CATCH AND RELEASE THROUGH THE ICE.

[fISH2WIN]

Guys I live in Tennessee where we don't have ice fishing. The water temps rarely drop below 40 degrees even in the cold part of the winter. I used to go ice fishing for a week every year in the Michigan UP. I know from that that the fish freeze in a matter of a minuet or so once they are taken out of the water. I also believe that you have a season that is closed on bass. Do you ever catch one through the ice? If so how do they go back? I am sure that fishing in a shanty makes a difference but for you guys that walk out and knock a whole with a spud I am curious . Fish2win

[Fat Boy]

Fish2win, in most conditions where I fish you can release any fish successfully for the most part easily unless they were caught too deep and their swim bladders have expanded.  If that happens, I keep them if they are in season.  Now, in extreme conditions, you can still release them successfully but you have to hurry!  In those conditions, I use a Fish Trap shanty so that isn't an issue any longer for me.

[Trophy Hunter639]

when it's that cold here in manitoba i've been out on days where your spit would freeze before it hit the ground and you don't even think about taking a pee  if you want to release the fish you caught don't bring it out of the water just pop the hook out while the fish is in the water and watch it swim away.

[Mackdaddy21]

Catch and release works fine through the ice unless the fish blow their swim bladders like fat boy said. You don't want to keep them out of the water long at all or cold temps can freeze or damage their gills, eyes, and other sensitive tissues. Keep them in the water as much as possible.


Tyler

[fishercat]

I also believe that you have a season that is closed on bass.

   In Ma. we have no closed season on bass size limit is 12" and you can take 5.
I have never kept a bass all catch and release. Circle hooks make that easy.

[TroutFishingBear]

in most conditions where I fish you can release any fish successfully for the most part easily unless they were caught too deep and their swim bladders have expanded.  If that happens, I keep them if they are in season. 

Every walleye I used to catch (can't fish the reservoir anymore because the mayor we don't elect decided to close it) had expanded swim bladders up near their mouths, and we never knew why. We would catch them even in 5 ft of water and they would have this condition.The lake doesn't get any deeper than about 50 ft. either and it is not very big so I wonder why the swim bladders were always expanded in the mouths on the walleye only and not the other fish in the lake?

[got em]

  what does the guru on eyes,slipbob think? I have only caught one fish with the swimbladder in its mouth ...a perch out of Lake George...out of about 10 to 12 fow...

[crappie66]

Bass, aka green carp, are a major annoyance fish to me when fishing whether it be ice fishing or open water.  One of the easiest fish to catch, no wonder so many people fish for them.  But back to the question, there really are no problems releasing fish in the winter while ice fishing.  Since the fish are cold blooded their metabolism slows down as their body temp lowers which means they need less oxygen as it gets colder.  This being said it is not uncommon to have a fish lay on the ice all day pretty much frozen solid, take it home to thaw before you clean them and watch them swim around in your sink.

[TJ]

in most conditions where I fish you can release any fish successfully for the most part easily unless they were caught too deep and their swim bladders have expanded.  If that happens, I keep them if they are in season. 

Every walleye I used to catch (can't fish the reservoir anymore because the mayor we don't elect decided to close it) had expanded swim bladders up near their mouths, and we never knew why. We would catch them even in 5 ft of water and they would have this condition.The lake doesn't get any deeper than about 50 ft. either and it is not very big so I wonder why the swim bladders were always expanded in the mouths on the walleye only and not the other fish in the lake?

"Swim Bladders"

"Bony fish have swim bladders to help them maintain buoyancy in the water. The swim bladder is a sac inside the abdomen that contains gas. This sac may be open or closed to the gut. If you have ever caught a fish and wondered why its eyes are bulging out of its head, it is because the air in the swim bladder has expanded and is pushing against the back of the eye. Oxygen is the largest percentage of gas in the bladder; nitrogen and carbon dioxide also fill in passively.

