Rejuvenade is a bass care additive for your livewell. I can personally attest to its effectiveness. On many occasions, I’ve had deeply hooked fish that seemed as though they would not survive, and Rejuvenade brought them back to a state as lively as when I first set the hook on them. There are several different bass care products on the market, and I have tried a couple but keep coming back to Rejuvenade.
No matter what product you choose to use, I highly recommend treating your bass if you plan to keep them in a livewell for any period of time. Whether for a photo, a weigh in, or simply catch up with your fishing buddy on the lake to show off; these products will help your catch survive. I relate what bass care products do for bass to us drinking a bottle of Gatorade after being in the hot sun for hours on end. Products like Rejuvenade, replenish energy a bass loses during the fight, increases protective coats that help bass heal, and prevent disease on released fish. If you’ll use a bass care product, you will be protecting our resources for the future.
Rejuvenade has very quick and noticeable effects on bass. I have seen it take a fish that was by all rights dead, barely breathing, to the other extreme. Jumping from the livewell smacking you in the face and dancing from the weigh in back to the lake whistling Dixie the whole way.
During a large tournament, I had a fish floating on its side, and its gills were barely moving. When I reached to grab this bass to try and resuscitate it, it didn’t move or even try. This particular event had a rule that you could not cull a dead fish. After seeing this bass so close to its demise; the thought of having to keep it should I start catching larger fish was driving me crazy. I asked my observer if he thought it was lively enough to release. He said if you let it go right now I wouldn’t have any problem saying you let it go alive. We both knew full well that it would become turtle food within an hour, but the line was drawn that you couldn’t cull a “Dead” fish. If my observer could say with a clear conscience that he felt the fish was alive when released, I was within the rules.
At this point, I only had three fish of my five fish limit. So, even though it was a smaller fish, to let it go and then not get a limit would be the kiss of death in a winner take all event. On my hand held scale, this fish weighed exactly one pound. The dead fish penalty was 8 ounces. Once dead this fish would only contribute 8 ounces to my total weight if I kept it. However, eight more ounces should you only catch four other fish could win an event that was as tough as this one. You can see the flip side of this coin though. Keep the fish that is going to die and only provide 8 ounces, and then you figure out the bite and have to let two and three pounders go because you have a dead fish in the livewell. This was a tough call on the water.
As I mentioned, I didn’t have a limit. Unfortunately, some would say, my personal convictions would not let me release this fish; knowing it was going to die anyway. I felt that it was honestly too far gone, and I personally could not enjoy a win if I knew I had clouded the judgment with a questionable call on the water. At this point, my only option was my bottle of Rejuvenade. I have a lot of faith in this product but had little hope that it could work on a bass that had already given up. I put two capfuls in the livewell and set it to recalculate the water, and went back to fishing. Within minutes, I caught a fourth fish. When I put it in the livewell, I noticed my dying bass was kicking around the livewell, but still on its side. This gave me some hope, at least it’s trying now. Fate on my side only 5 casts later I catch another solid keeper and put it in the livewell. Both these fish came from the same dock; interesting, to say the least. I move to the next dock and whack another solid keeper that can cull my dying bass. At this point, I’m really having trouble with myself as to letting a potentially dying 13 inch bass cost me a 50,000 dollar bass rig. I have a cull fish in my hands; my observer is telling me that he’s good with it. When I opened the livewell this time that dying bass was swimming up right and looked 100 percent better. I’m culling it! Believe it or not, I lost 5 minutes of fishing time because I couldn’t catch it, this bass had gone from its death bed to running a rodeo in my livewell in a matter of 20 minutes. Needless to say, that fish is swimming in Lake Greenwood North Carolina, and I bet it’s just fine.
While this was probably the most extreme circumstance I’ve had with a dying or wounded bass and the effects of a bass care product, I can recite many stories where Rejuvenade has ensured I had lively bass at the scales. To this day, knock on my wooden desk I’m typing at, I have only weighed in one dead bass in my tournament career. Bass care products and a properly working livewell can mean the difference between winning and “Also Competed”. Other than having a weigh master whisper to you that you’re in the money, the words I like hearing a weigh master say the most is, “Five Bass Five Alive!”
If you don’t already use fish care products, research them, find the one you like the best, and use it. Your bass will love you for it, your partner will love the extra money you win, and you’ll know you’re doing all you can to help our valuable resource, The Bass.
Get the Net it’s a Hawg
Mike Cork
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