Descender Weight

My DIY descending device. I had some heavy stainless wire leftover from another project. Copied the rough shape of the Shelton device. Will probably find some heavy duty carabiners for the top and bottom to make hooking it up easier.

I'm on the fence about a handline or just a stiff rod to lower it down. Would be nice to have a reel to crank it back up, but I mostly fish less than 100ft, so a few pounds of lead on a handline a couple times per trip isn't a big deal either. Probably easier than pulling hoop nets full of crab, haha. Will think on it for a bit.

I just snell a thin wire barbless hook on backwards on the line above a weight.

-Allen

My DIY descending device. I had some heavy stainless wire leftover from another project. Copied the rough shape of the Shelton device. Will probably find some heavy duty carabiners for the top and bottom to make hooking it up easier.

I'm on the fence about a handline or just a stiff rod to lower it down. Would be nice to have a reel to crank it back up, but I mostly fish less than 100ft, so a few pounds of lead on a handline a couple times per trip isn't a big deal either. Probably easier than pulling hoop nets full of crab, haha. Will think on it for a bit.

The wire doesn't look stiff enough and probably will give you some issue decending a medium to large yellow or cowcod IMO.

It's 2mm stainless, and I work hardened it a little. The "lip" arm does deflect a little, but I don't think it will be a problem.  If in practice I have any issues, I will look into other methods.

My DIY descending device. I had some heavy stainless wire leftover from another project. Copied the rough shape of the Shelton device. Will probably find some heavy duty carabiners for the top and bottom to make hooking it up easier.

I'm on the fence about a handline or just a stiff rod to lower it down. Would be nice to have a reel to crank it back up, but I mostly fish less than 100ft, so a few pounds of lead on a handline a couple times per trip isn't a big deal either. Probably easier than pulling hoop nets full of crab, haha. Will think on it for a bit.

I just snell a thin wire barbless hook on backwards on the line above a weight.

-Allen

This is the most common sense solution I've seen yet.

I've been thinking of using a dive reel to lower the descender.
https://www.amazon.com/Scuba-Choice-Diving-Purpose-Orange/dp/B006UKGQXO/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1LZ2SME9D9SPS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ESzjj4sx8fPFLw2nyEp4d2DYxaduiWEvhJXfrIXqNjXBLMho26Mdj1zmEaBZf6ZWAlRZ4-oJK39v_J7i9KKoAbhMOVT2pxrS218XkKeuaoBJfGBEMqKZRau0qjnMsVsm0_U550VJGeJIuBeW_1pFSrrH18vxULR84oSJP8i_f1QNJcFE-esR5hhgOYpkg9A4lAt6J6xvD0aK8nn5JDCsh7D0ptCTv5sapwKjA_TuNnzagBy9FXNUqZUs37ZI5GGBqzSoj_CgE5hOEgVB4mOJYi5gPxto2d1ZodWb4OB3dM4.arBY0Ai7Jr6P09BXe1j6TTsVIUqqZLVyuF3rW1NWMhc&dib_tag=se&keywords=dive+reel&qid=1714574289&sprefix=dive+reel%2Caps%2C221&sr=8-5

That seems like a good idea.... I already have too much stuff on the kayak and keeping it simple for me is a good idea.

Troy

I have made these two, but I'm thinking ill just keep the safety pin in my hatch since I'm sure I'll have weights nearby. Maybe if I plan on fishing deeper reefs ill bring the handline out for quick deployment.

HAPPY OPENER!!!

Sounds like I might be a little light in my weights if I get a large Yellow Eye deep. The one I descended on 12 oz was only about 50'.

... but I'm more than tempted to use my DR, which seems like it would be easy to control on descent and retrieve.

I think this will be my plan.

Sounds like I might be a little light in my weights if I get a large Yellow Eye deep. The one I descended on 12 oz was only about 50'.

It's interesting because it varies with each fish. I haven't seen much rhyme or reason to it. One yelloweye will come up all bloated from 100 ft, while another one will come up from the same depth and shoot back down the bottom on its own.

The annoyance of descending rockfish has changed how I fish for bottomfish in general. When I'm targeting rockfish over deeper reefs, I look for suspended schools and fish for the mid-water fish 20-40 ft down. They usually consist of the blues, deacons, and yellowtails that I'm after. When I drop to the bottom for lingcod, I've upped the size of my baits to avoid rockfish by-catch. If you use a big enough bait, you'll only get lings and nothing else (though there was one time where I got a big YE on a live blue rockfish, but that was an anomaly  ). I lose out on some vermillion chances, but if I'm jonesing for those, I can go fish the 30-50 ft reefs where barotrauma and YE are less likely to be an issue.

Has anyone tested retrieving what might be a larger fish at slower retrieval from deeper water? I will try and report when the time arises.

I have not had issues with barotrauma at inshore  because most of my inshore fishing in a kayak is usually no more than 80 ft in places I frequent around the Monterey bay

Has anyone tested retrieving what might be a larger fish at slower retrieval from deeper water? I will try and report when the time arises.

I have not had issues with barotrauma at inshore  because most of my inshore fishing in a kayak is usually no more than 80 ft in places I frequent around the Monterey bay

According to this PDF from the DFG on barotrauma: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36345

Myth: Reeling a fish in slowly prevents barotrauma.
Fact: Rockfish cannot acclimate to the pressure drop even when reeled in slowly.

I have not had issues with barotrauma at inshore  because most of my inshore fishing in a kayak is usually no more than 80 ft in places I frequent around the Monterey bay

You have had problems with inshore baraotrauma in less than 80 feet.  You just don't see it.  I'm going to keep beating this drum. All rockfish that are released should be descended whether or not you observe barotrauma.

-Allen

Has anyone tested retrieving what might be a larger fish at slower retrieval from deeper water? I will try and report when the time arises.

I have not had issues with barotrauma at inshore  because most of my inshore fishing in a kayak is usually no more than 80 ft in places I frequent around the Monterey bay

According to this PDF from the DFG on barotrauma: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36345

Myth: Reeling a fish in slowly prevents barotrauma.
Fact: Rockfish cannot acclimate to the pressure drop even when reeled in slowly.


That is a very informative handout on barotrauma.
I'm wondering how slowly they factored on reeling up. When I hook a small fish sometimes I will really take my time bringing it up, with several pauses at different depths. This does cut into fishing time. But if even several minutes does no good, then it's probably better to get them up and then back down quickly.

Has anyone tested retrieving what might be a larger fish at slower retrieval from deeper water? I will try and report when the time arises.

I have not had issues with barotrauma at inshore  because most of my inshore fishing in a kayak is usually no more than 80 ft in places I frequent around the Monterey bay

According to this PDF from the DFG on barotrauma: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=36345

Myth: Reeling a fish in slowly prevents barotrauma.
Fact: Rockfish cannot acclimate to the pressure drop even when reeled in slowly.

Yep. Rockfish have what's called a "phystoclistous" swim bladder. The gas exchange (more gas for more buoyancy, less gas for less buoyancy) is controlled via chemical reactions within the bloodstream of the fish. So to reel up a rockfish slowly enough to prevent barotrauma, you would rely on the chemical exchange of the gas in the swim bladder transitioning to a liquid in the bloodstream. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, salmon and trout have a "phystostomous" swim bladder. A physostomous swim bladder includes a duct attaching the swim bladder to the stomach. So when a salmon or trout is reeled up from depth, they can "burp" the expanding gas. That's why you don't see salmon blowing up with barotrauma even when reeled up from 200+ ft.

Thanks for the replies.

Guess i should have done a quick search before just throwing that out there.