IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Montana => Ice Fishing Montana => Topic started by: oldschoolben on Jan 22, 2022, 11:43 AM
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Just curious how many if any one does this,
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i usually don't fish in deep bodies of water. But have read the pro's and cons. If i am fishing in deeper waters . i release it as gently as possible.
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The sole subject of this forum is ice fizzing.
Just kidding. I never fizz fish, as it injures them and is likely to kill them. I use a descending device, specifically a Shelton Descender.
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You can get them for free on line. https://oceaned.org/request-devices/. An improvement on the Shelton Descender assembly shown in the first video is to use a rubber snubber or a short piece of bungie cord between the Shelton Descender and the weights, which makes it easier to pop the fish off the descender because when you jerk up on the line, the snubber stretches quite a bit before you start pulling up the weights.
There is a lot of good information about barotrauma and descending devices available on line. In Oregon, when fishing for rock fish off shore below 30 fathoms (180 feet), you are required to have a descending device on board, and to use it when releasing fish. https://myodfw.com/articles/rockfish-recompression.
I have a compact fish descending setup which I bring along when kayak fishing off shore, which includes a rod handle with the rod cut off a couple inches in front of the reel, a reel, and a Shelton descending device with a rubber snubber running to the weights. If I want to or have to release a rockfish, I can deploy that setup and get the fish heading down quite quickly. I do a lot of kayak fishing for lake trout in deep water in Flathead Lake, but I don't bring my descender on those trips, because I don't release lake trout.
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only after a 6 pk
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Good share Pete.thanks for the post.
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https://gf.nd.gov/magazine/2021/jul/understanding-barotrauma
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That’s a article about fizzing and descenders for perch and walleye doesn’t sound like either really save them
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only after a 6 pk
not sure we have the same definition of "fizzing". I shudder to think of what fizzing a fish after a 6 pack means
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lol to clear things up Websters - fizzing ( bubbling over with effervescence) after a 6 pk
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That’s a article about fizzing and descenders for perch and walleye doesn’t sound like either really save them
While the article says there’s no guarantee that a fish will survive either method, I know what doesn’t work: stuffing a released perch back down the hole in >33 FOW and, worse yet, pitching it on the ice if it doesn’t swim away. There’s currently a disturbing number of dead <8 inch perch visible on and under the ice at Holter. My guess is we’re a year or two away from a pretty good-sized perch age class but not if anglers keep wasting them.
(https://i.postimg.cc/2SHb7Gmv/26-AE15-D1-F9-D2-4604-95-C2-AA3-AA045-CB07.jpg)
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We used to fizz reef fish in saltwater. I don’t think it hurt them at all. I don’t do it to perch because I have heard they get infected. Maybe the saltwater heals the wounds.
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We used to fizz reef fish in saltwater. I don’t think it hurt them at all. I don’t do it to perch because I have heard they get infected. Maybe the saltwater heals the wounds.
Earlier in this thread I posted this link to an article by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife about rockfish recompression: https://myodfw.com/articles/rockfish-recompression. That article includes the following paragraph:
"Some anglers may have heard about “venting”, or puncturing a fish’s body or the protruding esophagus to allow gas to escape and the fish to swim down on its own. This is not recommended as it can cause serious injury or introduce infection to the fish. Keeping the fish intact and sending it down below 66 feet gives it the best chance of survival."
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Touchy subject, my thought is if you are fishing deep enough that fizzing is required to release a fish, either keep them and eat them or fish shallower. The other side of the story, to actually fizz a fish, there are few who can do it correctly and not damage the fish. Done correctly the fish has a greater chance at survival than not in deep water. You do not puncture the "airbag" that is sticking out the fish's throat. That is actually the stomach, the airbladder expansion just pushes the stomach out the orifice of least resistance. The actual airbladder is just forward and above the anus. We used to practice on fish in the summer just to see how they would react after fizzing. The fish that were belly up and bloated in the livewell after a few minutes, we would fizz with a small gauge venting needle, immediately they would flip upright and still be alive and "happy" in the livewell at the end of the day. We never have fizzed a fish we intended to release. Also mortality will differ in species, obviously pike, walleye and perch are much hardier fish than trout or salmon and have a better chance of recovery. Once again, if you are agonizing about what happens to a fish after you release it in deep water, eat it or don't fish there, those who don't agonize, don't really care and aren't worth your time to argue with anyway.
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Only fish (in freshwater) that I fish for that deep are Lakers and they can control the air in their bladder... In salt, I use a decent tool and set up an electric reel for just that use (and my 75-year-old father)... Cusk have a hard time when you pull them from 350 ft... I had not heard of using a bungy, sounds great thanks!
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Good advice MatCat!