livewell drama

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justnortherns

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This past summer I had one 'keeper' largemouth bass that made quite a jail break from my converted cooler used as a livewell.

I momentarily had the livewell cover tilted open and, just like that(!), the bass jumped from the cooler in the middle of the boat straight into the lake. One impressive Olympic dive, it didn't touch the boat in any way.

Needless to say, I'm more careful with the livewell cover now!

However, I'm new at livewells, is this common or are Olympic fish a rare breed?! :)
 
Pretty common here, I have seen it and heard of it happening many times. It is hard to belive they can jump like that but somehow they do.
 
I have come close to it happening to me on several occasions i think the see the light when you open the lid
and they shoot for the sky.
using a cooler have you thought about using some king of cover that will protect part of the opening?
 
I would say it's fairly common.

I've seen it happen a few times right before weigh-ins at the bank, and I'm sure it happens out on the water too.

I built a plexi lid that fits inside the cooler so that when the lid is open, there is still a lid inside with a smaller hole in the middle minimizing/preventing any flying fish. Some of the guys have cut their cooler lids so that just the middle part will open to accomplish the same thing.
 
89Suburban said:
Your lucky that thing didn't slap ya in the noggin. :lol:
No kidding! I wouldn't want to be a casualty from fish jumping......:) I've seen fish try to jump from the cooler, but I'd never seen them clear the whole boat and go straight into the lake.........nice survival instinct!

redbug said:
I have come close to it happening to me on several occasions i think the see the light when you open the lid
and they shoot for the sky.
using a cooler have you thought about using some king of cover that will protect part of the opening?
Brine said:
I built a plexi lid that fits inside the cooler so that when the lid is open, there is still a lid inside with a smaller hole in the middle minimizing/preventing any flying fish. Some of the guys have cut their cooler lids so that just the middle part will open to accomplish the same thing.
Great ideas! I have the standard factory cover on the cooler but never thought of building in a cover attachment.
 
:roflmao:
Not laughing at you...but with you. That really made me laugh.....and I know it can happen (although not to me yet..even though I've just jinxed myself).
 
I can picture you now standing in the boat looking like "what just happened, where did my fish go"?

I used to be a trapper in my younger days and had rabbit do the same thing to me from a wooden box trap. The trap door was tripped closed and as I stood it up on the end and slid the door open to see what I had caught, the rabbit saw daylight and shot straight up into my face. I curled over onto him and had a pretty hectic fight on my hands. I did manage to get him but it was not easy. A cottontail has claws and teeth and they are not afraid to use them.
 
never had one jump out but was drifting and slid up next to some cattails once and a 5 pounder jumped into the boat. Me and my dad almost jumped out! :LOL2:
 
Had it happen once, my brother and I where fishing in Minnesota when we were kids. He caught a nice northern, had it in the cooler and he wanted to look at it again, just as soon as he cracked the lid, the fish jumped out and flew by my head mouth open, but he chose to jump in the front of the boat so he was still dinner.
 
Captain Ahab said:
They calm right down once filleted :mrgreen:

Heheheh, yes, they do!

I have had them jump out of boat several times in my fishing days. They usually like to slap me in the face with their tails on the way out :shock:

Well, at least it seems like they want to anyway. Even though you lost the bass, that just shows one of the great things about being on water or in the woods - we get to experience some great moments!
 
Speaking of flying fish, those boys boating and fishing out in the upper mid-west got some real scary asian carp stories, those things can be deadly. :shock:
 
I had an Asian carp jump into the boat last summer, probably around 3lbs. It missed my fishing buddy by a few inches, luckily we were going slow at the time. Then again if we had been going faster it might not have happened at all, I understand that one of the things that causes then to jump is the noise and vibration of the motor.
 

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