Thread: Deep Water Crappie

If you can get them to swim down or hold them till they recover . I have pulled them from deep water and held them in my livewell over night with a air pump and they swam normally next day . If they left on the water birds will get them if they don't swim down .

You can use a needle and syringe like you would use for insulin shots to vent the swim bladder too. Just insert the needle behind the side fin and you will hear the air escape. I know it sounds harsh but your not causing any major damage. They will survive without issue. Some saltwater retailers carry tools to do it too, it is mandatory by law to vent reef fish (saltwater) when they are released and/or out of season.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by MidMsAngler

You can use a needle and syringe like you would use for insulin shots to vent the swim bladder too. Just insert the needle behind the side fin and you will hear the air escape. I know it sounds harsh but your not causing any major damage. They will survive without issue. Some saltwater retailers carry tools to do it too, it is mandatory by law to vent reef fish (saltwater) when they are released and/or out of season.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

i was told that if you pucture the air bladder the fish wil. eventually die anyway because the airbladder will never heal so the fish can never adjust to deep water coditions again , not sure if this is true , another question for D10 , i do know that this is done in some tourneys to keep fish alive so they can make to the scale !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I do know that if you see something protruding out of the fishes mouth do not puncture that. That is the throat/stomach and not the air bladder and puncturing it will kill it. I don't release a lot of fish as the fisheries biologists encourage us to keep as much as the limit allows on my Reservoir. But this was common practice when I guided offshore trips and then the state mandated the practice. You can be fined for not carrying a needle offshore now.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by Crappie Greg

i was told that if you pucture the air bladder the fish wil. eventually die anyway because the airbladder will never heal so the fish can never adjust to deep water coditions again , not sure if this is true , another question for D10 , i do know that this is done in some tourneys to keep fish alive so they can make to the scale !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I know that is in a very common practice when biologists assist with a big bass tournament. Every bass tournament that we assist at Greers Ferry to collect brood stock, if needed we deflate the air bladders of the bass before we load them on the live release trailer. I am not sure if this leads to delayed mortality or not but I do know that if you throw them back without deflated the air bladder, they don't really have a chance to make it. I would assume that the same is true for crappie. The problem is that most anglers are either afraid that doing this will hurt/kill the fish or they don't really know how to do it. On bass, you lay the pectoral fin against the bass' side and count 3-4 scale back from the edge of this fin back to the tail and you insert the needle at a 45 degree angle away with the needle point going toward the head. After it is inside the body cavity, you straiten out the needle perpendicular and put the fish under water. If you did it right, you will see a steady stream of bubbles coming up. Once this fish reaches equilibrium, take the needle out. Dont squeeze the air out of the fish untill it sinks to the bottom. The goal is for the fish to become neutrally bouyant in the water column. I am not sure of the exact gauge of the needle but I do know that it isn't small like an insulin needle. I'll get some of these from the Black Bass Program and see what size they are. The easiest way to determine where the proper location to insert a needle on a crappie is to fillet a side off and see where the needle would need to be placed through the bidy to reach the air bladder and avoid vital organs and arteries. I am planning on going tomorrow and hopefully catching some slabs. I will disect one and take some pictures for a tutorial. I'll post the results after I'm done.

Thanks D10. The one I carry in my offshore bag for snapper and such is much larger than an insulin needle. More along the lines of a small sharp needle off a Cajun injector. I assumed that with crappie being smaller that the needle should be downsized as well. Thanks for the facts and I look forward to your tutorial.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

One reason to release this time of year is that they are full of eggs and nearing the spawn. Would it be that if you deflated them it would impact their ability to spawn? Seems pretty drastic to poke holes in them!

Originally Posted by cache22

One reason to release this time of year is that they are full of eggs and nearing the spawn. Would it be that if you deflated them it would impact their ability to spawn? Seems pretty drastic to poke holes in them!

One would think, it would'nt be any more traumatic than sinking a hook into the roof of their mouth and tearing it or into a eye socket a far as spawning goes any how. Just my 2 cents.