releasing fish Question

[BigE]

??? ??? ???just to stir the pot a bit guys and i know that fish pulled from deep water suffer barotrauma but "if the death rate from released fish is so high (as most of pc do gooders recon) how come fishing parks man made lakes and dams aren't full of dead fish from all the fisho's that practice catch & release ? ??? ??? ;D ;D ;D may be a bit of hysteria going around i think :-X :-X :-X how dare i say such a dreadful thing.
think carefully now!!!!
BigE

[DICER]

pull a fish up from 65 meters in less than 3 minutes is the equivalent of watching a marshmellow come out of a coin slot...... :o .....Would you scuba dive in a similar manner? You would wind up in barometric container I believe!!

Apart from the bends, I don't think that there is too much trauma to fish in parks, lakes and rivers, unless the hook is embedded in the guts or left in the mouth. The odd hook in the eye would claim one or two fish.

[dasher]

I think you'll find the general concesus is the released fish fall prey to predators because of their weakened condition. ???

[Jeremy]

I think you'll find the general concesus is the released fish fall prey to predators because of their weakened condition. ???

What a lot of crap! The vast majority of released fish - if handled correctly - will be fine.

Jeremy

[agnes_jack]

Fish in barra parks etc won't suffer from barotrauma as they are caught in water far too shallow. Cant compare them to ocean caught fish by any means. Many deepwater caught fish are damaged severly by baratrauma and do not survive release.

Regards, Tony :-/

[Jeremy]

Fair point Tony. I agree that the chances of fish caught from depwater would be far less than fish caught from shallow water.

I will revise my statement to "The vast majority of released fish caught in 'shallow' water - if handled correctly - will be fine

Jeremy ;D

[devocean]

Go to Faust and you will see heaps of dead barra floating around. Mostly from guys straighting out backbones and stuff but some have bloated guts

[Boxhead]

I release a lot of fish...... Straight into an ice slury.... Not one has lived yet..... ;D

Nath...

[Morlers]

Whilst on the subject, how do you deflate the swim bladder in order to release the fish safely ???

:) :)

Morlers

[basserman]

yeh i have seen some bass to at places like lake gleanbourne that are floating on the surface and most of the fish that may die in the rusty stuff would fall to preditors before they would ever float to the surface but like jeremy said majority would survie if handled right but yes some do die and i dout there is anything you could do to stop it, it is just nature sorting out the weakest link!
as for venting a fish well most people just pop the guts but the better way is to vent it with a needle in the swim bladder just behind the dorsal fins
not much written about the proper ways to vent and i think that every state fisherys should look inot putting the info out there so more fish have a greater chance ;)

[Big_unit]

Catch and fillet programs work best for me. Although they seem to have a high death rate. :-/

Cheers
James.

[agnes_jack]

The correct way to vent a fish according to the QLD #DPI is to pierce the area directly below the fourth or fifth dorsal spine in a line with the upper part of the pectoral fin base. We use a 16 guage syringe, available from most chemists. Do not pierce any visible part of the swim bladder i.e. the bit hanging out the mouth, as this will severely limit the chances of survival.
Anyone who is serious about releasing fish in deepwater should also look at having one of the release dropper weights on board as well, can in some cases save the need for crude surgery.

Regards, Tony ;)

[devocean]

Recently saw these weight bombs in which you send the fish back down slowly and it defaltes them for you

[gunna]

I was also told when venting fish to keep them under water during the process so you see the bubbles release & know that its been vented ok. Rather than stick the needle in & hope. Thats also using the proper needle that allows air out inside the needle.

[Gazza]

Recently saw these weight bombs in which you send the fish back down slowly and it defaltes them for you

[Gazza]

;)

[agnes_jack]

Thats the one Gazza!!
We have been making them out of one pound snapper leads, they work very well.

Regards, Tony

[Mick]

The correct way to vent a fish according to the QLD #DPI is to pierce the area directly below the fourth or fifth dorsal spine in a line with the upper part of the pectoral fin base. We use a 16 guage syringe, available from most chemists. Do not pierce any visible part of the swim bladder i.e. the bit hanging out the mouth, as this will severely limit the chances of survival.
Anyone who is serious about releasing fish in deepwater should also look at having one of the release dropper weights on board as well, can in some cases save the need for crude surgery.

Regards, Tony ;)

Tony, what is a fourth of fifth dorsal spine?

Mick

[agnes_jack]

The dorsal fin is on top of the fish!
Count the spines from the front of the fish, the 4th and fifth ones are the ones after the first second and third ones.

Regards, Tony ;)

[Burley_Boy]

lmao ;D
thanks for the explanation Tony I actually had the same question.... :-X

[Lundy]

There is a current study being undertaken by the DPI into the releasing of fish
suffering Barotrauma (fish usually caught in water deeper than 10 metres)
6 species of fish are targeted. Coral Trout, Red Emporer, Red Thraot Sweeties
Large and Small mouth Nannies and spangled emporer.
Gladstone Sport Fishing Club was recently involved where we chartered a boat
for the weekend with the sole prupose of tagging reef fish. Approx 160 fish were
tagged and then released using 3 different methods. 1. straight return to the water
2. venting air bladder 3. using the dropper weight.
It is hoped to tag 600 fish per year over 3 years.
Hopefully there will be enough tag returns to get some useful info to suggest the best
method of release.
On a personal note, last time we were out we caught an undersize Emporer from 30 metres that had been tagged 3 months earlier in the same location. Not to sure
how the nannies will go as they really blow their eye out from that depth.
Cheers
Steve

[agnes_jack]

Tabs
The red emperor seem to have no trouble returning back to the bottom without any assistance at all. We have been tagging quite a few and the general consensus is that they stay in one area while they are juveniles. We caught one that had been tagged and re-captured 7 times in the same area,6 times was by the fella who had originally tagged the fish!!
We have caught a few that have been tagged and the tag has been snipped off about halfway down it's length. We assume that is from other fish biting the tag off.
As you say the nannies don't look too healthy when they come up from depth, have you heard of any tag returns on them at all?

Regards, Tony

[Lundy]

Hi Tony,
There has been a few recaptures of late, but unsure of the release method.
Steve

[DICER]

amazing stuff with red emperors....

Tony how deep do you go with the 16 gauge?

[agnes_jack]

Dicer
You havegot to make a guess based on the size of the fish, but generally if you angle the needle slightly toward the front and listen for the escaping air, you will know when you have gone in far enough.

Regards, Tony

[Jono_SS]

Bill Sawynok in Rocky has put together an excellent web site with loads of information on it including best practice for releasing fish.

http://www.info-fish.net/releasefish/default.asp

There are facts sheets for loads of species, though they take a little while to load if you have dial-up internet.

[agnes_jack]

Thats a great site Jonno!!
Some good info on there for those who are interested.

Regards,Tony