FerelsHot,
Sorry to hear this. If she's not decomposing and doesn't smell too bad maybe you can get a local taxidermist to mount her? I know I've skinned out fish that caused my nephew to run out of the shop ready to toss his cookies, so if it can be skinned intact it can be mounted. Once the skin dries (nothing inside perishable is used) the odor goes away and the fish skin is sealed anyway.
I've been there done that losing large fish. Sometimes they just die earlier than we expect.
I just mounted a large northern pike that was found floundering on the surface. I know of several cases like this and in most cases it's because they have a spiny rayed fish caught in their throat. This latest one did not, and I suspect since the lake is a coldwater lake and big pike like to hang deep, it was probably initially in deep water. My theory is for some reason it came to the surface too abruptly, which inflated it's swim bladder excessively and the fish could not go back down. This could be from being hooked and pulled up into shallow water (but got off the line), or it came up to fast after a rainbow trout. I've hooked rainbows in local lakes that shoot straight to the surface when hooked. It wouldn't be a stretch if they shoot to the surface when pursued by a northern pike.
Sorry I hope I didn't hijack your thread.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 07/23/12 03:03 PM.
