Thread: Texoma

Some one of today’s catch

Enjoyed a catch and release day. Only had one that did not survive the trip up from deep water so I had to clean one. This time of year I have to carry something to release the air in their bladder after they come up from deep water otherwise they get the bends and die. One died out of 26 coming out of 40 fow. Pretty good I think.

Thats a good bunch of fish for a hot summer day...Good job!

That’s a great release rate from the deep!! Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I wanted to catch them again

I got to thinking about it and it occurs to me that a lot of fisherman may not now how to release crappie this time of year and have them live so I thought I would take the time to address this issue. When it gets hot and water temps get over 80* crappie will in my experience retreat to deep water. I understand that deep water is relative to where a person is fishing. On my home lake there is a lot of 70' water. In July my crappie move to 40' and in August they move to 50'. Sometimes that is a suspended depth but other times that is the water depth where the crappie are holding on or near some type of structure.

Like humans, if crappie are brought up to fast from deep water they will get the bends and die when released if precautions are not taken. I use a couple of different methods to help prevent this but the fact is that some fish will die from the pressure difference of deep water in relation to the pressure difference to the surface. First I try to bring the fish up a little slower but this takes some practice to bring them up fast enough to keep them from throwing the hook but slow enough to allow them a acclimate to the pressure difference. Second, once the fish are landed and the decision is made to release the fish I will look into their mouth and see if their "air bladder" is visible. If it is I will then puncture the bladder making a small hole in the bladder. At this point the bladder will visibly start to shrink in size. Sometimes the bladder will retreat back into the throat on it's own other times I will use the blunt end of my puncturing tool and carefully push it back down into the crappie's throat. Assuming the crappie has not been out of the water to long by this point the fish will usually live and return to the deep.

This is what works for me but others may have a different technique that works for them. I know people that never fish over 10' deep year round and crappie getting the bends and dyeing are not an issue for them.

What to do when attacked by the dreaded cotton mouth rattle conda.

My fishing partner is terrified of snakes whether it is the cotton mouth rattle conda or a grass snake. Yesterday we had a rather large snake come to the boat and attempt to climb up the trolling motor to get in the boat. Rather large as in at least 6' long with a considerable girth. I had the impression the snake had done this many times before because it had no fear of humans at all and I had seen the same snake before. Unfortunately I was anchored bow and stern and it took about 5 minutes to get the anchors up while my terrified fishing partner was consumed with fearful blithering all about the boat. By the time I got my boat moving the snake had wrapped itself around my outboard motor and was hanging on while I was vacating the area. I managed to get my fishing partner to move to a position where I could plane the boat out which dislodged the snake from the outboard motor and put a small distance between me and the snake. Then I used my boat like a torpedo and ran over the snake while planed out which cut the snakes head off. This took about 5 attempts to hit the snake just right to get the prop in him. So now I have a dead snake and two broken custom fishing rods that were used to beat the snake out of the boat and a still yet extremely excited fishing partner. I explained to him that it was a non-poisonous snake and he disagreed with me so I dipped the severed head out of the water with my fish net at which point he vehemently objected to my bringing the head into the boat so I held the net over the side of the boat and headed to shore where I proved that the snake had no fangs. I was then informed that all snakes are cotton mouth rattle conda's, fangs or not. In the end I found that a well placed prop will solve a snakes problems. I could try and take credit and say that I am a very brave man but the truth is that in Genesis 1:26 God gave man dominion over every living thing on earth and I believed him.