Balloon tracking

[eddiebhome]

Had fun the other night. Having read someone's post on releasing a fish with a 20 ft leader tied to a balloon, we tried it on a small stripe hybrid. We were fishing 20-30 yards up a creek just off the main river channel. When I pitched him back in we watched the balloon for a couple of minutes as he swam out of sight straight back out to the main channel. We figured he was gone and we wouldn't see him again, so we went back to fishing. Then, 30-45 minutes later we saw the balloon coming back, straight to our lights. As it got closer and closer we decided this had not been such a good idea. Being anchored in one spot the fish was coming back and we had 7 or 8 lines in the water. He was sure to begin swimming amonst all those lines and tangling them all up. Fortunately I was able to snag the balloon at the end of the boat and haul the fish in before he caused any problems.

We'll try this again on a night when we're not catching many fish and are able to up anchor and follow the fish. We'll also use a crappie instead.

[unknown 5]

It is illegal in some states.

[Barnacle Bill]

I tried that once with a small crappie. It went over to a point on the river in very shallow water and stayed there.

[CrappieLips]

only if you get caught red tick i use a cork instead and give him plenty of lead so what ever depth he's at the cork will still be on top of the water

[eddiebhome]

Hadn't thought about it being illegal. I'll check it out for Alabama before I do it again. Thanks for the heads-up!