Why were the fish having a hard time going back down hole?

[Kylersk]

Usually, they just dive back down, but tonight.. I had quite a few that wouldnt go back down. The just floated on the top of the water. I tried slowly bobbing them up and down by the tail, but nothing. Two, I actually used my big dipper to push them below the ice. I'm not sure if it was because I was fishing deeper than normal (about 24' compared to 14' in the past) or the cold or what.

[Matt Breuer]

Fish in deeper water experience a huge change in pressure, from high to low pressure, and can't adjust to the extreme change. This is usually typical of fish caught in more than 30 feet, but can happen in the depth you speak of.

The swim bladder or air bladder expands putting pressure on their internal organs, and the fish can take up to 40 minutes to settle and re-adjust. Sadly, these fish usually die in a day or two.

If you've ever went fishing and found dead fish in the holes, this is usually the case. These fish should be kept!

Also, reeling in slower doesn't do a whole lot, they still experience the extreme pressure change all at once.

[sdghsdgj]

yeah this is common in NW Territory pike and trout in the deep lakes, ive read many a article about it, answered many a question of my friends and seen many a fish with it... if also stepped in many a icehole, so why am i acting all smart?

[Liar]

there must be a way to deflate the bladder. We do it ocean fishing a lot. A small needle inserted near the pectoral fin, deflated and good to go. I will look it up and see what I can find out.

[Deitz Dittrich]

The key when fishing deeper is to reel the fish in a lot slower, so the fish can adjust to the pressure changes as it is reeled in. When hooking a deeper fish slowly reel it in and you should have a much better chance to release them. You canalso make a fish releaser.. I wish I had a picutre of one.. but its a long shank hook tied onto the line upsidedown and then a heavy sinker is tied below that hook(so that the hooks stays facing upside down). Pinch the barb off the hook then lightly skin hook the fish, drop the weight and fish down the hole.. once the weight hits bottom shake your rod, thus unhooking the fish back at the water pressure it came from.

[CrappieJohn]

This cold air is being ushered in on a very high pressure front. Not only do the fish have to deal with being brought up from deep water faster than they would normally rise, but this high pressure is exerting a whole lot more pressure influence on that very water. It compounds the pressure thing. If it were cloudy with the threat of snow, drizzling and 42 degrees outside, I'll bet those same fish would be able to right themselves and be off on their merry way. 20+ feet one day may not have an affect where a day later the 20+ feet might be a killer. Pay attention to what the weather is doing and you will see these subtle things. Clear and cold can be tough on fish while heavy weather may not affect them at all.

[BK19]

we always have sunfish do that on lake washington by mankato in 10 and 13 feet of water why is this at these depth same thing?

[Deitz Dittrich]

You should not have problems with the swim bladder in depths of only 13 feet. Are you using dupont spinners to catch your fish????

[Northlander]

Problem is if you take a fish that cant upright itself and drop it back to the bottom you are putting a lot more stress on it. Ya it may come off your hook and you wont see it again but it more than likely will die.

I had a DNR officer tell me to keep everything from deep water that wouldnt upright itself. He told me he has seen tons of these "unreleasable" fish stuck right under the ice. It would be interesting to check this out with a good underwater camera.

We have a deep Crappie Lake that we fish a lot and the Crappies will float if you dont reel slow enough. As Crappie Tom says Im sure this huge High Pressure has a bit to do with it.

[upnorth]

I was out on a local lake crappie fishing a couple years back in about 35' of water and was getting floaters when I tried to send the littles ones back down the hole. An old timer showed me that if you gently squeezed from the back to the front of the fishes belly it would kinda empty the air bladder and it would then be able to swim back down the hole. Not sure if that procedure would work with other species, but it may.

[muskybuck]

I think when you fish 35 feet deep you should plan on keeping the fish. I have heard that putting needles into it will kill the fish, only slower. Also squeezing the fish damages delicate internal organs resulting in death also, once again slower. Fishing 20 feet deep is pretty risky also and odds are many returned fish will die.

[Ed Carlson]

There are no quick fixes to the physiological changes accrued by fish when deep water fishing. The distended air bladder is only one visible physical effect of this rapid change in pressure. Blood gas's also change in these fish and that is not fixable outside of a decompression chamber.

Deep water fish should all be considered as keepers due to near certain mortality from rapid changes in their physiology.

[Matt Breuer]

I studied up on this last year, and a well known ND fisheries biologist suggested keeping everything you catch from 30+ feet of water. He stated it's a waste of our resources when he sees these fish stuck under the ice dead all over the place. He also wrote about fizzing, or needling your fish, it's hard on them with the cold water and many times your puncture something you didn't need to without even knowing it. Also, reeling in slow does very little to help alleviate the pressure change. Northlander's right, keep 'em!

[muchowja]

That's only if you pull the fish up from that deep right? If you are fishing in 35 ft and they are suspended 20 ft down you shouldn't have as much of a problem?

[hanson]

Just a thought for you pike fisherman. The northerns like to scavenge these dead fish from the bottom of the ice.

[Liar]

I was not able to find a thing about freshwater fish and deflating the air bladder. My guess is that they are not tough enough to handle the change. I don't fish deep water that often but I will remember that. I hate to waste fish. Thanks for the info guys.

[danny berg]

Kylersk,

Sat a good day for you come out to the house fishing?

Danny

[Kylersk]

Danny, Saturday's no good. Heading out to see Queensryche in concert.

[mrwalleye_13]

when i fished at home over break, we caught tons and tons of smaller crappies... we'll they all seemed to keel over too. So we did our best to try and revive them... then learned to wind the smaller feeling fish up real slowly or else not even set the hook if we could tell. Something with the air sacks and pressure as previously mentioned.

[Corey Bechtold]

Try setting them next to the hole and wait for them to close their mouth then slide them in the hole and they usually take right off. I was fishing this weekend and pulling fish from 20'-6' and some of them had a hard time, I did what I wrote and they all took off. Give this a shot next time you go out.

Corey Bechtold

[John19]

What about other species, lakers inperticular. We caught quit a few lakers this weekend in 65ft. of water, and they seemed to go back down just fine. I'd hate to think that they were dying or are going to later .

[Kylersk]

Cory, thanks for the tip! I'll try that next time out.

[arbuck]

I have a question that is some what related to this tread. I was out fishing before work this morning and cought some fish that wouldn't right themselves and/or swallowed the hook so I kept them (I hate releasing fish that are going to die).

Now the Question. Like I said I had to go to work and didn't have time to clean them, the fish are frozen now (In the back of my truck) do I thaw them out before filleting them or try to do it frozen? Or am I out of luck?

Thanks

arbuck

[Duffman]

As Corey somewhat said, try closing thier mouths with your hands, it's sort of reset button in a crappie taken from deep water. They usually swim away if ya can get them to close thier mouths, at least with crappies.

[PikeTipper]

From what I have read Lakers don't have an air bladder so they don't go through the pressure adjusting problems that other fish do.