Are They mad at the crappie or just unconscious idiots!!!

[Cane Pole]

Sublegals? Got me there.

Speaking of floating and/or injured dinks, that's one of the great things about nature - one way or another, nothing gets wasted. Other fish feed on them, birds get fed and if nothing else their decompositon will add nutrients back to the water.

Kinda like para-legals Darryl.

Sub legal. Little less than legal..
Para-legals. Dats two legals..

[izzysfishin]

SKYDIVING LAWYERS ? I've heard of ambulance chasers...

[David Waters]

sub-legals, as in too short. I had to read it a couple of times too.

Yeah, something about releasing a fish and seeing it swin to the top just breaks my heart. I can put a fish in the cooler without hesitating, and actually feeling really dang good. But a small fish floating up after releasing just really gets to me.

Some folks around here do the surenge deal. At least on bass. A lot of bass die here after tournaments during the summer simply because they are caught so deep. I rarely have a fish die if caught shallower than 18 feet. I have had fish live on ice for many hours caught in shallow water, yet die in 20 minutes caught in 30 feet.

[Darryl Morris]

oh, I get it now, sub-legals. I was reading it suble-gals, and couldn't figure out for the life of me what girls had to do with floating fish, lol.

[sac-a-lait]

On my particular lake they have no size limit on Crappie so if he's bleeding or not going to make it, no matter his size, I keep him.

[horseshoer]

I too have lived where during a period in the winter ALL crappie caught had to be kept regardless of size until limit was reached or otherwise. I agree with that wholeheartedly as I hate to see waste. I would rather go home
disappointed with a cooler with whatever % of sub-par fish than how I would feel about leaving a bunch of dead fish scattered on the lake just so I can go
home with all solid keepers. It would be great if there were a clause that allowed people to keep doomed fish but several others hit on it too when it was said that in reality there would be a pile of meatmongers using that to essentially keep everything caught. I am not a big advocate of THE RULES
but they do need to be there or it would be a big free-for-all I fear and who
would end up with the short end of it in the end? I know the feeling of having that 9-3/4" bleeding crappie on board on a 10" min lake thinking this is really against the sportsmanship way of things but I guess it is not a perfect system.
Not talking about having it on ice but just brought up with that issue facing you. And I would be lying to say I have not kept a very few over the years but I could count em on one hand. I regret it and haven't done it in several years but that's the part of human nature I think where making an exception in the laws would not work. Sorry so long.
Jeff

[cook]

I,too,have had this problem in northern Mo. in the winter.
Sometimes they swim off only to resurface 10 min. later.Other times they will lay on the surface only to take off 15 min. later.

Last year snook fish in the cold in Fl.,a guy showed me a method.Close their mouth,hold like a football,and throw into the water like you are spiking the ball after a touchdown.Seems to work.

P.S.-don't do this in shallow(under 3 feet) of water

[beagledogxxx]

in-fisherman suggests putting your hand against the crappies mouth to form a barrier and blowing down the fishes throat. It supposedly will help to re-inflate the air bladder and allow the fish to go back to the deep water where it came from, which potentially may save the fishes life. As far as bleeding fish, you just have to keep them. I've pulled some fillets off some awfully tiny fish, and, even though its not even a mouthful, it still beats leaving it for the gulls and turtles.

[CrappiePappy]

but, that doesn't sound right When the fish is reeled in from the depths ... the air bladder expands from the pressure changes (hence the "deflation by needle trick"). Blowing air into the fish's mouth wouldn't help ... that would only force air into the fish's stomach (if at all). Seems like you would then have a fish with too much air in the air bladder AND the stomach ... making it even more difficult for the fish to return to the greater pressures of the deep.

Another thing that bothers me, about all these "measures & countermeasures" to return a fish, unharmed, back into the water ... is the excessive handling of the fish. You're taking the chance of removing the slime coat ... the fish's protective, anti-bacterial shield. Add that to the time out of water (for the protective measures used to insure the fish's survival), and you may be cutting the fish's chances of survival, even more - in spite of your efforts).

I don't know what the "best" way to deal with this problem is ... I just try and return them as "unharmed" as possible, and let Nature deal with it. ... cp

[David Waters]

well, the only time I didn't feel bad was the time at Cedar when we had an Ospree dive down about 50 yards from us and pick up an injured fish. Wish I had a camera that day.

I guess releasing the occaisional dead fish is better than allowing the meat mongers to really take home hundreds of small fish. We just think this is a problem for us, but the fishermen in the Gulf feel even stronger than we do. Releasing red snapper, grouper, scamp, and other great meat fish knowing they are almost dead before hitting the water. Real bad topic for them.