Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

I caught an 8#er today at Castaic.
She came up from about 25 feet of water.
I had to leave her in the livewell because I was fishing against another boat for lunch.
Anyways,,,I checked back on her couple of minutes later to find her to be needled.
She was so thick my needle (about 1" long) wasn't long enough.
Tried to fizz on both sides "later line way" with no success.(I've done it successfully before on smaller fish)
Came to think of "throat way",,,,and that was way easier.
I highly recommend this way to anyone who's not really used to "fizzing" yet.
If the mouth is too small for your hand (smaller fish),,,just pick the needle with long nose plier and push it down the throat.
Much less chance of harming the fish.
Look at the picuture below.

<img src="http://westernbass.com/shared/photos/ph ... esized.jpg">

Do you go straight in with the needle, angle it up or down at all?

I went straight down.
I actually did it on the "throat??" instead of btwn tongs,,,,but very slowly,,,cuz I didn't want the needle go down too deep.
Go down slow till you hear air coming out,,,then stop there for a few seconds.
You don't have to press the belly either.

most of the fish that i catch deep always seem to have a air bubble poping out of its mouth it looks like bubble gum i just pop the bubble and they seem to be fine is that the same technique?

This works great. Anybody that hasn't done this before needs to try it out.

Don't use a needle that's too long.

How long?

Kevin,

Thank you for re-visiting this method of fizzing. It is much easier to learn and because you are going in above the crushers there is little chance of hitting any vital organs.

One thing to mention for those who try this for the first time, is not to try and squeeze the air out of the fish. Just let the fishes bladder do the work.

Hope you all have a productive and successful 2007.

The "bubble" popping out of their mouth is actually the stomach which has been pushed out by the inflated bladder; so no, it is not the same method at all.

It works every time for me and is much easier than on the side. THANKS!

TK