Fizzin Bass through the mouth?

[Morgan]

Does anyone have a picture or information on how to release the air from a bass's air bladder by inserting a needle through the mouth? I saw a show where someone did it instead of sticking through the side. They said it was better for large bass.
I found lots of info for fizzing them through the side but none the other way.

Thanks in advance
Morgan

[JamesH]

I have never seen any info but it is really simple. If you hold the bass by the bottom lip and look into it's mouth, you will see its "throat". The key is to hold the bass vertical so tha its mouth is pointing towards the sky, the swim bladder will naturally rise and be located directly behind the throat. Slide the needle directly through the center of the throat until it punctures the bladder. You will hear a hiss. If you want, at this point you can hold the bass under water in your live well and you will see air bubbles escaping. When they stop, remove the needle and watch the fish swim upright again! Sometimes you will have to repeat the process if the fish is still swimming belly up.
James

[Phil]

SO THE FISH SWIMS UPRIGHT ? CAN HE GO BACK DOWN TO THE DEPTHS FROM WENCE HE CAME, AND IF NOT HOW SOON BEFORE THE AIR BLADDER HEALS ??

here we put them into a cage, lower them to deep water and open the cage !

Jigs

[kopper_bass]

I'm no expert,
but a guy showed me this winter up on Lake Shasta how to do this and it worked much easier and nicer than from the side.

You need a long needle to do this because you gotta put this thing in the fishes mouth. so you can imagine that on smaller fish its hard to get in there.

All you need to do is this.
Open the fishes mouth and look inside. find the two white tangs at the top of the fish's mouth (they look sorta like tonsils hanging down). You insert the needle in the middle of these two tangs in the soft fleshy part. The tangs are hard, so you'll know you can't insert them there. Push the needle in easy about 1-1.5 inches and then lightly squeeze the fishes belly. if no air comes out, try just a bit deeper with the needle. (you can also hold the fish in the water to see the bubbles coming out the needle).

That's it. remove the needle and let the fish go. He'll be fine.

DON"T stick the needle in the fish's gullet as this could harm the fish and poke a hole in its primary organs, like its stomach. Also, the bladder rides up high, so thats why its better to insert at the top and not at the gullet.

You can see a pic i made up at this address:
<img src="/shared/photos/photos/resized/2141_resized.jpg">
ignore the hook and pliers - i doctored a picture for this demo. sorry!

Try it and practice on a few fish while pre-fishing, so you're good at it when you need it during a tournament.

Good Luck,

Kopper_Bass

[swimbait]

An alternative method to needling for larger fish is to use a torpedo weight on a line to get the fish back down. It works like this:

Take a standard marker bouy and remove the stock lead weight. Replace that weight with a 6 to 8oz torpedo sinker. You can buy a sinker like that at any saltwater tackle store.

If you get a big bass that won’t go down, pay out 10-20 feet of line from the marker buoy, then hold the fish with the mouth pointing straight up at you and lower the torpedo sinker into its throat. It will go in very easily, there’s no need to force it. When the sinker is fully inside the bass, gently release the fish while paying out line from the marker buoy. The extra weight will allow the bass to swim down. Let the fish go as deep as it needs to go. What will happen is that the bass will go very slowly at first but when it hits a certain depth it will all of a sudden feel normal again and you’ll feel the fish come to life and start yanking on the string. Hold the string tight and the bass will cough out the weight and be on its way.

I have used this method successfully several times. I have to believe that doing it this way is much better for the bass than needling the air bladder because it doesn't damage the fish in any way.

[Phil]

10-4. WE AGREE TOTALLY WITH YOU

[Steve]

I agree with Rob as well. I just dont think its a good idea to have a bunch of people running around sticking needles into fish, regardless of whether or not they think they know what they are doing.

You do not have to get a fish very far under the surface of the water before the added atomospheric pressure is enough to "deflate" the swim bladder to the point where the fish can swim downward by itself.

[Bill K]

Depth release or whatever you want to call it, you can also make a basket and lower them and they will adjust and swim out, is well and good for C&R. But when keeping them and not releasing til after weigh-in you must fizz them. Even Fish and Game personal will do this when they are at weighin sites. Do it right and no harm to the fish. Better than the alternative. Bill K

[Morgan]

Thanks for all the good info
Morgan