I had to post this tip on here. I have seen tons and tons of articles on bleeding a fishes swim bladder with a needle. There is an extremely effective alternative that very few people seem to be aware of. I saw this on a tv show a long time ago on Roland Martin’s show, yet for the life of me I can’t understand why it is not more commonly known. I have used this method to release and save somewhere around 50 fish. This includes a healthy 12.90 lb which is my personal best. I also successfully depressurized a bass that won big bass in a tournament that weighed 7.87 lbs. I do not have a name for this method of bladder depressurization and I did not develop it.
First what causes this over expansion of the fish’s swim bladder? What happens is the fish comes up in the water column too quickly either being pulled or swimming upward during a fight. Air in the bass swim bladder compresses as it goes deeper in the water column due to pressure from the water. This means that the air will expand as the fish rises in the water column. Bass have air in the bladder and as they come to the surface that air expands. If the fish comes up too quickly the air does not get released and sticks the fishes swim bladder too full. If the fish is immediately released often it can return to depth quickly enough for the air pressure to be relieved naturally. However, with tournament fishing the fish is often held in a live well for extended periods of time. The longer the bladder is over expanded the harder it is for the fish to recover.
The solution is simple allow the water to naturally equalize the pressure. I have setup which I keep in my boat at all times just for this occasion. For a home made version take either an old reel with a heavy cord attached. I would recommend 100 lb test to be on the safe side. You don’t want to get into another fight with that trophy you just caught. So make sure you build it heavy. For my setup I use a Cuban hand reel, but really any kind of reel will work as long as it will hold enough heavy line to sink a fish as deep as the deepest fish you catch. For me that is only around 35 feet or so. For a release only rig take a small hook and tie about an 18 inch leader line to it. On the end of the leader add ample weight to sink the fish. I use about 8 to 12 oz’s of saltwater weights. Now Tie the line from the reel to the bend of the hook so that the hook will hang pointed down. Flatten the barbs on the hook also. If you wish to use it for tournaments and release, which I do, use a high quality saltwater snap clip. I would recommend the interlocking type to prevent accidental releases. Attach the clip to the hook eye and then the leader to the snap and down to the weight. This will allow you to use the hook for release or the clip for tournaments.
To use the rig is also very simple. First, you need some deep water. I usually look for water slightly deeper than the water I caught the fish in. For release take the hook and push it down into the hard part of the nose of the fish. You want it secure enough to get the fish down before it can flop off. If you are in a tournament use a clip or in my case I used two just in case one popped open. Now sink the fish down. If you are tournament fishing hold the fish there for a little bit then SLOWLY pull the fish up . I can’t emphasize this enough S L O W L Y. If you are releasing the fish just hold the line for a little bit and you will feel the fish kicking and stuff. When you feel it has had enough time to equalize simply snatch the line sharply enough to pop the hook out of the nose of the fish and leaving the fish at that depth. Hang around for a few if it failed it shouldn’t take long to see. I have had one fish I could not get down and stay down. This fish was a 3 lb bass blown up to the size of a six lber that somebody else caught and weighed in. I had no idea how deep the fish was caught or how early in the day it was caught. Other than that I have been extremely successful with this method.
This method should work for pretty well any species of fish. Please practice catch and release often and help protect our resources.
Choosing a boat insurance is hard these days. There are so many companies trying to pull your business. But how do you know who will take care of you and who will leave you on your own. I want to give you a story about one insurance company who apparently has wonderful service with auto insurance but they are lacking greatly on boat insurance. Let’s start at the beginning of this process. My motor dropped two cylinders while running on Sam Rayburn. I took my boat to an Certified Evinrude mechanic. Who is also a very reputable mechanic in this area. After a full inspection of my motor the mechanic determined the cause. He stated that a small peble was sucked into the water intake and held the thermostat open. During the warmer part of the year this wouldn’t have been such a problem but with cool temps it becomes a much bigger issue. Basically right from the beginning cool water was being pushed through the cylinders and never allowed the motor to warm up. The first two cylinders seized up. The mechanic said that the water is coolest coming through the first cylinders and warms the further along it gets through the block. That is why the first cylinders are the ones that seized. The mechanic fully tested out the oil pump which was virtually brand new. The oil pump test out perfectly fine. Furthermore, fuel was removed from the cylinders which definitively contained oil. Demonstrating that the cylinders did NOT run lean.
