Thread: ??? Releasing fish this time of year???

The closed mouth, nose first, forceful drop usually does the trick for me.

Odie

When did you start releasing fish!?

Originally Posted by fishn_a_ledge

when you release them, make them hit the water nose first. I do not know what this does, but you will not have another one float. they will swim right away. Maybe it is shoving them to that 3' mark Redge was talking about.

I have found that throwing them in nose first like throwing a dart seems to work fairly well.

Back in my Bass fishing tourney days, we had issues with structure fishing bass dying when brought to the surface like is described here. Only difference it was in the summer months on clear lakes like Beaver, Tablerock and Grand.

We had to night fish and by tourney rules, it was catch and release. Mid morning after the fish were released a lot were found dead floating on the water.

The ODW did a study using baskets suspended at different depths to hold the released fish on Grand in the late 90's. Some were at 20', some at 15' and some at 10'.

The mortality rates of fish caught at depth and released into these test depths resulted in high mortality rates with the bass overall, so they assumed it was the temperature difference, and requested a lot of tournaments to not fish during the hottest summer months.

I know this thread is about crappie caught at depth in the winter, but I wanted to throw this in here as I don't know for sure how that study progressed. Did they finally find out it was temperature related or bringing up the fish too fast similar to a diver coming up to fast and getting Nitrogen Narcosis?

I've fished a lot for striper on Beaver in the summer at 90'+ depths in the past. When we brought the shad or perch bait up from that depth, their eyes are out of their sockets, and the air bladder is hanging out of their mouth.

Similar results with catfish and others coming through the Hydro at Kaw. In seconds, they go from 70 fow to surface pressure. Bladders out their mouth, etc.

I say keep em and eat em.

Every time I throw em in like a dart, I kill em?

Hey guy's check out my videos on YouTube under Timmytomsjigcompany and on the Hinkle video you will notice when I turn the fish loose after catching them 40' deep I use my rod and slide it behind their gills and push them down in the water about 2-3 ft and they will go back down. WSD

We have released thousands of fish at Hefner when tube fishing in the winter. We kept the floaters, until one day one of the guys flipped a floater into the air about four-five feet. It hit the water and immediately sped away. We started doing that every time we pulled one up from 30-36 feet, and nearly every fish has recovered. Occasionally, one will float back up and wind up in the grease.

Originally Posted by Bigskyfisherman

We have released thousands of fish at Hefner when tube fishing in the winter. We kept the floaters, until one day one of the guys flipped a floater into the air about four-five feet. It hit the water and immediately sped away. We started doing that every time we pulled one up from 30-36 feet, and nearly every fish has recovered. Occasionally, one will float back up and wind up in the grease.

Maybe that’s why I don’t haveany issues with floaters. When I’m fishing at the dock and I catch one that I don’twant to keep, I normally toss him out the front of the dock – he’s usually 5-6’in the air and doing a couple of flips before landing in the water and takingoff.