Getting Canaries back down

Heh Brian.........or anyone else who knows...........After reading about Josh's experience, what is the current thinking on getting deep water rockfish back down if they take your lure? 

Yeah, don't fish so deep!!

Actually, this device (the "SFD") seems promising..
http://www.sheltonproducts.com/SFD.html
You could probably use a large barbless hook or homemade version of the "SFD" do do the same method.

Although I imagine some of the trauma from having undergone barotrauma will sill affect the fish even after they have been returned to depth with the "SFD".   

Another option is to use a hypodermic needle to deflate the swimbladder, but unless you really know what you're doing you'll probably end up nicking the liver and insuring the fishes death.

But seriously, don't fish so deep.  If you start catching canaries move.

Brian

I use an 8 ounce jighead with the barb removed.  Tie a line to the bend of the hook so it is upside down.  Hook the fish in bottom lip, let back down to the bottom, give the line a tug and the fish comes off.

-Allen

Allen,

I like the upside down jig idea.  Although, from reading more about the commerical product ("SFD"), it seems it can be placed in line with a lure and thus you can fish right after releasing the last fish without having to real back up first.  Not sure how the device might affect the action of the lure and of course you'd be adding two more knots to your rig which can't be a good thing.

By the way, Allen, I noticed that you've started a new kayak angler's site for the Pacific Northwest.  Congratulations and good luck with that.  I imagine it will be nice for people kayak fishing in Washington, BC, etc.. not to have to come to a NorCal site to find a hookup or report a trip.   I wonder what the Tlingit people think of your site given that they've been kayak angling the Pacific Northwest for centuries and never needed the internet before.

Brian

I just hooked them through the thin skin in the corner of their mouth and let my 6oz sinker pull them down.  Once most of the way down they start kicking around and at that point you can reel in a bit so the fish is below the hook, then give a good yank and it'll tear out and release the fish.  If you just yank without lining up the fish you'll tend to snag them worse instead of pulling the hook free.

I have half a dozen SFDs sitting next to my computer, too bad I didn't think to bring them.  The previous time down I only caught reds at those depths so I wasn't thinking much about C&R while planning.  I think one could make their own SFD out of a paperclip pretty easilly.  Perhaps I should devise a GFD, Ghetto(tm) Fish Descender.

As far as I'm concerned a little natural selection to make the buggers evolve to better coexist with mankind is a good thing.  I'd like to see barotrauma resistant rockfish frolicking with sewage treatment plant spawning cohos in a hundred years. 

Allen,

I like the upside down jig idea.  Although, from reading more about the commerical product ("SFD"), it seems it can be placed in line with a lure and thus you can fish right after releasing the last fish without having to real back up first.  Not sure how the device might affect the action of the lure and of course you'd be adding two more knots to your rig which can't be a good thing.

By the way, Allen, I noticed that you've started a new kayak angler's site for the Pacific Northwest.  Congratulations and good luck with that.  I imagine it will be nice for people kayak fishing in Washington, BC, etc.. not to have to come to a NorCal site to find a hookup or report a trip.   I wonder what the Tlingit people think of your site given that they've been kayak angling the Pacific Northwest for centuries and never needed the internet before.

Brian

I suppose you could do the same thing with a barbless hook snelled on the line upside down.  That might qualify for GFD.  What do you think Prom?

Thanks for the well wishes on the new site.  We're still toying around with it, and there are some other things in the works that we'll unveil at the appropriate time.  First I need to learn how to be a webmaster.

-Allen

A hook would be considered a 'hook' by DFG and leave you only with 1 hook to catch fish with.  I was using a standard rockcod rig with 2 octopus hooks, and if a fish didn't feel especially big I'd leave it down there for other fish to come by and see what all the comotion is about.

What's the definition of a hook?  The shelton product sure looks like a hook to me.

-Allen

The SFD is pretty big, about 4" long, and fairly thin too, so it'd straighten if you tried to catch a fish with it. 

