The bite is slowly turning on at Dragon Lake. We spent a couple hours this morning casting spoons and hooked quite a few fish.
Unfortunately, we were not able to revive this fish and we could not figure out what contributed to the fish dying so quickly. We landed the fish as quickly as we could, but it was apparent that it was not going to make it. We kept it as part of our daily quota and investigated further when we got home. My thoughts; the warm surface water temperature (65 degrees) and an empty stomach (lack of energy) may have been contributing factors. Maybe the line got in its gills during the fight, but we did not notice anything unusual beside the boat. We were using barbless treble hooks, which generally do not penetrate deep into the fish compared to larger single hooks which can cause unwanted damage to the gills, eyes and head.
What are your thoughts?