Bleeding Bass and Mountain Dew

[Shaggie]

A couple summers ago my brother and I were out fishing near some tourney guys and we noticed one of them had a bass that was bleeding pretty bad. He dumped Mountain Dew down its throat. We asked him why he did that and he told us it stopped the bleeding. Then the fish went into his live well. Is this true?

[Mike L]

I've tried it and yes it does work if it's not gut hooked too bad and minimal damage was done. But only for a short time, which sometimes is all it needs. 

 

 

Mike 

[F14A-B]

Around here we use Diet Dew.. & a little popcorn. (butter flavored of course.)

[Glenn]

I've said this before, but I strongly discourage this practice!  Soda is NOT meant for fish!  Please do not use it on them.

Instead, use something that is specifically designed to stop fish bleeding, assist healing, and helps prevent infections.  I recommend "Please Release Me" formula.  It's cheaper than a dozen Mountain Dews, and is far FAR superior for C&R of bass.

[Shaggie]

Thanks. It struck us as incredibly odd. I'll have to look into Please Release Me.

[Mike L]

I should have posted a disclaimer...Thanks Glenn. 

Of Course products specifically designed for that purpose are always preferred over some sort of short cut or home remedy. Certainly those that helps the healing process should be in every boat and co angler bag. 

I keep a jar of Rejuvenate in mine.

 

Mike

 

 

[Team9nine]

While this is a very common practice, or at least theory among anglers, the problem is trying to find any scientific basis for the action, to which I haven't really been able to find any. The most commonly suggested reason as to why this supposedly works is due to the citric acid component of soft drinks, but that theory has two problems associated with it;

1. Citric acid is actually an anticoagulant that prevents blood clotting, and
2. Cola drinks, when compared to most other similar beverages actually have a very low citric acid component to them. Most every other citrus type drink including orange juice, lemon juice/lemonade or pineapple juice have from 2X to as much as 7X's the citric acid. If that's the primary reason, why not recommend one of those other drinks instead?

Other reasons I've seen speculated relate to the coldness of the drink acting as a vasoconstrictor, but if that was the case why not just use or recommend ice-water. Another theory is that it's the carbonation in the drink (CO2), but again that doesn't make any sense as blood normally carries carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, and carbonic acid as part of normal kidney/waste fuunction and regulation, trying to eliminate it from tissue. Too much of any of these in the blood actually leads to a serious medical condition.

A more likely scenario going on when you pour your drink on the fish is probably a stress reaction to some form of shock, very possibly related to the pH levels of the cola. Most common soft drinks we carry around with us have a range of pH values between 2.4 and 3.7. Mountain Dew and 7-Up both run around 3.2, while Coke, Cherry Coke and Pepsi are down around 2.5. It is very possible that the acid is either triggering a response due to the pH shock, as literature suggests that a common fish reaction to such a sudden change in pH is often excess mucosal production of the gills to try and protect itself, or even a chemical burn or weak cauterization of the delicate gill tissues and structures due to the acid influx, neither of which may be beneficial to the long term health of the fish.

Actually, there is probably a much better way to handle this situation should you ever encounter it without having to use the cola treatment, and that is to simply get your fish into the water, either released back in the lake or into a treated livewell, as soon as possible.

In the case of the former, it has been found that fish blood clots about 35% faster in water than in air. You may have actually experienced this and not realised it. You have a fish with fresh blood running down its side from a wound, yet as soon as you release it in the water you notice little strings of the blood floating around in the water, almost like little strands of gelatin, and not some stream of red like food coloring. This is the blood gelling and coagulating upon contact with the water, most likely from a water-erythrocyte reaction.

In the case of the latter, most livewell treatment formulations have chemicals that act as stress relievers, sedatives, and/or antifungal/antibacterials that will all benefit the fish as soon as he is exposed to them, not to mention the immediate water immersion to speed up blood clotting.

Bass are pretty tough and resilient creatures, and the above tactic may not actually harm the fish. But until we better understand the mechanism for why it seems to work, for most normal hooking instances where a fish is bleeding, a quick release into the lake, or a few minutes of recovery in a properly treated livewell would be my first choice of action.

-T9

[gardnerjigman]

If I have a bleeder I just try to get them back in the water as quick and painless as possible. 

[corn-on-the-rob]

Just another case of a large group of people doing something that has no scientific basis.

A simple case of correlation, does not imply causation, that is justified through poor anecdotal evidence. Because there is a large enough amount of people that do this, the number of people participating in the practice is also used as a basis for proof, and information is passed on and practiced due to poor evidence and a large following.

Glenn and Team9 hit the nail on the head with this one. There really isn't a good reason to practice this.

[everythingthatswims]

I've caught many bass with one gill arch hanging completely out from behind their gill plate. They are tough fish.

[scaleface]

Taku Ito poured Mountain Dew on a bleeding bass this last tournament that he won .Saw it on Bassmaster Live .

