dislocated jaws!

hello everyone just read on another thread someone mentioned about popping jaws back in after being dislocated on pike, so far all the fish iv caught all looked fine when put back in thw water just wondering how obvious is it if ones jaw is dislocated? and how would you "pop it back in"?

If i,m not mistaken Tom, pike only get dislocated jaws if caught in the scissors or near that point. EG: using Kebab rig or being handled in a crap manner ?? Not wanting to stir things up again, but If anyone knows differently, please put me right.

Ive been pike fishing since i was 8 yrs old Tom ( 39yrs !! ), and i have never had a landed a pike with a dislocated jaw as a result of catching it so therefore wouldnt know how to "pop it back in".

The only dislocated Pike jaws I have seen are from people using heavy huge lures. When the Pike thrashes its head, the weight can pop the lower mandible over the top of the upper. You can see it clearly and just open the mouth wide (carefully) and it pops right back into place.

you can get it with baits and even ul lures if the fish turns/rolls on a hook up it can pop the jaw out (you will know it when you see it) its easy to remedy as well just work the jaw a little up and down with a bit of pressure around the scissors and it pops back into place

OMG i hope this never happens to me

thats what i thougt plumb, for me who is a bit of a novice of pike has watched videos and read books and in none of anything i have seen does it mention this, first i saw of it was when noodle mentioned it on another thread and i thought he was joking at first! but anyway thanks for the advice again

tomthepiker wrote:thats what i thougt plumb, for me who is a bit of a novice of pike has watched videos and read books and in none of anything i have seen does it mention this, first i saw of it was when noodle mentioned it on another thread and i thought he was joking at first! but anyway thanks for the advice again

dont fret we all have stuff to learn, on a lakes trip last year i found a pike gassed up and just left. i really had no idea the best way to get it back, it didnt help that i didnt know how long it had been there it had washed into the shore after being returned at some point as it still had the trace in it. anyway backto gassing up every method id seen tried read about i tried (over about an hour) just to get it to sit upright and release some air. all failed sadly

in the end i punctured its flank to release the pressure and the fish did start to sit upright, and manage to get a couple of feet down so i then let it rest and released it.

did it survive?

ive no idea but on the spot and with all my previous experience exhausted i had that option or two others left leave it or kill it.

id have been happier with a more suitable tool to do what i did (large bore hyperdermic) but i used a thin knife to nick the flesh then a cut down stainless trace to bore into the fish.

was i right or wrong?
i still dont know as no one when i asked would stand up and offer any knowledge about this method, i really couldnt just leave the fish to be pecked at by gulls or dogs and knocking it on the head gave it no chance at all.

the galling thing though is someone caught it and couldnt be bothered getting the hooks out, and the fish would have been belly up as they returned it so not only did they not make an effort to get the hooks out but they also jsut let it drift off

there is lots of stuff you wont read in books on pike fishing the problem being there are quite specialised regions in the uk so the mindset i need along with the gear i need to use leave those who fish drains and the like open mouthed as does there stuff with me

one chap uses 7gm bullets as weight and just adds extra ones as he needs to
i tend to start at leads of around four ounces and go up from there

he uses light rods 2.5 i think and dinky little reels
i use rods starting at 3.25 and go up to about 6 lb tc for big baits (century big bertha spod rod) and my boat rods are a pair of 2'5's and 5lb test rods

braided mainline im on .36 power pro and 50lb daiwa sensor (think its .40) alongside 18lb sensor mono
and wire starts at 40lb and goes up to 90lb

go on what would some of that gear look like on a drain thats 3 feet deep and silty

ye there is a lot of stuff for me to still learn its like a job tho its mainly about expirience etc i just thought tho that these books bang on about fish safety ie matts, handling, deep hooking which are all important and not one of them mentioned dislocation of a jaw i mean the gassing problem is quite dificult for a novice i honestly would not of known what to do in that situation but you obviously had more knowledge to overcome that, but dislocated jaw is something that i would feel (now i know what to do) i could do as a beginner but anyway im just going to enjoy the fishing more than anything i did my first live baiting session the other day which was quality so im learning thats for sure!

I dont think anyone should ever puncture a fish to help relieve the gassed up effect, surely the fish would swim off but later die, or so I thought. The PAC recommends this.

