Gut Buster

[Scott M]

Maybe you don't see it happening as much in the summer since you fish a little more shallow if you are fishing lakes that are stratified?

Not exactly sure what the question was.

[eurolarva]

Lake of the woods this Jan I caught a bunch of fish in 32 ft of water. I fished by myself is a large resort fish house and due to the heater on one side I actually had a large trough of water over the 4 fishing holes on one side. All the fish coming up even when brought up slow the air bladder deployed including a 25.5 inch real fat walleye. The bladder was extended out of its gill. The deployment of this bladder was the only reason I was able to get it because as soon as she went in the hole my 4 lb fishing line broke. I kept that fish in the trough for almost an hour and its bladder did go back to its normal size. As soon as I pointed it down the hole it swam away with alot of power. I also noticed that most of the fish I kept in the pail the bladders eventually went back down and even 3 hours in the pail with no water that the fish seemed real strong and healthy. I notice this air bladder thing more with cold weather. Happens mostly when it is below zero and does not seem to have much effect from the barometer either.

[L_Cappo]

 Originally Posted By: eurolarva

Lake of the woods this Jan I caught a bunch of fish in 32 ft of water. I fished by myself is a large resort fish house and due to the heater on one side I actually had a large trough of water over the 4 fishing holes on one side. All the fish coming up even when brought up slow the air bladder deployed including a 25.5 inch real fat walleye. The bladder was extended out of its gill. The deployment of this bladder was the only reason I was able to get it because as soon as she went in the hole my 4 lb fishing line broke. I kept that fish in the trough for almost an hour and its bladder did go back to its normal size. As soon as I pointed it down the hole it swam away with alot of power. I also noticed that most of the fish I kept in the pail the bladders eventually went back down and even 3 hours in the pail with no water that the fish seemed real strong and healthy. I notice this air bladder thing more with cold weather. Happens mostly when it is below zero and does not seem to have much effect from the barometer either.

i seen the same thing last weekend in 30ft of water.most of our fish the bladder was popping out but once you put them in the bucket an hour or so they were fine and jumping all over the place.

[BartmanMN]

We ran into a school of spawning Redfish while fishing the Rigs for Red Snapper. All of our lines when down at once. The guide tried to knife their air sacs (as you can see in the pic) and let them go, unfortunately they all went belly up. They were brought up from around 90 ft or so.

[slipperybob]

What thuh!!! Knife to air bladder....

[BartmanMN]

It looked hilarious to see big old Reds come up with their "tongues" hanging out. The guides were really concerned and wanted to release the pressure quickly to save them.

If we new they were going to die, we would have kept them and at least took some pictures holding them. Biggest Redfish that I've caught.

[GoFish4]

This sounds more like what I have experienced. I think it is more noticable in winter as we are fishing in a 8-10" hole and the fish have to come up faster. I reel them in slow but they are still accending at a rapid pace. There have been times where fish will have a hard time swimming down but eventually they do. I keep all fish that can't make it down the hole.In the summer, the fish can dictate its direction much more, and they swim sideways before coming up to the boat, which IMO allows them to accend slower.

I don't have any scientific facts but, I dive and know if you accend at a gradual pace swimming twords shore on a plane you get less pressure build up. (I usually feel this in my mask and ears) I immagine the fish have a simmular experience and from 30 feet it is not a problem. If you go from the 60-90 feet debth you will have to spend 4-5 min decompressing in about 25 ft of water. My guess if you bring up any fish from that debth it will have a hard time surviving the experience.

[Neighbor_guy]

I personaly feel that a strong fish will survive. Otherwise on lakes with a lot of fishing preasure, we would kill all the fish in the lake. I release the fish I dont want to keep. If they are strong they go. If they arent, they are kept anyway

[L_Cappo]

well i e-mailed the dnr on this subject and here is what he had to say. here was my ?

I was wondering if you can answer this ? when ice fishing in deep water

and you catch a fish with the air sack comming out of the mouth what

can you do for this fish?can you just put it back down the hole and will

the fish survive? what would you recommend ?

his reply

It is as good as dead. Keep it if its in season and in any slot limit

size, or throw it back if not. Kevin

[fishinJohn]

On lake Mendota near Madison perch fishing is popular over deep water and a local diver and fisherman reported that he checked a popular spot after ice out and tons of dead perch were down there. If you fish deep you absolutely need to keep the fish, at least perch. Unless you are out to kill a bunch of fish. I am not sure if all species work the same way; it sounds like lake trout make rapid rises...

[Wanderer]

Sounds like some serious research is in order.

Wonder if I could get a grant. Hmmmm......

[Burnham]

so what does the air sac thing look like? ive heard about this before but never seen it..how deep of water do you usually have to be in?

[L_Cappo]

it looks like a bubble gum bubble comming out of there mouth.as far as how deep not sure.i never seen this happen in 18ft but i have in 24ft to 33ft on lotw

[Burnham]

thanks

[perch_destroyer]

I've never seen this happen till today. I'm not used to fishing deep, However, today we were in 30 FOW. I brought up a little sunny, quickly removed the hook and placed it back in the water. He/she instantly went belly up and never made it back down the hole. Thereafter, I reeled up slow and had no other problems. Very Interesting, the Perch