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Thread: Deflating the Air Bladder.

  1. #1
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    Question Deflating the Air Bladder.


    A couple of weeks ago I was fishing the drops at Barkely. Caught a bass in about 30'.
    Well after a while in the live well. The fish was floating upside down. I knew what the problem was, but I did not have a hypodermic needle. And if I did I could not remember where to insert it to deflate the Air Bladder.

    Could someone here please give me some directions and possibly pictures.

    I plan on going this weekend and again I wil be fishing the drops.
    Thanks,
    CC
    Stay legal.

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by CoolCrappie
    A couple of weeks ago I was fishing the drops at Barkely. Caught a bass in about 30'.
    Well after a while in the live well. The fish was floating upside down. I knew what the problem was, but I did not have a hypodermic needle. And if I did I could not remember where to insert it to deflate the Air Bladder.

    Could someone here please give me some directions and possibly pictures.

    I plan on going this weekend and again I wil be fishing the drops.
    Thanks,
    CC
    Cool.......look right behind the pectoral fin. If it was just pulled up from 30', there will be a "swelling" visable there. Just slip the hypodermic needle under the scales 'till you penetrate the swim bladder and let the air out. I'm glad to see the method being used, it will save many fish. Most just don't use it.

  3. #3
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    I've always wondered what stops the air from escaping through the hole created in the swim bladder once the fish gets back down to deep water. Seems like the pressure would force all the air out of the swim bladder and the fish would go right to the bottom.

    I wonder if fish that have this procedure performed on them really survive or just die without anyone knowing it. For me it’s easier to avoid fishing so deep that over-inflated swim bladders is a problem but I guess if I had to go that deep to catch fish I would.

    The winner of the $1.5 million FLW tournament this week (biggest payout in history) caught his fish shallow with surface temps in the mid 80s.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

  4. #4
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    I am with you on this one Jerry:

    I think that poking a hole in a fish's swim bladder is not going to do anything but kill the fish.

    I know some say it works but I bet that they have not followed these fish after they released them

    Best thing to do if you are going to release the fish is to somehow get that fish back down to 30 ft where the pressure will push the gases in the blood stream back into solution.

    The swim bladder is just a BC. Scuba Divers use BC Bouyance compensators to control their boyancy at differnet depths. If a diver comes up too fast the air inside his lungs will expand rapidy. If the diver does not exhale the lungs can explode. Also the diver has to decompess at certain depths below the surface for periods of time. The decompression times are related to the time and max depth that the diver spend under the water.

    A fish at 30ft is under almost 2 atm of pressure. When you bring that fish to the surface the pressure is only 1 atm.

    fish may diver deeper fast but bet that they can't go from 30 ft to the surface very quickly without suffering the consequences.

    Charles Law and Boyles Laws both cover gas. They are physical laws that apply to all gases on this earth.

    V is inversely proportional to the pressure and proportional to the temp in deg K

    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Blake
    I've always wondered what stops the air from escaping through the hole created in the swim bladder once the fish gets back down to deep water. Seems like the pressure would force all the air out of the swim bladder and the fish would go right to the bottom.

    I wonder if fish that have this procedure performed on them really survive or just die without anyone knowing it. For me it’s easier to avoid fishing so deep that over-inflated swim bladders is a problem but I guess if I had to go that deep to catch fish I would.

    The winner of the $1.5 million FLW tournament this week (biggest payout in history) caught his fish shallow with surface temps in the mid 80s.
    Regards,

    Moose1am

  5. #5
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    I know this is a practice saltwater fisherman have used for bottom fishing for years - fish like gruoper and snapper that are not big enough to keep many times have to have their air bladder popped - like you I don't know what happens when they get out of sight but they will swim off - they appear to have a chance this way - but if you leave them floating on the top they are goners for sure - I guess they will be part of the food chain though for some other fish
    with my mind on crappie and crappie on my mind -
    and if ya'll see Goober later tellem I said duh huh - he'll know what ya mean!!!!!!!!

  6. #6
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    I'm going this weekend. We will be fishing the drops with 11.5 inch worms.
    If I catch some in the 30' range. I am going to deflate them if needed.
    I feel that is better than seeing it just float and die.
    Thanks to all for the information.
    CC
    Stay legal.

  7. #7
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    Out of sight - out of mind!

    Something else you might try is putting the fish in a cool well aerated livewell until they have a chance to equalize their swim bladders and then release them if they recover and keep them if they don't.

