knot, lost fish, cut hands. Lip em first.

 

As to the net, save your money. I've fished from shore quite a bit and never carried a net for bass. Bass come with a handy handle. The only time I've used a net is from a boat, a pier, where it's difficult to reach the fish, or when fly-fishing for trout in streams when it can be difficult to get a hold of slippery trout in turbulent currents.