"Various ideas have been suggested regarding releasing excess gas from the swim bladder. Indeed the Americans have had some success using a syringe to remove gas from the swim bladders of walleye. Unfortunately, this is a skilled technique which we don't recommend untrained anglers to attempt. Some anglers have reported some success in releasing gas by holding back the gullet wall with a landing net handle. Others recommend bending the fish to force gas out. However, all these techniques seem risky and uncertain - but in extreme cases they might be worth trying. A staked out fish, once it has metabolised its excess lactic acid should be able to rectify the balance of gas in its swim bladder, keep itself upright and swim strongly away."

lowdouble wrote:I dont think anyone should ever puncture a fish to help relieve the gassed up effect, surely the fish would swim off but later die, or so I thought. The PAC recommends this.

"Various ideas have been suggested regarding releasing excess gas from the swim bladder. Indeed the Americans have had some success using a syringe to remove gas from the swim bladders of walleye. Unfortunately, this is a skilled technique which we don't recommend untrained anglers to attempt. Some anglers have reported some success in releasing gas by holding back the gullet wall with a landing net handle. Others recommend bending the fish to force gas out. However, all these techniques seem risky and uncertain - but in extreme cases they might be worth trying. A staked out fish, once it has metabolised its excess lactic acid should be able to rectify the balance of gas in its swim bladder, keep itself upright and swim strongly away."

did the net handle but ive found a roberts deep throat better
and did this which didnt work
i also torpedoed the fish back into the water as recomended elsewhere again mostly for zander and walleye, and tried getting it deep with a rod but having only lures i lacked the weight to drop with the fish and get it down.

i did pop onto the pac site and read that which is were i got the idea for the puncture

so after trying the ones i had used and was aware of, none of which worked what next?
knock it on the head or motor off leaving it, or try one last thing??

as for what one looks like

http://www.pikewatch.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=links&action=print&thread=5

a few mild ones on there

Its very hard to say what you or anyone else should do. But surely piercing the fishes organs isnt the best idea. Nobody seems to know

lowdouble wrote:Its very hard to say what you or anyone else should do. But surely piercing the fishes organs isnt the best idea. Nobody seems to know

the idea is not to pierce any old organ just the swimbladder or area around it holding the gas, and were talking a hole only a mm big not a big open wound

and no i wouldnt advise anyone to have a go unless they had exhausted all the other options. actually id shout at them for getting a fish in that state in the first place, dont forget this wasnt one id caught it was visible from about 40m away that much of its belly was sticking out of the water

I have rescued gassed pike several times but always from my boat. If you can get the fish back to the same depth they were caught, the water pressure normalises the swim bladder and they swim off affectively. The ones I have seen kept in keep sacks or propped in between 2 rod rests always seem to die. Shame

lowdouble wrote:I have rescued gassed pike several times but always from my boat. If you can get the fish back to the same depth they were caught, the water pressure normalises the swim bladder and they swim off affectively. The ones I have seen kept in keep sacks or propped in between 2 rod rests always seem to die. Shame

how did you rescue them?
curious face

only having lures and not having caught it i had no gear to get it down, and no idea what depth it came from

I keep a pole winder with 12" 3lb line and on it I tie a size 14 mustad hook. Attach this to your trace and add lots of weights. (it took 24oz to get a 25lb pike back down to 40ft) Lightly hook the pike in the outside of its jaw and slowly lower the fish and lead to the bottom, When the lead hits bottom you can give a short jerk and sometimes you get the hook back, sometimes the weak link breaks but the fish can be felt swimming properly just before you do this and never surfaces again. The same as you, apart from one repeat capture I am not sure the fish have survived , but I am talking about deep water fish here, not exhausted fish.

lowdouble wrote:I keep a pole winder with 12" 3lb line and on it I tie a size 14 mustad hook. Attach this to your trace and add lots of weights. (it took 24oz to get a 25lb pike back down to 40ft) Lightly hook the pike in the outside of its jaw and slowly lower the fish and lead to the bottom, When the lead hits bottom you can give a short jerk and sometimes you get the hook back, sometimes the weak link breaks but the fish can be felt swimming properly just before you do this and never surfaces again. The same as you, apart from one repeat capture I am not sure the fish have survived , but I am talking about deep water fish here, not exhausted fish.

see if im bait fishing doing that wouldnt be a problem but it would take an awfull lot of lures to do that.

but none of my fish have ever suffered from gassing and thats going down to fish caught at 90ish feet not long after turnover

caught the same fish a while later in about 12 feet of water


hate turnover time

I havent had fish from that depth, but 65ft with no problems. Play them slow and let them balance their own pressures is the key. They wont get exhausted at that depth as the water is very cold, Permanantly 4 degrees, Unless theres been a blow and a severe turnover like you say. Unlikely in the winter months though. We can only try our best