Fizzing or weighing down fish to deflate air blatter?

[NEBasser101]

Lately I've been catching bass out of 50+ feet of water. After I try to put the fish in the livewell, they go belly up due to their air blatter. I've been wondering, is it better to fizz a fish or weigh the fish down to the bottom of the livewell to deflate the air blatter?

[Onvacation]

I know nothing about pinning a fish down, but I know at our closest deep lake, Kentucky Lake, fizzing is the go to for everyone I fish with.  Quick, easy, and it works. 

[Bluebasser86]

Fizzing is the easiest, but using a weight to drop them back down deep and retrieving the weight works also if you're unsure of how to fizz them. 

[frogflogger]

Either one is pretty iffy -

[OkobojiEagle]

If you are concerned with the well being of the bass, don't fish that deep.  Bass do make a heart healthy choice for dinner...

 

oe

[Mainebass1984]

Fizzing seems to be becoming more widely accepted as each year goes by. In my opinion piercing the swim bladder should be frowned upon and only done as a last ditch effort. Not only are you limiting the fishes use a very important organ, you are also introducing bacteria into their body cavity.

This past week I was catching both largemouth and smallmouth on bottom in 35-45 ft. I think the deepest fish I caught was in 46 ft. In my experience if you fight them slowly, allowing them to time to use their swim bladder, they have the best chance at surviving. If you fight them quickly, get them in the boat asap you will have a lot of fish that will not be able to equalize their swim bladder leaving them floundering on the waters surface upon release.

[J Francho]

3 minutes ago, OkobojiEagle said:

If you are concerned with the well being of the bass, don't fish that deep.

Or immediately release them.  This rarely poses a problem.

[Turtle135]

11 hours ago, NEBasser101 said:

Lately I've been catching bass out of 50+ feet of water. After I try to put the fish in the livewell, they go belly up due to their air blatter. I've been wondering, is it better to fizz a fish or weigh the fish down to the bottom of the livewell to deflate the air blatter?

Are you putting them in the livewell because you are in a tournament? I have seen that problem with fish caught at 35 feet but if they are immediately released they can get back down under their own power it seems.

[everythingthatswims]

I only fish one lake where I catch them in the 30-40+ foot range, and I can't remember the last time I had a fish that wasn't able to swim back down when I released it immediately. I used fin clips one time when I fished a tournament there and caught a deep fish, seems like the bass was able to adjust its swim bladder while in the live well with the fin clips on.

 

And the little white perch that come up with their eyes bugged out of their head, well there's not much hope for them

[J Francho]

36 minutes ago, everythingthatswims said:

And the little white perch that come up with their eyes bugged out of their head, well there's not much hope for them

Chum trail, just like the gobies, lol.

[WRB]

I believe the OP is talking about weighted fin clips verses air bladder fizzing.

Fin clips don't help the bass to release over inflated air bladders, they simply keep the bass in a live well swimming upright. 

It takes about 24 hours for bass to reduce gasses in the air bladder through thier blood stream. Bass don't have air bladder valves like trout and some other fish do so gasses are trapped.

When you poke a hole in the bladder with a needle to fizz the bass the over inflated trapped gasses vent through the hollow needle. The bass can swim upright and must keep swimming until the hole heals and gasses can be replaced, that takes several days.

Bass can withstand about 1 atmosphere, about 30', of depth change without over expanding thier air bladders. If you catch bass at 40' and bring it to the surface the air bladder over explands until it can swim back down into deeper water that squeezes the air bladder from pressure back to it's original size. If the bass is equalized to neutral bouyancy with the air bladder at a depth of 50' and swims up 10' to strike your lure at 40' then you bring it to the surface, that is a 50' depth change or nearly 2 atmosphere pressure change, the air bladder over inflates pushing the stomach out the basses mouth. The bass can't swim back down unless you either poke a hole in the air bladder or attach a weight onto or into the bass and sink it back down about 30', the water pressure then reduces the over inflated air bladder, the bass swims away.

Fin clip weights are a gimmick used by tournament anglers to weigh in live bass. Take the weighted clips off and the bass rolls over.

Fizzing works to deflate the air bladder but it also injures the bass.

Air bladder is really a swim bladder inflated with digestive gasses to keep the fish suspended at a specific depth at neutral weight or  weightless. The only way the bass can change air bladder inflation is to add gasses or release gasses through the blood stream, it takes about 24 hours for a 10' depth change.

Tom

PS, I use a 8 oz torpedo weight on my lure knocker cord and put it in the bass mouth into the throat, lower the bass down 30' then quickly pull up the weight out the basses mouth.

[Catt]

http://tpwmagazine.com/archive/2011/aug/scout1_bassfizzing/

[CrustyMono]

fizzing is best, the fish need time to adjust to water pressure temperature and oxygen levels. its the same reason people can't jump out of airplanes from 30,000 feet with out o2 or climb above 8,000 meters without oxygen.

[WRB]

13 minutes ago, CrustyMono said:

fizzing is best, the fish need time to adjust to water pressure temperature and oxygen levels. its the same reason people can't jump out of airplanes from 30,000 feet with out o2 or climb above 8,000 meters without oxygen.

Only in a tournament does any bass ever need to be put into a livewell where temperature and DO becomes an issue. Returning the bass down to the depth it was caught quickly eliminates the need to fizz.

Tom

[RichF]

I don't think fin clips are a gimmick at all.  I've used them with success and a lot of experienced anglers I know who regularly catch smallmouth from 25+ ft on the St Lawrence river swear by them.  They survive in the livewell and show no ill effects when released after weigh in.  I don't like fizzing and don't feel comfortable doing it.

