Stunned pinfish

[grasscarp]

This past weekend we had a very odd thing happen. We retrieved an old pinfish trap that we had lost several months ago. When we lifted the trap it was full of pinfish and proceeded to unload the pinfish into the live well. We noticed that about half of the pinfish were belly up and appeared dead, but if you touch one it would come back to life. We started to hit each fish and within a minute all of the pinfish were alive and well.
This was not caused by a temperature change or chemical in the livewell or rough handling of the trap.
Has anyone ever had a similar thing happen? Could it be some type of electric shock from something similar to an electric eel? There were two very odd dark fish in the trap as well. Any ideas?

[DixieReb]

Never heard of that. Did you catch anything on the pins?

[weedline]

the dark fish are your problem they are toad fish never kill many in a trap but they mildly poisionus remove the toads and most pins come back

[grasscarp]

We did pretty well at high tide. Nothing bit on low tide

[grasscarp]

Thanks for the info weedline. The pinfish coming back to was strange.

[grouperfever]

Odd question, was the trap clean or dirty? I've had this happen many times. It seems like it was in the warmer months and with older traps that were pretty well covered with all sorts. Lots of barnacles, etc. I never put much thought into it because most come around. I wonder if they are stunning themselves on toxins/barnacles/whatever on the sides of the traps when they start going crazy when the trap is pulled out of the water?

[grasscarp]

The traps were covered with fine grass and a lot of shells and barnacles. You might be right on that.