Belly/Fin Weights

[CrappiePappy]

If you reel a deep water crappie up fast , it will blow it's eyes right out of it's head , not sure they can survive that part is me
hence the winter law on fork and few other places where it whacks them so hard they just simply do not recover , first 25 ANY SIZE HAVE to be kept on them lakes .
when fork first opened many moons ago the winter crappie folks would leave a "chum" line of dead crappie in the hundreds of fish that were slightly under the 10-inch min.

There was a similar situation back in Nov at a big Crappie tourney on Dale Hollow. Member friend of mine fished it and said there were several 120qt coolers full of dead fish and lots of floaters on the lake. Fish were caught from 30-50fow and fish that were fizzed survived, those that weren't fizzed did not.

[Kevin22]

There was a similar situation back in Nov at a big Crappie tourney on Dale Hollow. Member friend of mine fished it and said there were several 120qt coolers full of dead fish and lots of floaters on the lake. Fish were caught from 30-50fow and fish that were fizzed survived, those that weren't fizzed did not.

Correction, fish that were fizzed sunk/swam off. Fizzing small fish is almost a sure death sentence, their air bladders are so small that they cannot handle the puncture long term. And they cannot use that bladder to hold air with a hole in it, until it heals. So most just lay on the bottom and die. Thats why bass tournaments stopped deep water tournaments, they used to teach anglers how to fiz until the hired biologist for the major tournaments said they were doing more harm than good. Small tournaments still do it.

In some states (Minnesota for sure) it is illegal to fiz a fish. And they have closed off fishing in some popular deep water areas, like below dams for saugers/walleye in the winter. Other places require you to keep everything until you are at your limit, then you have to leave.

It works well for ocean fish, because they are so large and hardy that they can recover from the puncture. Our delicate small freshwater fish (crappie specifically) cannot handle it. Its better than nothing, that fish has at least a chance of survival, but it's not recommended and definitely not an excuse to fish deep water fish to C&R.




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[CrappiePappy]

Correction, fish that were fizzed sunk/swam off. Fizzing small fish is almost a sure death sentence, their air bladders are so small that they cannot handle the puncture long term. And they cannot use that bladder to hold air with a hole in it, until it heals. So most just lay on the bottom and die. Thats why bass tournaments stopped deep water tournaments, they used to teach anglers how to fiz until the hired biologist for the major tournaments said they were doing more harm than good. Small tournaments still do it.

In some states (Minnesota for sure) it is illegal to fiz a fish. And they have closed off fishing in some popular deep water areas, like below dams for saugers/walleye in the winter. Other places require you to keep everything until you are at your limit, then you have to leave.

It works well for ocean fish, because they are so large and hardy that they can recover from the puncture. Our delicate small freshwater fish (crappie specifically) cannot handle it. Its better than nothing, that fish has at least a chance of survival, but it's not recommended and definitely not an excuse to fish deep water fish to C&R.




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Yeah ... sorry. What I meant by "survived" was that his fish were "alive" at weigh-in. Whether or not they "survived" after release, I don't know.

[ezgoing]

Correction, fish that were fizzed sunk/swam off. Fizzing small fish is almost a sure death sentence, their air bladders are so small that they cannot handle the puncture long term. And they cannot use that bladder to hold air with a hole in it, until it heals. So most just lay on the bottom and die. Thats why bass tournaments stopped deep water tournaments, they used to teach anglers how to fiz until the hired biologist for the major tournaments said they were doing more harm than good. Small tournaments still do it.

In some states (Minnesota for sure) it is illegal to fiz a fish. And they have closed off fishing in some popular deep water areas, like below dams for saugers/walleye in the winter. Other places require you to keep everything until you are at your limit, then you have to leave.

It works well for ocean fish, because they are so large and hardy that they can recover from the puncture. Our delicate small freshwater fish (crappie specifically) cannot handle it. Its better than nothing, that fish has at least a chance of survival, but it's not recommended and definitely not an excuse to fish deep water fish to C&R.

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

This is another of the reasons I do not like fishing tournaments. I fully understand the commercial aspects of the tournaments and realize they will not go away. To help prevent game fish waste tournament anglers should be required to use the Fishsaverpro fish descending return device . Of better yet, keep the first X fish they catch, regardless of size, for the weight-in. With X being the maximum number of fish they are allowed to weight in.

And yes, I know they will never be required to keep the first X fish they catch, as that adds a bigger element of luck into the equation and negates part of the skill the better tournament anglers have over the other anglers.

And the first will not happen, as it would take time away from catching another fish as they properly cared for the one they had already caught and tournament anglers concentrate on winning so every second counts in their minds during a tournament. Of course this is all just my observations of tournament anglers and my humble opinion of their actions while on the water.

[otdrzman]

Made up some belly weights. These should last me a while. Thanks for all of the input.

[SuperDave336]

Those are nice. Good job

[Les Young]

This is another of the reasons I do not like fishing tournaments. I fully understand the commercial aspects of the tournaments and realize they will not go away. To help prevent game fish waste tournament anglers should be required to use the Fishsaverpro fish descending return device . Of better yet, keep the first X fish they catch, regardless of size, for the weight-in. With X being the maximum number of fish they are allowed to weight in.

And yes, I know they will never be required to keep the first X fish they catch, as that adds a bigger element of luck into the equation and negates part of the skill the better tournament anglers have over the other anglers.

And the first will not happen, as it would take time away from catching another fish as they properly cared for the one they had already caught and tournament anglers concentrate on winning so every second counts in their minds during a tournament. Of course this is all just my observations of tournament anglers and my humble opinion of their actions while on the water.

Maybe in crappie fishing but I can’t tell you that the majority of bass guys try hard to keep their fish alive. Plenty fizz, use ice to cool live well water down, run v-2 live well vents & use release agents in the live well water too. I’ve noticed a lot of crappie fishermen throwing them into the live well from the front deck. If that’s fish care then I want no part of it.

[pab1981]

Maybe in crappie fishing but I can’t tell you that the majority of bass guys try hard to keep their fish alive. Plenty fizz, use ice to cool live well water down, run v-2 live well vents & use release agents in the live well water too. I’ve noticed a lot of crappie fishermen throwing them into the live well from the front deck. If that’s fish care then I want no part of it.

Nobody with any sense tournament fishing is throwing them from the front of the boat. I fish a lot of tournaments and everyone I know that fishes tournaments work hard to take care of fish.

[Les Young]

Nobody with any sense tournament fishing is throwing them from the front of the boat. I fish a lot of tournaments and everyone I know that fishes tournaments work hard to take care of fish.

I never meant that crappie tournament fishermen were throwing them. I was talking about average joes & some that are just going to take pics of their catch. I know a tournament fisherman of any kind's not doing that.

[Grainraiser]

The only way they going in my livewell is if they have a date with the filet knife.