To fiz or not to fiz

[justfishin]

You pull a small fish from the deep. It's air bladder is visible in it's throat. What do you do? Keep it - what if it's below a slot limit?
Toss it and hope it sucks it up and swims out of eyesight before it dies? Or do you try the fiz?

If you go the fiz route, what's the best way to do it?

[John in Mn]

If it is a legal fish, keep it. If it is not toss it in. I think if the swim bladder is sticking out of its throat, it is a gonner. Then go and find some shallower fish unless you plan on keeping or killing all of the fish you catch.

[Juls_WI]

agreed.

Juls

[Cranks]

I agree with John too. Fizzing is really a "someone has to show you first hand" kinda thing. The larger pro-circuits provide fizzing needles to insert slowly just above and to the side of the anal pore into the air bladder to gently release the pressure. From what I've read
this only really helps to keep the fish alive to
weigh-in and survival after that is a coin toss
at best. It's been a while since I've done it so I
may have forgotten something...In-Sider has publshed the prodecure in the past...perhaps the
instructions are on this website somewhere.

I would follow John's advice and avoid the practice unless you are in a tourney and have
to deal with 'dead-fish' penalties.