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Been having this trouble with ones caught in 10-12 ft water. Water for my bucket and livewell comes off the surface. Water temp this time of year is colder on surface sometimes than deeper water. I had two a week or so back when it was cold start floating when they hit the bucket. Started taking bucket of warmer water with me to catch bait. Problem solved.
The closed mouth, nose first, forceful drop usually does the trick for me.
Odie
When did you start releasing fish!?
I have found that throwing them in nose first like throwing a dart seems to work fairly well.Quote:
Originally Posted by fishn_a_ledge
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigskyfisherman
I have use what WSD stated above in the passed and had good luck with the crappie go down. I am not sure if later they float up somewhere, but they do go down. I have not tried the dart trick. It is probably safest just to harvest them.
I would hate to get checked at Tenkiller/Gibson with five or six short fish, I wonder what the Game Warden would say about it if you explained why you had them. Maybe we need to talk to someone at the Oklahoma Fish and Game Department if anyone has a contact?