In my last tournament, I had a treble hook cut one of my better fish's gills.  The fish was bleeding pretty good from the cut before I could get her in the livewell.  Needless to say, a half hour later the fish was belly up and eventually dead.  When I was fishing another tournament earlier this year, my partner gill hooked a good fish and the same thing happened.  It was bleeding and when we checked the livewell 5-10 minutes later it was belly up but not dead.  He pulled out a packet of some livewell additive and threw it in there.  10 minutes later the fish is as good as new.  No problems for the next 3 hours of fishing.  Has anyone ever had a similar experience and do you recommend a livewell additive in particular for gill hooked fish?  How much success do you have saving gill hooked fish this way?

Catch & Release by Sure-Life is very good and can be put directly onto a bleeding gill raker with some success.

The fact the bass revived was a good sign, but no guarantee the fish survived after it was released.

Bass can bleed out from a damaged gill raker very quickly as it is a fatal wound. If you have a bad bleeder, keep it and take the bass home for dinner.

WRB

This video explains everything you need to know:

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/fish-care-in-the-livewell.html

Hey nova,

Could you email me sometime.  I just joined the board today and you mentioned tournys.   Shoot me a line, I have a couple questions if you wouldn't mind helping me out, since your local!

Thanks,

Chop     arsjohn81@yahoo.com