Swim bladder deflator

 I thought that if you pierced a swim bladder it could cause regulation problems, infections, etc, and the fish tend to die.

 A well know local guide was posting and recommending this. What do you think?

Use a descender.

It's never seemed right to me that a fish will be just fine with its swim bladder pierced.

Use a descender.

+1

About 10 years ago I took a trip in a charter boat on Lake Tahoe during the winter. We were targeting mackinaw down DEEP using wire line trolling gear.

First off, I didn’t find it to be a fun way to fish, at all... The fish (12-24” or so) were no match for the heavy wire line gear and a boat that kept trolling while you hauled in your fish - you could barely tell when you had one on, and then they would go limp about half way up due to barotrauma. The captain used a tool like what is shown here to “deflate” every fish we caught.

I think he kept the tool in a rubbing alcohol bath to keep it “sterile” but I still think we would have been better off using a descender of some sort. Of course that would have meant stopping the boat and reeling in 5-6 rods with hundred of feet of wire line out each time we hooked a fish... Obviously that was way more work than the captain wanted to do.


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Use a descender.

what he says.

I don't think piercing a fish's internal organs can be good for it at all. Use a descender.

That tool is really more designed for tourney bass anglers. You catch a deep fish, pop it’s swim bladder, then throw it in the livewell. That way the fish swims upright and it stays alive enough in the livewell to be counted at the end of the day and you don’t get penalized weight for a dead fish.

So yeah, just use a descender.

That tool is really more designed for tourney bass anglers. You catch a deep fish, pop it’s swim bladder, then throw it in the livewell. That way the fish swims upright and it stays alive enough in the livewell to be counted at the end of the day and you don’t get penalized weight for a dead fish.

So yeah, just use a descender.

the only other time I've seen the deflator used is in youtube videos of people fishing in Panama for Marlin and Rooster Fish, and it did seem like it was more of a time management thing than a helping the fish thing.

Is it endorsed by Tom Brady?

About 10 years ago I took a trip in a charter boat on Lake Tahoe during the winter. We were targeting mackinaw down DEEP using wire line trolling gear. ...

The captain should have just burped them...

http://www.northlandoutdoors.com/2016/08/29/burping-a-lake-trout-video/

I was just reading this https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/Groundfish/Barotrauma

Seems like applicable guidance.