fizzin deep water bass

[NITROMAN]

After a lot of resertch i have a couple of things to bring up. first off i love to fish for bass . i take great pride in respecting fish in general. I have been told and have read some contradicting things on fizzing bass. some guys ive fished with say that poping the balloon looking thing that comes out nof the stomach works to fizz a fish . A fish bioligist from oregon told me that the balloon looking thing that comes out of the mouth is the stomach.A popping the stomach will kill the fish eventually. What happens is the swimm bladder burst and releases the gas from the swimm bladder into the body cavity causing the stomach to be pushed out of the mouth. . if you release the gas from the body cavity the stomach will return to its place. If you bring the fish up slow and not take the fish out of the water when remove the hook while the fish is still in the water the mortallity rate is the same as fizzing the fish the proper way. Now i want all to know that all of the info i have is from reading and word of mouth . I have yet to catch a bunch of fish in the two winters ive fished to hsve any first hand evidence of how this all works. but i will eventually be able to study this topic fist hand. and when i know more i will pass it on

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

are there any problems from infection stemming from sticking an unclean needle into the body of a bass?

What's the mortality rate on fizzing bass?

[Gisteppo]

Some of the best information and research on this is actually from the coastal rockfish fishery. Quillback, copper, yelloweye, etc etc rockfish are essentially structurally the same as your everyday spiny ray.

The first thing to realize is if you want to prevent dead loss or disease, dont catch the fish. If you decide to catch the fish, do what you can to catch them in water less than 20' deep. This will be less likely to have a fish using their swim bladder inflated.

Least dangerous for the fish is to carry a milk crate with a weight on it, or a big barbless hook thats weighted. Attach the fish to the hook or place it under the inverted milk crate, and force it to the bottom. This will allow the fish to get back to the depth that the bladder was matched to byouancy wise. The milk crate is the easier one, as the fish is typically very buoyant at the surface level and will get trapped easily.

Lastly, using a syringe, pierce the swim bladder through the lateral line of the fish, generally just behind the pectoral fin. If you have gutted one, or fillet them with the belly in tact, you will be able to see the appropriate place to pierce them. Use a 22 gauge or smaller needle to reduce the chances of infection and damage. TB syringes (those used for insulin by diabetics) is a good choice for smaller fish, and a 23 ga 2" needle if you have access to medical supplies works for larger fish. There will still be some associated mortality, but far less than before.

E

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

I watched an In Fisherman show on Friday and they were fishing for Lake Erie smallmouth up to 40 feet deep. Didn't look like the bass had any problem getting down after being released.

[sgpwayne]

I was at Banks Lake for Labor Day and caught 20-25 SMB from 25-40-ft of water and released them all as soon as I could after lipping them We didn't see any Bass having trouble and floating on the surface. My grandson caught his first PERCH so there had to be be pictures taken and the usual congratulations passed around and then releasesd the fish. a little later we noticed that it was floating on its side and struggling to get under the water. Point being, that if you release them right away they should be all right. I think that if you could imagine a diver being brought to the surface too quickly he gets the BENDS. Chances are that if you hook them in deep water you don't have to horse them in fast. then dont play with them release them as quickly as possible.

[Smalma]

What you see sticking out of the fish's mouth is its air bladder - an organ that is inflated with gas that allows the fish to suspend at a given depth without any energy. With a fish like a bass (as opposed to say a trout) its air bladder is closed so as the pressure decreases the bladder expands.

A couple things happens as the bladder expands -Initially the fishes tissues holds the bladder in place but eventually the pressure cause the bladder to expand which can tear surrounding tissues, That tearing in itself can be a source of mortality. As mentioned if the fish is returned to dept the bladder will shrink back to normal leaves. Usually on the bladder expands the fish may need help to get back down to the appropriate depth - the more exhausted the fish the more difficutl time it will have gettng down.

Deflating the expanded bladder with a needle (fizzing) will allow the fish to get below the surface. Of coourse immediately the fsh has been deprived of its balancing organ and it will have to constantly expend more energy to maitian its desired depth when not resting on the bottom. Usually the hole in the bladder will heal in time and the baldder refill with gases but until it does the fish at a disadvantage and at risk. Also as mentioned there is a risk of infection from the procedure as well as potential damage to other organs depending on the placement of the needle.

The bottom line is that there will be mortalities when bass are brought to the surface regardless of how you handle them. From the various studies I have seen a couple things quickly pop up. Mortalities can be expect whenever fish are caught at more than say 30 feet in depth, the quicker the fish are released and allowed to return to depth the better. The less stressed the fish the more strength they will have to get back down - the gas exchange in the bladder has to occur through the blood supply thus takes time so slowly playing the fish will not allow any substantial amounts of gas to be released unless prolonged over a long period of time and will only serve to excessively tire the fish. Using the milk crate approach to return the fish to depth may be the less stressful method of getting them back to the bottom.

One good think about "fizzing" the fish is that because of the collapsed bladder any mortalities will not be visible.

For my myself I will not target bass in deep water. Sometime to think about - If during the summer we all were keeping 10 to 20% of the larger bass we caught I suspect that some would have concerns about the collective impact we were having on the resource and the impacts on the quality of future fishing. Deep water bass fish is having the same impacts.

Tight lines
Curt

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Curt, thanks for the info on fizzing. I figure a retired bio knows a lot about fish mortality.

[panfisher]

there is an article on this in the new hunting and fishing mag that i seen today.