Lactic Acid builds up in their muscles during the fight, the longer the fight the more acid.
Sometimes when I catch a wiper on light weight tackle I have trouble releasing the fish. The wipers seems to suffer from a muscle cramp,their bodies curl up in a U shape until they eventually recover and swim off. Using heaver rods and reels seems to prevent this problem. Are they really getting muscle cramps or is there something else going on. Thanks!
Lactic Acid builds up in their muscles during the fight, the longer the fight the more acid.
Wipers fight extremely hard and these hard fights require a lot of resources from their bodies...the longer the fight, the more stress that is put on the fish. High water temperatures encountered during Kansas summers further increase the stress on the fish. Using light tackle on wipers during the heat of the summer can greatly increase mortality rates of released fish. The fish can still die even though it swims away from the angler. Using heavy enough tackle to decrease fight time as much as possible is much better for the fish than fighting it to exhaustion.