Walleye caught from 40 ft lesson in the "Bends"

[wolfe]

Interesting, the conflicting advice between playing the fish fast or slow...kind of like the confusing advice to avoid butter (heart disease) vs. margarine (God knows what afflictions).

I am curious as to how this ("bends", bladder issue) relates to lake trout pulled from deep water? In the case of lakers, some times significantly deeper than that of walleye. I have heard them "belch" and hope this is a good thing.

W.

[Ben Daniels]

To get a lil off topic....I heard that lake trout can repressurize no matter how fast that you reel them in, even from very deep water and that they are one of the only freshwater fish that can do that. any truth to this?

[scuro]

To get a lil off topic....I heard that lake trout can repressurize no matter how fast that you reel them in, even from very deep water and that they are one of the only freshwater fish that can do that. any truth to this?

Lake trout....yes I want to know this answer too because I have pulled them up from 60 ft of water. What to do with the small ones and very large ones?

[dana]

I will say that when i used to fish the 30-38ft depth for walleye on the Ottawa i would also haul em up as fast as i could and get them torpedoed back down before the ballast inflated ..
I still think back and wonder if i pruned the walleye population
those years...i only ever saw one fish fish return to the surface though..
the rest beat it back down to the bottom..
They did a test a few years back[pwt?] where they detained deep water caught walleye fizzed and non fizzed..in a floating pen for several days to see if nitrogen narcosis
set in on em...i think a small % of them did croak but most were ok
and they saw basically no difference whether you fizzed em or not.
I would think it ain't easy on em though..
df

[dana]

also referring to the floating cage detained walleye...

There is no way anyone new how long these fish survived after being let go..

I have stopped deep water walleye fishing for over a decade now...
i would like to think it is ok but most of me says No.

df
.

[Bobber]

Hello folks,

This is a great topic and thanks Marlinhunter for bringing it up, and all the participation from the community. It is something we should all be aware of when we are angling. A great lesson and great information.

Big Jim has contacted Dr. Tufts regarding this subject, and has sent me the following response from him.

My friend “BIG JIM” has invited me to comment on this discussion because I am a fisheries biologist at Queen’s University who has been doing research on “catch and release” issues in fish for over a decade.

This is an interesting discussion and is actually something that we are currently researching in my lab at Queen’s. Here’s what I can tell you about this issue. Yes, as several people have pointed out here, fish can experience something similar to “the bends” if they are brought to the surface quickly from depth. Most of the research in this area refers to this phenomenon as “decompression” or “depressurization” in fish and it is a direct result of the drop in pressure when fish are brought to the surface. The drop in pressure causes the gas in the swimbladder to expand. Gas bubbles can also form in the blood and tissues because the drop in pressure causes gases in the blood come out of solution. Fortunately, many of the more serious consequences seem to take some time to develop. If the fish are returned to the water quickly and can still swim well enough (not too tired), they will return to depths where the symptoms will subside and they appear to be fine. This seems to be the story when fish are caught from depths in the 30-40 foot range.

So, the message for anglers is simply to return these fish to the water in short order and they should be OK. However, it is a somewhat different story if the fish are held for a long period of time at the surface (eg in a livewell) after they are caught from depth. In this situation, the negative symptoms continue to develop at the surface and become more serious. We are still exploring what eventually happens to these fish and whether “fizzing” has any real benefit for them. For the time being, the best bet for anglers is not to hold fish that are caught from significant depths in the livewell if it can be avoided. In a tournament situation, fish caught from depth can end up in the livewell for considerable lengths of time. We are therefore conducting experiments to learn more about what happens to these fish and how to best care for them. When our experiments are completed in the coming months, we’ll be happy to let everyone know.
Dr. Bruce Tufts, Professor, Department of Biology, Queen’s University

Thank you very much Dr. Tufts.

[boogie]

Hey guys, the walleye people have been fizzing fish for a lot of years. Their thought behind it is, better to fizz and give the fish a chance then not to fizz and let them die. As Dana mentioned PWT did an experiment a couple of years ago and the percentage of fish that lived for 7 days (I believe) was in the 90% range. They allow it in their tournaments because you can't stop walleye fishermen from fishing the deep waters. I've been doing it ever since it was introduced to me by Doc Samson while fishing a PWT event in Saginaw Bay. It works, but it needs to be done ASAP. Someone on the Ottawa page talked about a weight system to help them out. There is a system called Pecto weights where you attach the fish to this weight and release slowing to the bottom. Once the fish is strong enough to swim away, it releases itself from the weight. Using this system during a tournament might be time consuming. Therefore, until they come out with a fool proof system, I will keep on fizzing.

[SALMON]

Interesting thread..so if its CPR do it as quickly as possible would seem to be the way.

[boogie]

Caught walleye in 90' of water this year and when I brought them to the boat, they were really bloated. I fizzed them, let them swim in the livewell and eventually let them go, with no problems.

[dana]

wow 90ft!!
good job..
i'd have eaten them hahaha...
burp!