Had a perplexing chain of events happen to me this evening. Went fishing in my 4 acre pond here in central Iowa & caught the biggest WE to date - that being 3# 4oz (via a digital scale) - on a chartreuse grub. I was pumped when I got him to shore, as this WE was from my fall, 2012 stocking of 4"-6". This WE fought hard & tried to stay deep, but I didn't fight him too long since I had 12# line on. I bogo gripped him in the water, he was hooked in the lip, and the hook came out easy. I weighed him with the bogo, and quickly put him back in the water to fight another day. I rocked him in the water to get the water flowing through him, but he just laid there lazy. I thought that was kinda strange. Eventually after a minute or so, he splashed me with his tail and off he swam. Great I thought. So I continue to fish in the same spot, and about 5 minutes later I noticed a dorsal & tail fin at the surface out away from the shore. Then the fins go away and a little bit later, I see the upside down outline of a fish floating about 25-30' from shore. I immediately had a bad feeling that this was the WE that I had released. I got in the jon boat and rowed out to investigate. And sure enough, it was what I thought. My poor WE was giving up. I tried some more revival, but every time he rose back to the surface belly up. So instead of letting the snappers have a tasty WE meal, he came home with me & the fillets are now in my fridge. My stomach is happy, but my heart is a little broken over this.

Does anyone have any thoughts or reasons why this nice sized WE just gave up? My pond has an aeration system with 3 bubblers, & one of the bubblers is in the vicinity where I was fishing. So surely it couldn't be a DO problem, could it?

We've been having some cool nights as of late, so I am guessing that the pond is beginning its fall turnover. So don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.

Are larger WE suspect to the same warm water "fight hard to the death" syndrome as larger HSB? And unless you have a high DO water revival tank/setup ready, they won't make it??

Regardless, I am saddened to lose one of my original WE stockers like this. If I had hooked him deep, I could understand the resulting belly-up float. But this WE was barely hooked, so no trauma there.

I am interested to hear everyone's comments & explanations for this. I am not a tried and tested WE fisherman, so have no idea if this was a normal event, a freak event, or something else. I would like to avoid this type of situation in the future & protect my original stockers, as one of my pond goals is to catch a 7# WE down the road.

I thank everyone in advance for your input and thoughts.

Brad