Releasing fish with stomach in mouth

[JiffyJockey]

I think any avid fisherman has been in the situation before where they reel up a fish and the fishes stomach has come out its mouth. I'm not here to tell a guy how to fish, but I was actually very curious about whether there was a way to release fish that have the stomach in their mouth (also known as having "the bends"). For those of you not familiar with this, it happens when you are fishing deeper water and the change in pressure from I.e. 50 feet of water to 0 feet of water leads to the stomach pushing out the fishes mouth. Sometimes the eyes are popping out too. If you release the fish, they will almost always float up under the ice and die. Rather than shove the fish down the hole, there's actually a solution.

So I did some research (instead of harping on people, I wanted to find a solution which all of us can use on deep water lakes/ reservoirs). In my opinion, EVERY ethical fisherman should read this article and make one of these "descending devices" which will allow you to return the fish to the depths and release the fish so it has a chance to live (based on scientific research, they found fish survived 86% of the time using this method). Personally, I would rather release a 10" walleye using this devise and hope it survives so it can spawn many years vs keep it and never allow the fish the chance to live and spawn.... not to mention a 10" walleye filet is tiny......I know this is a touchy subject but that's my opinion). Anyway, here's the article about these descending devises and how to easily make one out of a stiff ice rod, some heavy line, a heavy weigh (8 oz. weigh to every 1 lb of fish) and a circular style hook. Check it out. It's on all of us to protect our fisheries and this is one way everyone can help in that regard......and no I'm not a tree hugger. I'm an avid fisherman.

Here's the article:  http://www.seagrant.umn.edu/newsletter/2013/05/let_em_down_easy_returning_a_fish_to_deep_water.html

[trout hounder]

Is it there stomach or swim bladder that comes out of the mouth

[Idahogator]

Hey Jiffy,
           Would you consider putting this in the general chit chat area for all on Iceshanty to see?

           There are tens of thousands on Iceshanty that never look at the Montana thread so, you could be the fishes hero.     

           If you prefer not to do that, may I?  And I'll credit you as the source.   

           

[pmmpete]

You can request a free Shelton fish descender, and get information about how and why to use it, at http://oceaned.org/request-devices/ .

[Hooked up]

Signs of barotrauma: eyes bulging out of the sockets or visible stomach turned inside out and sticking out of his mouth.  Good article, I've been using a descending device to release fish this year, quick and easy, and works well.  I have found it easier to release the fish when I hook it through the dorsal fin instead of the mouth, just a sharp tug and the fish is released.

[JiffyJockey]

Hey Jiffy,
           Would you consider putting this in the general chit chat area for all on Iceshanty to see?

           There are tens of thousands on Iceshanty that never look at the Montana thread so, you could be the fishes hero.     

           If you prefer not to do that, may I?  And I'll credit you as the source.   

           I'll wait on your reply for one week...>>>>

For sure.  Go for it! No problem at all!

[Born Late]

I've been using a descending device to release fish this year, quick and easy, and works well.

 

The "it's too much of a hassle" argument doesn't hold much water after you've actually used a descender, does it?  Well done.

[Idahogator]

For sure.  Go for it! No problem at all!

Jiffy,
     Is this suitable?   

          http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=341848.msg3630574#msg3630574

[BigSage]

Nice work Jiffy. The fish thank you!

[Red Boat Mark]

The thing you see is not the stomach.  It is the gas or swim bladder which has inflated due to the loss of pressure caused by bringing a fish up from the depths.  Some fish can burp this air out of their gas bladders but some fish can't.  They must wait to passively move these gasses through their blood system which takes a while.  If you release a fish like that, it will most likely die.  You can puncture this gas bladder and give the fish a very good chance of surviving the release.  There are studies which studied this practice which is heavily used by fishers in the aquarium trade.  They find that puncturing the air bladder (with appropriate and clean tools) is the safest solution to barotrauma.  The study I am most familiar with observed the test fish for many years and mortality rates were tiny or non existent.  A friend who is a fish veterinarian performed the experiment and she told me that many of the fish are still alive today, many years later.     

PS.  The bends, although related, is a different phenomena where dissolved gasses in the blood become gas again forming bubbles in the blood which can kill.   

[The Linguist]

If one is concerned about barotrauma, then why not eliminate the root cause and target fish in shallower water? It seems to me there should be some actively feeding perch in shallower water with weed growth. Is this not the case on Missouri River reservoirs?

[Born Late]

The thing you see is not the stomach.  It is the gas or swim bladder which has inflated due to the loss of pressure caused by bringing a fish up from the depths.   

No...and yes.     The thing you see is the stomach being pushed out by the inflated swim bladder.

If one is concerned about barotrauma, then why not eliminate the root cause and target fish in shallower water? It seems to me there should be some actively feeding perch in shallower water with weed growth. Is this not the case on Missouri River reservoirs?

I wish we had weed growth in Mo reservoirs, and so do the perch.  Finding shallower winter perch is an option in Holter but not so much for Canyon Ferry. 

[missoulafish]

the safest solution is a descending device.

[bigredonice]

They don't ALL die.   TOTAL BS.   I've been perch fishing deep water my whole life, and I've done enough perch fishing on crystal clear ice and with a camera to know that if you unhook a perch with its stomach/swim bladder in his mouth, and get him back in the hole quickly, they will swim right back down to the bottom and be fine.   There would be no perch left in a deep lake like NY's George if this wasn't the case.

[Born Late]

Interestingly, the number of perch I've sent back down on the descender at Holter this season is less than 5% of what I've caught.  There are more dinks in the parking lots.

[bigredonice]

total bs is saying they all swim back down. The 1000's of dead perch under the ice at Holter agree with me.

who the hell said they all swim back down?  You will never have zero mortality when releasing fish, especially deep water.   But to say they all die is ignorant.

[bigredonice]

If you release the fish, they will almost always float up under the ice and die

If you release a fish like that, it will most likely die

I'm not sure why i am arguing against you guys doing a great thing promoting a decender.    I'm sure you guys are catching your western fish much deeper than we are back east.   Keep at it!!!

[Born Late]

Barotrauma occurs in fish brought up from deeper than roughly 33 feet and a lot of our winter reservoir perch are found at nearly twice that depth.

[huntsfurfish]

If a fish suffers barotrauma, the damage is already done.  Mortality rates will be extremely high.
Fizzing and descenders are not the answer(although descenders are the better of the 2 and will help a bit).  Fishing shallower is the only answer.
I guess another option would be a camera and be selective about the fish that get a ride to the surface.

In Alberta the regs recommend fishing in 23 fow or less for walleye and perch.  It is only a recommendation though and would be nearly impossible to enforce even if it was a law.
I generally recommend to others fish in 30 fow or less.

It is up to the angler and his own ethics as to how he handles the resource.

A northern neighbor.

good fishing all