Snap swivels look like hooks too when they're open...  It's alot harder to argue that a fishhook isn't a hook though. 

Guys in powerboats cant reach the fish in the water, so the SFD has to attach pretty good to the fish so they can throw it back without it coming free.  For a kayaker a paperclip can be made into a serviceable release device.

Sometimes I needed more than 6oz of lead to get the fish down.  I had to clip another sinker on.

Maybee I have just been lucky but I have fished down to 120 feet and I have not had problems successfully releasing any fish.

The only time I really worry about this is when I catch a canary or other possession prohibited species.  Generally, I fish pretty shallow, but when I do fish deep I do the following...

catch a big rockfish (keep),
catch a small lingcod (release, they aren't affected by barotrauma)
catch a big lingod (keep or release)
catch a small rockfish (keep it on the hook and send it back down for a big lingcod)
catch a canary (release and pray it survives, move somewhere else, canaries often travel in schools)

 http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/sports/atoz/article_1186623.php
 

TERMINAL ISLAND – Rockfish reeled to the surface from the deep look in no shape to survive if released. Often the eyes are bulging and the stomach is pushed out of its mouth by an over-inflated swim bladder.

When released, the fish floats on the surface, unable to re-pressurize and swim back down. Typically they are eaten by pelicans.

Fishing closures in certain areas are designed to prevent the by-catch of a protected rockfish because they cannot be caught and released.

But what if catch and release was possible? What if the protected fish could be released at the depth at which it was caught? Would it survive? And if so, what could that mean to future regulations?

These are the questions Erica Jarvis of Norwalk is attempting to answer in her master's thesis at Long Beach State. Her research might surprise many anglers. Rockfish can and do survive.

Thursday, Jarvis and a group of graduate and undergraduate students from Long Beach State boarded Research Vessel Yellowfin from the Southern California Marine Institute on Terminal Island and headed to the oil rigs 10 miles off Huntington Beach.

Two days before, the students caught various species of rockfish and put them into 4-by-4-foot metal cages. All told, 43 rockfish were put into six cages, which were lowered to the bottom where the rockfish were caught.

On this trip, the cages were lifted to about 60 feet, where divers checked the health of the fish.

Twenty-six fish were found alive and released, two were missing and 15 were dead. Survival rate: 63 percent.

On five previous catch-and-release experiments, the study showed a 68 percent survivorship among 178 rockfish.

"It's higher than what we expected," Jarvis said. "I'd say even if you could save half the fish, that'd be great.

"Bocaccio is our hardiest fish we've found so far with a 96 percent survivorship. That's a species of concern, so that's really great news."

With a high rate of survival, catch-and-release regulations could be used and fishing closures could be avoided by fisheries management.

For instance, when bocaccio was a zero take a few years ago, certain areas were closed for all rockfish to avoid by-catch of bocaccio. With catch-and-release regulations, those areas could have remained open for other rockfish species and the bocaccio could have been released.

Norris Tapp of Davey's Locker in Newport Beach said anglers would "absolutely" embrace catch-and-release, as long as they could take home fillets of other rockfish.

"If there's some mechanism for releasing them, I think the folks would be into that," Tapp said.

The Shelton Fish Descender is one release possibility. A fish is put on an s-shaped clip, lowered to the bottom and released with the pull of the line once the fish is felt tugging, signaling it has recovered. Since it is connected to the fishing line, the angler can then resume fishing.

Bob Fletcher, president of Sportfishing Association of California, said in other catch-and-release studies, an evenly weighted, upside-down milk crate was lowered with the rockfish inside. At a certain depth, the rockfish re-presssurized and swam off.

Fletcher said these studies have showed released rockfish can absorb the air bladder and the stomach and eyes can return to normal. But he welcomes the work by Jarvis and Long Beach State under Dr. Chris Lowe.

"It's a way to scientifically prove that fish can be re-pressurized and survive," he said. "I think it's great. The more scientifically valid experiments proving what we've already proved the better."

Very cool, I think coastside is funding part of that research.

A new use for a crate on a kayak!