Ouseburn 26th feb

[paulanth68]

Me and wor kid (rottonbottom), fished Ouseburn near old spillers between 11.30 to 5pm , first cast both of us caught,me undersize flounder 27cm, wor kid undersize codling 25cm,so we put them in a 15ltr bucket to recover abit and wait for the tide to rise,2hours later same catch each undersize flounder 29cm and undersize codling (foul hooked),in the bucket they went,about an hour later codling starting to go belly up in the bucket,put them straight back in river,not sure if they eventually made it,flounders went back no probs , then wor kid caught on his last cast bang on 5pm, sized whiting 31cm deep hooked so we cut the line and put it back,but it was a floater too . Can anyone tell me how long you can keep fish in a bucket before returning? the whole point of taking the bucket was to keep the fish alive...We're relatively new anglers and some times take a little time to unhook fish,if not lipped.

bait used was,, bluey, maccy,lug,mussel,rag and squid
Fish caught on maccy

[codseeker]

firstly the flounder 27cm,s was size and 2nd there best chance is putting them straight back into there enviroment

[Scotty91]

Hi mate not 100% but think it about 15-30 min

[pop39]

flats are sometimes ok in buckets mate but all other fish should be returned as soon as possible if not being kept for the table

[Scotty91]

If that buckets are raily yoused any for compa as you can clip rig of with fish on put str8t In bucket pop utter one on and cast str8t bk out

[Axe]

if i cant unhook a deep hooked fish..i generally put it out its misery...some say they can survive and the hook rots...but to let it live with a size 8/0 in its stomach will probably stop it feeding anyway...and i mentioned about the bucket on chat to you lol

[paulanth68]

well i think in future we'll just put them in bucket for a few mins , by the time you measure it and take a pic,,,i thought the bucket seemed a good idea lol

[Charlton]

fish soon use up the oxygen in the water, round fish should be returned straigth away, if you want to keep flounder or other flatfish it is best to have aflat tray with half to an inch of water in, then they can breath and keep wet, keeping them in a full bucket of water will eventuallu drown them. You can keep flounder out of the water for a while if you keep them damp, sacking is good for that, have actually kept flounder in the garage sink over night and returned them the next day.

[paulanth68]

thanks for that charlton,no-more bucket,well at least it'll be one less thing to carry

[codseeker]

most the lads will try keep them in a bucket if fishing a comp ..flounders will survive hours so they can be returned later after the comp ..but other fish wont survive in water at all for that time

forgot reason aswell for keeping them in water will keep the weight as if just hoyed in a bag etc they do lose weight time ya weigh them in

[paulanth68]

Ouseburn 26t feb

[Scotty91]

Looks luk a place tO me to orange to be flounder flounder are dark

[Pete from shields]

Nice report mate unlucky with the bucket fish lol, my son put a flounder in a puddle once while he sorted his stuff out but he forgot about it. The daft thing is it was still alive in the puddle the next day and went back alive to fight another day, this was at the milldam.

[paulanth68]

haha proper survivors those flounder , i always struggle with identifying between flounder and plaice,but ive seen flounder with orange spots before on this forum i nearly sure

[bandit]

[QUOTE=Axe;365942]if i cant unhook a deep hooked fish..i generally put it out its misery...some say they can survive and the hook rots...but to let it live with a size 8/0 in its stomach will probably stop it feeding anyway...and i mentioned about the bucket on chat

If youcant unhook a deep hooked fish just cut the snood as close to the hook as possible the hook will rot away wthout harming the fish (unless your useing stainless hooks) and dosen't stop them feeding, it's not uncommon to catch fish that other people have lost with the snapped off trace still in them