jimburrows

Yesterday I caught a small mouth bass in 22 ft of water,the surface water tempature was 41 and air was the same. It had been raining all morning and i began fishin at 12:30 as the rain was ending. After catching the smallmouth I put it in an empty live well no water. When I arrived home 5hours later I was suprised to see the gills still moving and color remained the same or darker than when I put the fish in the live well. I put the fish in the sink and went back out to cover the boat, returning to the sink thre gills still working I filled the sink added ice and after a few iinutes the fish was able to swim upright. I could not kill the fish so I returnrd it to fresh water where it swam away slowly. I am a tournament bass fisherman and smallmouth are the most difficult to keep alive for extend period. How can a small mouth survive so long out of water? Conditions must have been perfect and the fish was calm in the empty live well. How can I use this information to keep fish from expiring during a tournament? Jim B