Does anyone have some idea as to how long a bass can be out of the water without the risk of injury? My local lake has a monthly fishing contest, and fishing from the bank I'm really not interested in lugging a bucket around. I'm 100% C&R, and value returning a live and healthy fish to the water vs. a trophy.

The same amount of time that you can survive by holding your breath under water (2-3 minutes).  

I'd guess around 4 to 5 minutes.  When I used to saltwater fish, I noticed some fish like Spanish Mackeral couldn't take more than 1 minute out of water.

http://www.State.tn.us/twra/fish/Reservoir/blackbass/livebass2.pdf

The above article is a good reference, Gene Gilliland is well know biologist.

Basically bass start to stress about 1 minute out of water. Air temperature has an excellerated affect. The problem is bass can't breath air, the breath dissolved oxygen within the water. If you put them in a bucket without a DO generator, the bass will use up the DO very fast because they are stressed and the water may be a different temperature.

WRB

PS; try holding your breath for 1 minute on the clock, it's a long time and takes pratice to hold your breath longer.

WRB is right on.

I don't think you could keep more than one or two mature bass in a 5gal bucket in warm weather for very long.

Not sure what the set-up for this contest is but if I had to hold fish for very long (especially during warm summer weather) I'd have a cooler with a bubbler attached, or not participate.

Does anyone have some idea as to how long a bass can be out of the water without the risk of injury? My local lake has a monthly fishing contest, and fishing from the bank I'm really not interested in lugging a bucket around. I'm 100% C&R, and value returning a live and healthy fish to the water vs. a trophy.

That sounds like a well thought out tournament.

their are lots of variables (air temp, water temp, stress level of the fish, general health of the fish in question, etc) but the best answer is, "The shorter the length of time you have to keep the bass out of water, the better".

Preperation is SOOO important. I typically have my livewell (a 100qt icebox) ready with an inch of water in the bottom, so when I lay a fish in it, it won't be on a dry surface. I quckly put in a couple more full buckets of freshwater. Now I can take a few minutes to get out my camera, tripod, and scale. Next I take a test shot or two (without the fish) and turn the scale on.

Finally, I pull the fish out for a few photos (mine will take as many shots as I want, consecutively, without having to reset the camera) then, straight back into the live well. Check the photos. If they are not spot on, I make a few minor camera adjustments, and take a few more. If they look good, I pull the fish out, weigh it, and quickly release it.

So, from the time I hook the fish, to the time I release it, it has not been out of the water for a total time of much more than 1 minute.... and that's split into 3 or 4, 20 second intervels.

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Whatever your doing with your fish, if by the time you release it, you have to hold it, and revive it for any length of time, your not doing it right. It's all about preperation, and practice.

Peace,

Fish

PS, The whole operation can be almost as smooth while shore fishing "if" you remember to carry a stringer rope, so you can keep the fish in the water, while you get your camera and scale ready.

PPS, IMPO, tournament caught fish are going to be subjected to a LOT of stress, which could possibly kill them, time out of the water completely asside. No, I'm not anti-tournament, just stating the facts.

Very good info. Thanks to all.

this may not be right, because maybe the fish was terminal by this point

but the one fish i kept last season lasted a 20 min ride home....when i filled the sink it splashed around like a freshly caught fish....this was 15-20 mins outside of water....

Does anyone have some idea as to how long a bass can be out of the water without the risk of injury? My local lake has a monthly fishing contest, and fishing from the bank I'm really not interested in lugging a bucket around. I'm 100% C&R, and value returning a live and healthy fish to the water vs. a trophy.

That sounds like a well thought out tournament.

X2

I don't think you could keep more than one or two mature bass in a 5gal bucket in warm weather for very long.

I dont know how long you call long, but when I was like 10 or 11 my uncle caught a real big bass (7 or 8 lbs) in the middle of summer (95 degrees) in a remote farm pond southern Illinois. He put it in a bucket full of water and drove his ATV back to our cabin to tell us. We drove back out to the pond, looked at it, took pictures and even clipped a big orange thing to its fin. All in all the fish was in the bucket for about 25-30 minutes and out for pics for a minute or two. It survived and was seen the next spring spawning.

All good info. Hot weather is really hard on handled fish, so get them back in the water asap.

this may not be right, because maybe the fish was terminal by this point

but the one fish i kept last season lasted a 20 min ride home....when i filled the sink it splashed around like a freshly caught fish....this was 15-20 mins outside of water....

x2, I hate to admit this but 5 to 6 years ago, before I had a boat, I caught and transported a 2 to 3lb bass to my home about 15 to 20 min away. It was during the fall and the bass was in a plastic bag. I took pictures of the bass at home and drove the bass to a small pond and it swam off like I had just caught it. I stood there for about 10 mins thinking that the bass was going to float up but never did.