[WRB]

10 hours ago, RichF said:

I don't think fin clips are a gimmick at all.  I've used them with success and a lot of experienced anglers I know who regularly catch smallmouth from 25+ ft on the St Lawrence river swear by them.  They survive in the livewell and show no ill effects when released after weigh in.  I don't like fizzing and don't feel comfortable doing it.

Fin clip weights do nothing to reduce swim bladder expansion. Smallmouth out of 25' of water don't need any fizzing or other aids, they don't roll over.

If you think it helps, then it helps, no science to support it.

Tom

[DrMarlboro92]

On 11/2/2016 at 10:04 PM, WRB said:

Only in a tournament does any bass ever need to be put into a livewell where temperature and DO becomes an issue. Returning the bass down to the depth it was caught quickly eliminates the need to fizz.

Tom

Agreed. when catching stripers out of 70ft of water back when I tournament fished for them a bit, i would fizz. without fizzing there would have been no way those fish would have made weigh in and survived. that said, catch and immediate release is always best for barotrauma fish.

 

On 11/2/2016 at 11:27 PM, RichF said:

I don't think fin clips are a gimmick at all.  I've used them with success and a lot of experienced anglers I know who regularly catch smallmouth from 25+ ft on  the St Lawrence river swear by them.  They survive in the livewell and show no ill effects when released after weigh in.  I don't like fizzing and don't feel comfortable doing it.

I'm sorry, but they are a gimmick. They don't do anything to actually help the fish but keep him upright and at the bottom of the well. sure your fish survived out of 25ft with just weight clips. A fish from that depth isn't experiencing barotrauma. one caught at say, 30-40 might have mild barotrauma, but it would take 40+ to see major, unsurvivable symptoms, and at that stage some clips holding him upright in a livewell is doing little to address the fact you have a fish with a balloon in his gut about to kill him.

If you do decide to fizz, please practice side fizzing. I've always heard from a marine biologist buddy that its safer for the fish and would cause little to no problems. But ive heard mouth fizzing can cause all kinds of trouble for the fish, and only slightly reduced fish mortality.

Edit: it seems as if I had taken the time to read @Catt's link, I would have realized the side fizzing thing had been said already.

[J Francho]

9 hours ago, DrMarlboro92 said:

If you do decide to fizz, please practice side fizzing. I've always heard from a marine biologist buddy that its safer for the fish and would cause little to no problems.

Exactly!

[RichF]

On ‎11‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 11:47 PM, WRB said:

Fin clip weights do nothing to reduce swim bladder expansion. Smallmouth out of 25' of water don't need any fizzing or other aids, they don't roll over.

If you think it helps, then it helps, no science to support it.

Tom

I think the point of the fin clip is to keep the fish upright in the livewell.  The air will eventually bleed out of the swim bladder on its own.  If that wasn't the case, the numerous smallmouth I release and see released from other competitors would not swim away but stay floating on the surface.  Smallmouth out of that deep absolutely roll over.   

18 hours ago, DrMarlboro92 said:

Agreed. when catching stripers out of 70ft of water back when I tournament fished for them a bit, i would fizz. without fizzing there would have been no way those fish would have made weigh in and survived. that said, catch and immediate release is always best for barotrauma fish.

 

I'm sorry, but they are a gimmick. They don't do anything to actually help the fish but keep him upright and at the bottom of the well. sure your fish survived out of 25ft with just weight clips. A fish from that depth isn't experiencing barotrauma. one caught at say, 30-40 might have mild barotrauma, but it would take 40+ to see major, unsurvivable symptoms, and at that stage some clips holding him upright in a livewell is doing little to address the fact you have a fish with a balloon in his gut about to kill him.

If you do decide to fizz, please practice side fizzing. I've always heard from a marine biologist buddy that its safer for the fish and would cause little to no problems. But ive heard mouth fizzing can cause all kinds of trouble for the fish, and only slightly reduced fish mortality.

Edit: it seems as if I had taken the time to read @Catt's link, I would have realized the side fizzing thing had been said already.

Bass absolutely bloat at 20+ft.  Nearly every bass I've caught from 20+ ft and put in the livewell has experienced some bloating and has some trouble staying right side up. I might agree with you're gimmick opinion if I hadn't had the experiences I've had with bloated fish and the clips. 

[WRB]

I catch LMB and occasional SMB from 30' at both Castiac and Casitas during the summer period for decades and never had the need to needle (fizz) a bass with over inflated air bladders. DVL lake is another matter, the bass are down to 45' to 50' during the summer due to,a deep thermocline and extremely clear water, the bass air bladders always need to be needled (fizzed) caught that deep. After the fall turnover our winter period bass are often 60' to 80' deep, fizzing those bass is essential for survival.

You would need to fin clip weight a bass for several hours to loose a tiny amount of gas, it dissipates through the digestive track along the spline, no valves to release the gas!

Keeping a bass swimming upright doesn't help them release air bladder gas, releasing them quickly allows the bass to swim back down if the air bladder isn't protruding out the basses throat.

Hoping the clips help doesn't change the physical facts. The only thing I can think of is the clips may help to keep the bass swimming around in the live well and oxygenated therefore healthier and stronger allowing those bass the ability to swim back down after being in the livewell for hours.

Tom

[RichF]

I believe what my eyes tell me.  If they "help to keep the bass swimming around in the live well and oxygenated therefore healthier and stronger allowing those bass the ability to swim back down after being in the livewell for hours," then I'd say the clips are doing what they're designed to do.