Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Can you teach an old fish new tricks?

I think these rules apply to all fish species. The bigger the fish is for its specie the more important this information becomes.

When transferring large fish from one water body to another, just about everyone will over crowd them in a hauling container that is too small with too little water. Make sure the hauling container is too big rather than too small to transport large fish. No normal angler is truly prepared to transport fish during angling trips. The trauma for the fish from the angler catching them is in itself very stressful for the fish. Now the fish has to endure more trauma of being handled (usually improperly), held in marginal water quality, then hauled an extended time in a less than optimum water quality. Often the water was too warm for smart fish transport. It is no wonder a lot of transferred fish die after transfer. Very few are really experienced in the proper methods for hauling fish to minimize stress on that fish or several fish.
A. Was salt used to reduce loss and help replenish the slime coat?
B. Was oxygen concentration monitored during transport?
C. Was pure oxygen used during holding and transport?
D. Were there any other stress reducing chemicals used to minimize hauling stress?
E. How long was the big fish held captive?
F. I think big fish require more care in handling transport compared to small fish mainly because a big fish has more body surface area that needs to be protected from fungal infections. IMO it is most often improper handling more than a lack of food in the new water body why big fish die when transferred from one water body to another.
See these wise pond owner's rules for proper handling of big fish once the tug-of-war is over.

This from esshup on the PB Forum as printed below. Good fish lessons are worth repeating. Just because the fish is not upside down when released does not mean it will survive the stressors of improper handling and transport.

Another IMPORTANT piece of the puzzle is learning to correctly handle the large LMB once caught. You don't want to grow them large, then injure or even kill them by handling them incorrectly once they are caught. 1) Use a rubberized net, don't grab them by the lower jaw. 2) Use two hands to support the fish to take it out of the net. One hand on the lower jaw, one hand supporting the back 1/3 of the fish. 3) Don't let it flop around on shore or in the bottom of the boat - that removes the slime coat and opens the fish up to infection. Doing that is basically a later death sentence for that big fish even if it appears okay as it swims away. Body infection with fungus growth on a fish takes a week to 10 days to take its toll on a big fish.

A thoughtful pondowner in Texas that has a 35 acre TROPHY LMB lake has a few rules. Break the rules, and you cannot fish in the pond.
1) Barbless hooks.
2) Support the fish with 2 hands.
3) Net the fish, keep the fish in the net in the water while you figure out what you are going to do next. This is important because of the next step.
4) The fish can only be out of the water for 30 seconds max. If you want to weigh the fish, leave the fish in the net, weigh everything and then weigh the net after the fish is released, don't hang the fish by it's jaw or worse, the gills.

Texas Share Lunker program has had LMB come in with broken lower jaws because of poor handling, and the fish never recover.