[NHBull]

14 hours ago, scaleface said:

Taku Ito poured Mountain Dew on a bleeding bass this last tournament that he won .Saw it on Bassmaster Live .

I think Taku also still believes in global warming ??

[ironbjorn]

5 hours ago, NHBull said:

I think Taku also still believes in global warming ??

Then he joins most of the world and almost every scientist, and is able to clearly observe his world and see the truth of it.

[NHBull]

2 hours ago, ironbjorn said:

Then he joins most of the world and almost every scientist, and is able to clearly observe his world and see the truth of it.

.....sorry you missed the joke.  The term "global warming" refers to "early thoughts"....since the theory and language  has evolved over decades.  The same is true for the mountain dew theory ....never mind

[Glenn]

On 2/3/2016 at 8:35 PM, Glenn said:

I've said this before, but I strongly discourage this practice!  Soda is NOT meant for fish!  Please do not use it on them.

Instead, use something that is specifically designed to stop fish bleeding, assist healing, and helps prevent infections.  I recommend "Please Release Me" formula.  It's cheaper than a dozen Mountain Dews, and is far FAR superior for C&R of bass.

 

It's worth repeating again. The misconception about soda and fish needs to stop.

 

Products designed for human consumption are NOT good for fish.  Don't ever do it.  

[scaleface]

So what if its not made for fish . Does it work is the question ?  A lot of products are used in ways they were not designed for . I usually have a Mountain Dew and the next time I get a bleeder I'm going to experiment .

[BASS302]

Here's some research done on Northern Pike, you can download a pdf at the link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342220262_Do_carbonated_beverages_reduce_bleeding_from_gill_injuries_in_angled_Northern_Pike

 

The conclusion to their experiments was: "there is no scientific evidence to support the use of carbonated beverages for reducing or stopping blood loss for fish that have had their gills injured during recreational angling based on the context studied here"

[king fisher]

If a fish is bleeding from the gills, I eat it. If it isn't legal to keep, than I put it back in the water and hope for the best.  I will save my soda's for cleaning blood stains off the boat.

[MN Fisher]

11 minutes ago, king fisher said:

If a fish is bleeding from the gills, I eat it. If it isn't legal to keep, than I put it back in the water and hope for the best.

My thoughts exactly.

 

12 minutes ago, king fisher said:

I will save my soda's for cleaning blood stains off the boat.

Soda is for drinking - Simple Green is for cleaning...don't mix them up.

[ironbjorn]

On 7/26/2021 at 7:26 PM, scaleface said:

So what if its not made for fish . Does it work is the question ?  A lot of products are used in ways they were not designed for . I usually have a Mountain Dew and the next time I get a bleeder I'm going to experiment .

We poke holes in their face and temporarily suffocate them, sometimes we kill them. We feed them bait that isn't meant for consumption at all, that they all too often eat when you lose them off the hooks (looking at you, soft plastics, and the bass regularly found pooping them out). We torture them in every way. But it's soda pop that's the bad guy? I don't use the stuff for bleeders and won't, but yeah, come on.

[Glenn]

If the intent is to release them healthy, which I presume it is, then why drown them in something that is harmful to them? C'mon man!

 

[HaydenS]

Next time I get a bloody nose I'm gonna try this... 

 

Joking aside, don't do it, just get them in the water or livewell asap.

[NHBull]

11 hours ago, ironbjorn said:

We poke holes in their face and temporarily suffocate them, sometimes we kill them. We feed them bait that isn't meant for consumption at all, that they all too often eat when you lose them off the hooks (looking at you, soft plastics, and the bass regularly found pooping them out). We torture them in every way. But it's soda pop that's the bad guy? I don't use the stuff for bleeders and won't, but yeah, come on.

All great points! ..........but given there are many products like Catch and Release that we know work, why do the soda.

 

I don't think doing the dew makes someone a bad person, but given there are known better options, why?  When the scientist recommend getting them back in the water fast is better than soda, follow the science?

 

Truth be told we really don't know the fatality rates of released fish, so much of this is speculation.....But we do have the data from tournaments that  does support products like C+R

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, NHBull said:

All great points! ..........but given there are many products like Catch and Release that we know work, why do the soda.

I dont have catch and release in my cooler , I do have Mountain Dew . I'm not stating it works . I dont know if it does or not .   I did witness a top bass pro do it and thought that was interesting . As far as harming the bass , if its bleeding badly , its already in grave danger . 

[MN Fisher]

I just worry what the carbonic acid (what you get when carbon dioxide is dissolved in water - you know, the bubbles in soda) does to the very delicate structure of the gills. Yes, there's a small amount of carbonic acid in the lake water, but soda's acidity from this is much higher...PH of less than 4 for most of them.

 

https://www.ada.org/en/~/media/ADA/Public Programs/Files/JADA_The pH of beverages in the United States