Fizzing ?

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When,how,and what do you use to fizz a fish? Will be in a tournement this weekend on Saginaw Bay and need to keep fish alive. Also where do you get the needles for fizzing? Thanks for any help.

[ETT]

Search the archives under "fizzing" general discusion, subject. You'll get several old posts.

[GOD]

Please do not fizz fish by instructions over the internet. Have a qualified person show you first hand.

[doug h]

ASk someone at the captians meeting. What tournament are you talking about.

[GullGuide]

I have to agree with the previous post saying not to try to fizz a fish from instructions over the internet.
Fizzing used to be the rage, but recently many experts are discouraging this practice because you can very easily kill the fish you are trying to save. I know it sounds like ****ed if you do, ****ed if you dont, but being off by a fraction of an inch with the needle can do fatal damage to the fishes internal organs. If you do insist on trying this, have an expert personally show you how to do it. As always, the best way to keep a fish alive that has been pulled from the depths is to bring it up slowly, don't horse it in. I know that is a hard thing to do, especially during a tourney.
Good luck
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[fisherman]

When you clean a fish you can see the reallity of trying to hit the airsack and only the airsack. Fizzing should only be performed by quallified / trained individules.
Thats not me. Just my 2 cents,
fisherman

[Been there]

When oh when are people going to quit spreading the rumor about bringing the fish up slowly! The
longer you take the more time the internal pressure has to equalize and the air in the bladder to
expand hurting the fish. Get em up in a hurray and make your decision to return it or fizz it in your well.

[GullGuide]

I beg to differ.
Take a scuba diver for instance. If the diver surfaces to quickly, the change in pressure causes the "Bends". Ever heard of that? That's why after diving for a period of time in deep water, divers pause at intervals during their ascent. Why would this be any different with a fish that has been under pressure for a period of time. Try bringing a crappie up quickly from 40 feet in the wintertime, their bladder nearly comes out their mouth! Reel them in slowly and they'll swim away with no problem.
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[Pikeman (Sask)]

I agree with the guys who said not to fizz. This is really hit and miss, and there is no real proof that it works.
It is also true, to the best of my knowledge that bringing a fish up slowly from deep water will help it survive. Who ever mentioned the scuba diver is bang on!
I don't have any experience on the body of water you are fishing, but, if possible, maybe you could try to locate a shallow water bite, and would not have to worry about this.
Again, no fizzing!

Pikeman

[EYEFISH2]

Comparing fish to humans is like comparing apples to oranges.

Biologically speaking you would have to fight a fish for a long time in order for it's air bladder to adjust to the pressure. If I'm not mistaken it takes up to two hours for a fish to adjust from 40 foot depth to the shallow water in it's natural enviroment. This is why walleye will often come up to feed in spurts or short intervals and then go back to deep water, they can only stand the pressure change for a short time. If you are going to release the fish do so quickly.

I use a 1 & 1/2 inch 18 guage needle when I fizz fish. I would check with your local hospital pharmacy or a store that supplies animale vaccines to ranchers. If you can get someone to show you how to fizz you are better off.

[Wrong]

The "bends" are caused by the build up of nitrogen in the blood, as a result of pressure. This is in no way related to the expansion of air in the swim bladder of a fish. I don't have a swim bladder, do you? Some fish have the ability to release air from the bladder and are not affected by depth changes, we often catch lake trout down 100 feet. You can see the air bubbles coming out of them as they surface. Walleye have to reabsorb the excess air into their flesh. I know when we were fishing the deep bite on Oahe in 98 and walleye were coming from 60 plus feet if you got them up quick and the hook out in a hurray they could get back down on their own. Add a minute or 2 to the time and the internal air pressure equalized to the extent that you had to fizz to get the fish back down.

[Gumbo]

I wouldn't fizz. First, avoid returning fish with enlarged air bladders. Avoid targeting those fish. But if you have to return such a fish, consider this method to quickly return the fish to the depth from which it was caught which will compress the air in its bladder. Rig a large, barbless hook upside-down on some stout fireline. About 6" to 1' below the inverted hook attach a heavy weight, up to a pound if needed. Gently poke the inverted hook point into the fish's nose and quickly lower it to the depth you caught it at. A quick upward jerk on the line will release the fish.

[Hawgeye]

I have to also disagree with fizzing. I feel that if you bring a fish from deep enough water to kill it, you should keep it or don't fish there. I would hope tournaments would frown against catching fish in water over 40-50' deep. Maybe dead fish penalties are one way to promote against the practice. This is one of the reason I am against tournament fishing. No offense to the originator of this post because I have caught fish in deep water that I did not want to keep. I just don't like to use a practice that almost guarentees the fish to die.

[Who are you kidding?]

Guarantees it will die? That is the whole problem here, there has never been a study proving that
fizzing is harmful or helpful. Don't go making personal opinions into facts please.

[Hawgeye]

I can see you are concerned about showing your identity but I have seen way too many fish floating on top, dead in 90+' of water because they were not the ideal size. Fizzing or not, why fish that deep? I was not saying that fizzing will guarantee the fish to die, I was saying that bringing in fish from deep water almost guarantees the fish to die fizzing or not. Go fish Sakakawea when the eyes are in deep water and watch all the jerks throwing dead fish back in because they caught the wrong size. I would call that a form of wanton waste.

And as for facts, you contradict yourself with that statement. If we are talking facts here, this topic would have zero postings. Sorry that I offended you with my opinion.

[Bottomfeeder]

I was at the Otter Street Walleye tourney in Oshkosh and I watched a DNR fisheries manager fizzing the walleys that were having trouble recovering. I asked him about the practice and he told me that the jury was still out but he was trying to do everything he could for these fish. Winnebago's deepest point is about 21 feet, so it seems that fizzing has more applications than just deep water.

I read a report from the South Dakota DNR that stated that the most stress on a Walleye was from the fight. If you take a long time to bring the fish in, the length of the fight is directly related to the mortality rate. From that report it seems that the best thing you can do is get the fish in and released as quickly as possible.

Bottomfeeder

[Chuck Pederson MN]

I agree with you bottomfeeder. I fished with a fishery biologist who said the same thing get them in quick. We fished Pickel Lake Ontario and they especially wanted quick handeling of all northerns using adequit line strength to get them in and not play all day.