Bit off more than he could chew

Found this today on Falcon Lake.

It was barely showing signs of life so I tried reviving it in my livewell but that didn’t help. It’s mouth was so locked open I don’t think it could breath.

That little fish was probably 6” long! The head was pretty much gone and the whole thing was turning to mush. Must have been there a day or two.

Looks like me last night with the pizza I bought...

Those perch can raise those dorsal spines and get loose sometimes. Looks like in this case he just got stuck.

When shad are hard to find at PK, I use perch for bait. I've had stripers take off with one peeling line and drag and just spit it out due to the perch getting those spines up. Stripers will always come back and get him if you leave it. With smaller perch I've had sandbass take them, so this does not surprise me.