Thread: Air bladders

Originally Posted by SEA DANCER

I have a question about deep water crappie fishing and air bladders. When you catch a crappie from 30 plus feet deep it comes up with its belly swelled up like it is ready to burst.
If released will it make it or will it swim off and die?

Ironically I was just watching a you tube video on winter crappie fishing and the gentlemen began discussing the swim bladder issue. Here is a link to the video stat a 6:00 mark.

https://youtu.be/UTD8hiuPS0s

Thought I would supply the visual proof. Just in case the ink doesn't work, what was said was that slapping the fish against the water allows the air bubble that is stuck inside of them to pass and then they are good to go!

Even more ironically, I must have been watching that video about the same time as you, as I was searching for wintertime crappie videos!