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Things you may find in your live well.
by: Michael Guiles 4/26/2012

A discussion came up at our last tournament about things that  have been found in  the live well other than the fish that were caught. I will tell you a little later why this came about. There is the normal bait fish like menhaden and sometimes a small mullet that you find floating after the predatory fish have been removed. I find these come from both bass for fresh water and also from sea trout and redfish in saltwater leaving their latest dinner in my live well. There is sometimes fish that are not your normal baits but something you might be fishing for instead of bass like the occasional panfish. This occurs when a larger bass has been gorging itself after laying their eggs.

One of the more interesting tales that came up was a banded water snake appeared in a live well after a long day of fishing. This may make you think twice about just reaching in that dark tank for your fish. I sure am glad that I always have a float attached to our catch and only have to grab the floating ball. The well on our bass boat is grey in color so seeing anything below the fish would be very difficult. I know seeing a snake in the well would not go over good, I hate snakes to begin with.

Now the reason that I am writing about these talks. You've heard the story or read the articles about how big bass can eat birds. Well it is true, when one of our teams came in for weigh in they looked into their live well to remove the bass only to see a strange object floating in the bottom. Much to their surprise there was a dead bird. They came over to me and asked what type of bird it was and after looking at it I told them their trophy was a red winged black bird. The bass that served up this treat was only a little over 4 pounds, so it doesn't take a really big fish to eat a bird. The question that was asked was, can they weigh the bird because it was in the fish they caught, we all laughed and said you can only weigh the fish.

Let me know if there are any other interesting tales of your catches previous meals.

Blog content © Michael Guiles

Member comments

golfbum57, FL   4/27/2012 3:42:02 PM
Besides what you already mentioned, I've found a small turtle, a quarter and a bottle cap.

 

Flyrodn, CO   4/27/2012 3:51:22 PM
Not unusual, but in Colorado crayfish and parts commonly show in livewells at day's end.