Ok, so lets say u get aa deep hookset and got yourself a bleeder. Now their are products out their u can rub on etc.. What if you dont have them or are out? Has anyone ever heared of or tried 7up/Sprite? The citric acid is supposed to clot the bleeding. Has anyone ever done this? Could it hurt the fish more than it is already?

JJ

I've never tried it, but read about it in a past issue of Bassmasters. Give it a try and see if it works. As far as a fish bleeding on me, I always try to unhook it quickly and get it back in the water. I've heard that a fish's blood will clot very quickly in water. Just part of the game....

One of my elders told me about it. I figured if the fish is bleeding that bad it couldnt hurt? Just wanted to get some opinions..

Bass are cold blooded, not a warm blooded animal. Catch & Release from Sure-Life works OK to help stop bleeding, if you are a tournament fishermen, you should always have it on board. Keep in mind, some bass are going to die as a result of hook damage, put the bass on ice and take it home, it's not the end of the world to eat a bass.

WRB

Bass are cold blooded, not a warm blooded animal. Catch & Release from Sure-Life works OK to help stop bleeding, if you are a tournament fishermen, you should always have it on board. Keep in mind, some bass are going to die as a result of hook damage, put the bass on ice and take it home, it's not the end of the world to eat a bass.

WRB

So your saying because its cold blooded this wouldnt work? What if being a tourney fisherman you lose the catch and release stuff? would you use this on a lunker?

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1241402570

put the bass on ice and take it home, it's not the end of the world to eat a bass.

Glad to see some good ole fashioned common sense. It's been a few years since I've harvested and eaten a bass, but as sport fisherman we sometimes forget that the fisheries departments usually know what they are doing when it comes to size regulations and bag limits. Keeping one now and then for the pot is fine.

Anyway, putting a badly bleeding fish back in the water could be very dangerous.  Don't want to attract sharks now do we?  

Any carbonated soda will do, though actual soda water works best.

You must be very cautious about getting anything that is concentrated on the basses gill rakers, as it may suffocate them. Also keeping a bass out of water more than a minute can be fatal, try to put them back in water every 30 seconds. Trying to get a deep hook out in less time is difficult and a bleeding basses survival rate is low. The bass may look good, swim around the livewell upright and die within 24 hrs after releasing it. Just because it's out of sight, doesn't mean the bass is OK.

WRB

I have only had two bass bleed severely on me and I kept both of them. I'd rather be certain that they went to good use instead of wondering if they died after I released them. I almost never keep bass but this is one of the circumstances when I will.

Eat that Bass.  

Seriously. Take it home and eat it. No harm in keeping a bass here and there.

Seriously. Take it home and eat it. No harm in keeping a bass here and there.

For sure, I'm not saying i would throw a dying bass back. I'm saying for tournament sakes.  If its a lunker, im not going to eat it if i can stop the bleeding and everything seems to be okay. They are hard to come by here in Ohio.

Watch the Lion King...it's the circle of life

If you don't think it's going to survive if you release it, then put it on the dinner table.  If you think it might survive, then let it go.  Just my .02 cents.

I don't like to see any fish die, but it happens. I don't worry about it, as mentioned in the "circle of life" it's a good bet it will be a meal for another animal.  

Bass are cold blooded, not a warm blooded animal. Catch & Release from Sure-Life works OK to help stop bleeding, if you are a tournament fishermen, you should always have it on board. Keep in mind, some bass are going to die as a result of hook damage, put the bass on ice and take it home, it's not the end of the world to eat a bass.

WRB[/

So your saying because its cold blooded this wouldnt work? What if being a tourney fisherman you lose the catch and release stuff? would you use this on a lunker?

Yes; Paul Elias did just that, he put C & R chemical directly on a bleeding gill raker to one of his largest bass during the falcon tourny he set the weight record at. This was also a tournament that had a high post mortality rates due to warm water, big bass crowding the livewell capacity and poor livewell maintenance, resulting in low DO level and high stress level to the bass.

It's up to each tourny angler to learn how to handle bass properly. Read and listen to the Hydrogen peroxide thread on this site by Doug Hannon for Sure-Life.

WRB

To be technically correct:  Use Catch & Release every time there are bass in the livewell - always.  It keeps them healthy and reduces stress.

Use Please Release Me when a bass is bleeding, floating, or is sickly.  It's first aid.

I'm not a big fan of using soda on fish.  It's not designed for them, and there hasn't been any studies on soda and delayed mortality.