Physoclistous- swim bladder is closed to the gut. The gas gets in through a special gas gland in the front of the swim bladder. Gas leaves the bladder through an oval body in the back of the swim bladder. The system works in a pretty miraculous way. Oval body, filled by venous blood -gasses leave here

Gas gland, fed by arterial blood -gasses enter here

inside the spots= giant secretory cells- secrete lactate -in capillary clusters rete mirabile

Increased lactate levels from the giant secretory cells lower the surrounding pH, causing the blood hemoglobin to dump off its oxygen. The oxygen diffuses back into the incoming capillary, increasing the partial pressure of oxygen in the incoming capillary. This continues until the partial pressure of the oxygen in the capillary is higher than that of the swim bladder (which has a high concentration of oxygen). This complex system is necessary because the concentration of oxygen is higher in the swim bladder than it is in the blood, so simple diffusion would tend to pull the oxygen out of the bladder instead of pushing it in. If the fish wants more buoyancy, it must tell its secretory cells to release more lactate. Since oxygen diffuses easily with oxygen-poor venous blood, the gas can be forced out.

*Fish that migrate vertically tend to have high oxygen levels in their bladders because it fills in faster and leaves faster.

*Fish that maintain a stable depth tend to have more nitrogen because it is inert, enters slowly, and exits slowly. "
 

[Fat Boy]

Interesting.  So that brings me to the next question.  Are fish that are caught deep with their bladders bursting out of their mouths going to die if released or will they return to a normal life eventually?

[Fat Boy]

I'd heard before that if you use a hypodermic needle you can deflate the swim bladder and these fish would survive ("fizzing").  So, I decided to do some digging and found the interesting link:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ocs/sk/saltonstallken/gas.htm

and this one:

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/pubs/Fizzing.pdf

Read them both and draw your own conclusions.  I found the second link particularly interesting but both of them informative.  Personally, it seems that "fizzing" is not legal in many jurisdictions, so to me it's simply easier to keep those fish and if I limit out seek shallow water species to fish for or call it a day.

[wny angler]

iv'e never caught my 50 fish limit of perch in deep water -ice or open water fishing (came close) so iv'e never had to worry about releasing them with their swimbladders sticking out their mouths-they go rite in the cooler .
    that swimbladder comes in handy when you lose a big one on the way up-- just wait -they come floating up to the suface and scoop e'm up with the net- happened plenty of times while deep water perching this past spring .

a lot of the fish we reeled up from 60 + ft depths had their eyes bulging out of their heads too.


     i wonder if it would help to reel e'm up real slowwwwww 

[TJ]

Good articals Fat Boy, that was my next post. It is a practise that has been done for years in pro tournys. Yes read the articals and formulate your own opinions. But the artical I was looking for showed that fizzing is only good for 24-48 hours and then most fish die. When I find it I will post. Wny- reeling slow does help most of the time but you still get expanded bladders in most.

[buzzbomb]

I gave it a test one year...sat in the canoe and caught perch in 33' of water then released them.  Even being careful 1 out of 4 or 5 came back up.  Reeling up slow helped, but there were still floaters so I scooped them up with the net and counted them in my limit.  My answer to the prob. ice fishing is to bring them up slow if I can tell it's a small one.  Since I use barbless, half the time they'll get off while still deep without the tension on the line (and I asume unharmed).  If there's a perch in the hole that acts sluggish, sometimes a snap of the fingers on his tail will get him to auger down.  I found that the fish I 'prompted' like this in open water stayed down...if they go that first 4 feet or so they're home free.  Any fish thru the ice with extended swim bladder are headed for the hot fat.  I think pinholing and burping swim bladders is more common a practice with larger, ocean fish (maybe they'd have a better survival rate?).

[TroutFishingBear]

Hmmm you guys only talk about fish in deep water. I have looked on the internet and I still cannot find any reason that my shallow water (sometimes even only 5 ft. deep) walleyes have their swim bladders up near their mouths? Of course when I catch a walleye unless it is a female with eggs it isn't going back. (icefishing anyway, open water I keep about 3 each time)