[G3_Guy]

Much like the "Benz" humans experience when emerging suddenly from a deep water dive, fish experience a similar event when caught out of deep water. There have been several folks inquire about how to bleed a fishes air bladder properly when catching fish in these situations. I found some information on GYCBs site and thought I would share.



How to bleed a fishes air bladder



God Bless & Good

 

[G3_Guy]

Yea... I hate to see those big fish die. This method works pretty well. I've used it a lot. There are just some of them you cant save though.

I think I would have put that fish on the wall before I ate it...

 

[G3_Guy]

 

[Brownfish03]

JigNJon taught me another way to do this the other day on SH. He took the needle and put it down the fishes mouth through the crunchers....then, lightly put pressure on the inflated area of the fish......you could hear the air rush out of the fish and could notice how the fish was now "deflated". That trick seemed to work really good!

 

[booneangler]

You might half to show me that trick sometime Dale.

 

[Brownfish03]

Id be happy too.....I work with area vets quite a bit and Ill try and pick up a few syringes to use....I was quite amazed at how it worked

 

[G3_Guy]

JigNJon taught me another way to do this the other day on SH. He took the needle and put it down the fishes mouth through the crunchers....then, lightly put pressure on the inflated area of the fish......you could hear the air rush out of the fish and could notice how the fish was now "deflated". That trick seemed to work really good!

I think this is what you are talking about Dale... I found it on another site.



There is a new method, well new to me anyway, for bleeding the fish's air bladder. It is much easier than trying to align fins and spots on the side of the fish and it works for all species. With the fishes mouth open, place a #16 hypodermic needle, attached to an open syringe body directly at the upper part of the throat muscle. There is a small yet visible indention or crack at the top of this muscle. Slide the needle approximately 1/4" max into the throat. Be certain the needle is SLIDING not puncturing the muscle! Lower the fish under the water to see that the air is being released properly. This new technique is MUCH easier and a lot less invasive to the fish than previous methods. Keep in mind that there are vital organs in this area and that if done incorrectly, it could be lethal to the fish. This applies to all methods for bleeding the fish's air bladder. Also, it should be noted that this method, while much simpler and easier is not yet recommend by many fisheries biologist. I have also included a picture of the standard method that is the accepted and recommended method.

 

[JOE]

this method works great brian they saved afew fish like this at the tx on cherokee Chris Covington showed me and brad this method

 

[booneangler]

I have always been told that you can kill a fish if you dont know what your doing. I have never done that. Maybe Dale or someone can show me sometime.

 

[JOE]

i heard the same thing boon that is why me and brad waited till somebody actually done one right in front of us

 

[snoot]

JigNJon taught me another way to do this the other day on SH. He took the needle and put it down the fishes mouth through the crunchers....then, lightly put pressure on the inflated area of the fish......you could hear the air rush out of the fish and could notice how the fish was now "deflated". That trick seemed to work really good!

I've been using that method for years. It has always worked out great for me. One main thing is when you "Fizz" a fish, you don't want to take much air out. In the winter when they are suspended or deep 30ft or so, they have air in them to stay buoyant at this depth. You could actually do more harm than good if you take out too much air. I just gently release a little air. You can tell when it's about right. It's stomach will be a little soft and not tight as a drum.

 

[Softbaitmaker]

I could not count the times a few buddies and I have been standing in waist deep water deflating bladders at tournament weigh in releases. Many tournaments that just don't care about your fish will not take the time to deflate bladders, especially if they don't use release boats. They don't care because they don't live there. Flipper has one of the best equipped release boats I have ever seen and he uses it every Sunday Morning in his tournament and he has anglers that assist in the weigh in watching the fish in the release tanks for bladder difficulities and they deflate the bladders while the fish are in the tanks and make sure they are all healthy as possible before release. The tanks are filled with lake water by pumps 1 hour before the weigh in and then the chemicals are added to help promote slim coats, sedate the fish so they don't hurt themselves in the tanks and also adds salt and peroxide to help with any infections the fish may have.

Now when out of town big events show up to fish a tournament they will rent Flippers release boat and his crew do do the fish care because we have ways of making them feel very unwelcome if they think they are just going to throw the fish back in the lake without care being given. More and more of the larger tournaments are bringing release boats with trained personel on them these days. I guess we finally got our point accross down this way that we plan on protecting our fish.......

 

[Countryboy]

does anyone remember the site that showed how to bleed the air though the mouth???

 

[snoot]

http://www.724outdoors.com/Fishing/article...iArticleID=1574





here ya go Countryboy. Scroll to the bottom.



Through the mouth is how I always fizz my bass. It works perfect and never had a problem with it. I never want to make an outside wound as some techniques describe.

 

[Countryboy]

Thanks for the link John.

 

[snoot]

Thanks for the link John.

You're Welcome Countryboy.

 

[TFO]

thanks for the links G3 & Jon

 

[River Pro]

Probably a dumb question but I've always wondered.....if you poke a hole in the fish's air bladder, will the hole heal or will the fish never be able to use its air bladder again?

 

[snoot]

Probably a dumb question but I've always wondered.....if you poke a hole in the fish's air bladder, will the hole heal or will the fish never be able to use its air bladder again?

I'm sure it heals. It is such a small hole, it probably heals very quickly.

 

[GOTABIG1]

thanks for the info G3 im learnin some stuff