    Of course you will need to make sure they swim down to cool water once released but they will have a much easier time doing so without their swim bladders over-expanded. At least if they don't swim down you can pick them back up so they don't go to waste. Surely you know someone that would appreciate some fresh fish to eat if you don't want them yourself.

    In hot weather when the surface temps get above 80-degrees I put 58-degree well water in my insulated livewell with about a gallon of ice to keep them fresh until time to clean them (not for the purpose of releasing them). They go belly up when I put them in but when it's time to clean them most of them have recovered and appear to be viable if we don't have too many.

    There have been a lot of nice bass floating around Hamilton this week - likely as a result of the "Catch and Release" FLW tournament that was here last week.

    We have a fairly new lake here in SE Arkansas that for some reason the crappie stay deep. So many small crappie were getting wasted that the Game and Fish Commission put a special regulation on the lake. You now are supposed to keep the first 20 fish (the limit) and not cull anything at least at certain times of the year.
    FISH ON!
    Jerry Blake

    www.BLAKETOURS.com

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    Proud Member of Team Geezer
    Southern Sickle Jigs Pro Staff

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    Cold water will cool the fish down. It may also cool the air inside the swim bladder. Cold air contracts in volume if the pressure does not change. Since the swim bladder is like a ballon in some fish the colder water may cause the air inside the swim bladder to collape in volume making it easier for the fish to find it's neutral boyancy in the live well and to then upright itself and survive.

    Take a ballon and fill it with warm air. Then dunk that ballon in ice wate and watch to see what happens to the air inside the ballon. The ballon's air inside should contract and occupy less space. This will cause the ballon to collape somewhat (shrink).

    And the cold water will hold much more dissolved oxygen than the hot 85 deg F water of the lake.

    There could be a 10 to 15 deg F difference in the water temp between the surface water and a deep lake's subsurface waters. You might find some 70 deg F water down deep and right above the thermocline if the lake stratifies.



    Quote Originally Posted by Jerry Blake
    Out of sight - out of mind!

    Something else you might try is putting the fish in a cool well aerated livewell until they have a chance to equalize their swim bladders and then release them if they recover and keep them if they don't.

    Of course you will need to make sure they swim down to cool water once released but they will have a much easier time doing so without their swim bladders over-expanded. At least if they don't swim down you can pick them back up so they don't go to waste. Surely you know someone that would appreciate some fresh fish to eat if you don't want them yourself.

    In hot weather when the surface temps get above 80-degrees I put 58-degree well water in my insulated livewell with about a gallon of ice to keep them fresh until time to clean them (not for the purpose of releasing them). They go belly up when I put them in but when it's time to clean them most of them have recovered and appear to be viable if we don't have too many.

    There have been a lot of nice bass floating around Hamilton this week - likely as a result of the "Catch and Release" FLW tournament that was here last week.

    We have a fairly new lake here in SE Arkansas that for some reason the crappie stay deep. So many small crappie were getting wasted that the Game and Fish Commission put a special regulation on the lake. You now are supposed to keep the first 20 fish (the limit) and not cull anything at least at certain times of the year.
    Regards,

    Moose1am

  10. #10
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    That is a good article. I like the part about the tagging program that helps them assess the survival rates of the fish that have the air bladders deflated.

    I also would like the very last sentence or paragraph where it talks about lightly hooking the fish on a heavy line with a heavy weight and returning the fish back down to the deep water where the pressure can compress the air bladder back to where it was when you first caught it. A way of quickly releasing the fish is necessary to perform this.

    The article didn't discuss the gas inside the fish's blood though.

    Note: This article discussed Ocean and Marine fish and I must assume that we are talking depths of 40 to 100 ft. I have only fished for groupers in the ocean a few times. I fished on my Uncle's boat out off the coast of New Jersy and have fished on charter boats down in the Gulf. I have seen the grouper coming up out of the depths and their eyeballs were popping out due to the increase internal pressure inside these fish.

    I have caught crappie in 25 to 30ft of water and had a very hard time getting them to right themselves. My livewell is not insulated but I may try using a 48 Qt insulate cooler the next few trips and adding some 1 gallon milk jugs that have been filled with water and put in the deep freeze for a few days. Those should help cool down the water inside the cooler and help the fish survive. I have used these big blocks of ice on trips but always inside the food coolers. Never thought to use them in the live well.

    I have been adding frozen 32 oz water bottles to the minnow buckets the last few trips and they seem to help cool the minow bucket water down and that is saveing a lot of my minnows from dying.
    Quote Originally Posted by SteveJ
    Regards,

    Moose1am

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