According to this article, it soon will be dead:
"... even without the aid of pictures, fishermen can tell if their catch is stressed or not, and the chance of the fish surviving or not. The long and short of it was that if the fish’s eyes are looking down, or at the water while being held upright, it was less stressed than a fish that has “Dead Eyes” that are staring blankly straight ahead. He also explained that if the fish has the blank stare, his findings showed that the fish had less than a 10% chance of survival, even if quickly released. He explained that it is very important to look at the fish’s eyes once it is landed because taking extra time with the release, can improve a fish showing stress’ chance of survival by as much as 58%"
Reading this article was a bit of a wake up call for me, and I'll definitely be looking at the trout's eyes when I net them from now on. One would think, though, that if so many released fish aren't surviving one would see more fish floating belly-up in lakes.
