How to Deflate a Bass Air Bladder Through the Mouth

[Reel Guy]

Need Help,

Anyone have a diagram of how to deflate the air bladder on a bass through the mouth.

Thanks,
Reel Guy

[Johnny C]

Right between the crushers and straight back. Very easy. Stick it in easy, you should hear them fizz right away. Stick them when you catch them right away. Just takes a second. I have done over a hundred this fall.

[tunaman]

Here's a good link to a BASS article regarding fizzing a bass:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bass ... _procedure

Roger

[tunaman]

Also, here's a related thread which also contains the diagram posted here on this site quite some time back:

http://westernbass.com/forum/viewtopic. ... fizz+image

Those two links should help.

Roger

[Reel Guy]

Thanks Guy's

For all all your help.

Reel Guy

[Greg_Cornish]

I've never caught a fish deep enough to have that problem. How deep of water will cause this to happen?

[tunaman]

'They' say 30-35' or more, but I've had them float from 20'... of course, it's impossible to know how far they came up to grab your offering. It isn't a big deal if you release them immediately, as they still have enough strength and stability to return to their preferred depth, but once they've been in the livewell for a little bit it becomes crucial.

You can also use a heavy (12-16oz.) torpedo sinker attached to a bouy line or stubby broken rod and cast-off reel, inserted into their mouth to aid their return to the depths, and some others use a weighted and inverted crate on rope.

Catch and release is a beautiful thing, and it works! Great job to all who participate!

Roger

[lionkiller]

If you're ever at a tournament on Clearlake, & the CL Bassmasters release boat is there, come up & ask to be shown. We're glad to. The trick with going between the crushers is to have a long enough needle. After a few hundred fish, you get a feel for it. & please leave a little air in the fish, otherwise, they'll sink like a stone!

Greg, like Tunaman says, anything deeper than 20', & sometimes even less. If you take that new jig rod near Shag, you might just find out!

[David Rogers]

Wow,
The last 2 trips to Clear Lake produced some very nice bass for me and I wanted to take some double fisted pictures but the bass I was catching were in 15-25 feet of water and I would but them in the live well and they would turn to there side, I knew I had to deflate them but did not know how so I just took the picture quick and let them go. The next time I catch a 4 lber that wants to lie on its side I will try this method, I don't want to practice on a anything bigger than that just in case I don't do it correctly. I caught my 2nd BD 3 weeks ago, she was 10 lbs on the dot but my photo's did not come out good because she kept going belly up and I wanted to get her back in the water ASAP, I am a major major big bass conservative, I don't want to kill any fish let alone a trophy. I was going to start a thread myself but did not have to. Thanks to all who posted and showed us how to do it, the diagrams were very good.

[Joe Bruce]

caught one in 65 today and couldnt find my needle. so I strightened out a 4.0 ewg hook and stuck it threw the mouth. the hook went in and out like butter, the air came out, the fish spent the next 5 hrs in the well, was weighed and swam away happily.
cant be as easy on um as a good needle but sure did work better than not poppin it.

[Vince E]

I had to fizz my first fish last summer. My friends fish actually. It took me two tries. We tried once and put him back in the lake but he floated back up. We netted him and tried again, this time giving a gentle squeeze. Heard the air and put him back and down he went.
The needle must have plugged when I stabbed him the first time.
By the way thanks to whoever put up that drawing because I didn't even know about fizzing before I read that thread and I would hate to try it from the side.