Now the dealings with progressive. First off I received a call from a claims rep in my state. But, because my boat shop was just over the state line she transferred the claim to a different rep. Once it was given to him I did not receive so much as a phone call to update me on the status for more than a week. I knew it had been looked at because I had been in touch with my mechanic and the rep had came by there. After a week I tried to track down someone who could help me with my claim. I made about 5 phone calls and got three messaging systems claiming whoever I was calling was going to be out for days. The claim rep was going to be gone for more than a week. His team leader gone for several days. Then their supervisor was apparently out also. Finally late that evening the supervisor returned my call. I explained to him that I needed to have this taken care of as quickly as possible because I had a major tournament the next weekend in which I had already registered. At this point an agent had already went and spoke to the mechanic and taken photos of the block.
Ok, here is where it really gets frustrating. The supervisor makes repeated claims that the block looks like it ran lean. Now for those of you who are mechanics out there the cylinders were black which from my understanding means they were definitely not deprived of oil. They were not burnt as if the water pump wasn’t working. They requested a fuel sample from the cylinder’s which my mechanic gave them and which obviously had fuel mixed with oil as it was supposed to be. I asked the supervisor “If my motor seized due to something being sucked into the intake would it be covered”. The supervisor said “yes”. Although the mechanic had already went through and determined what caused the motor to seize the supervisor still continued to dispute the findings. He continued to claim it looked like it ran lean despite multiple instances of proof that it in fact showed it did NOT run lean. I asked the supervisor could I get my mechanic to go ahead and start putting the block back together so I could hopefully get back on the water by the next weekend for my tournament. The supervisor told me they were going to get a marine engineer to come look at the motor so it would be some time the next week when they could come look at it and the motor needed to stay opened up until they could look at it.
Let’s recap. Blown motor, certified and reputable mechanic determines cause, and major tournament the next weekend. Determined that something sucked into the intake cause the malfunction. Now not only are they disputing my mechanic they are also making the process take even longer insuring that I would not make my tournament. Sounds just like the wonderful commercial on TV of a quick claims service right. I could understand possible disputing a mechanic who was not certified and worked out of his house or something. They either A assume the mechanic is a liar, or B assume he just doesn’t know what he is talking about. I would like to know what mechanic school these agents went to. I want to know what credentials they have to deem them capable of arguing with a certified mechanic that works on motors for a living. The final straw for me was when the supervisor wanted me to leave my motor laid open and wait for a marine engineer to come analyze my motor when it had already been analyzed by a certified mechanic and it would make certain I would not make my tournament. The repair was only going to cost around 1100 dollars of which 250 was my deductible anyhow. I called the supervisor and told him I did not appreciate the way my claim was being handled and would like to cancel this claim and cancel my account. I have to wonder if this is what they wanted to happen in the first place. If you frustrate a customer enough they will give up and cancel the claim.
Through this process I spoke to several other mechanics and seemed to get the similar responses from each in relation to Progressive insurance. Two mechanics said they would not do claim work for progressive. One mechanic said he was getting very close to not doing claim work for them. Another mechanics response about Progressive insurance was “Good Luck everything with them is mechanical failure”. I started asking questions to these mechanics to determine what insurance companies where good to deal with. I got the same responses from all the mechanics. The first choice is State Farm. Then second was Farm Bureau. So if you have the options I would reccommend skipping progressive for boat insurance and go right the the better choices of State Farm or Farm Bureau. I hope this review helps keep people from having the same experiences as I did.
How many people do you know who have lost fish while trying to check and see if it is legal or not. I know a lot of the new boats have them somewhere easy to find and get out. What could happen to those fish when you pull the check stick out, lay it out on the deck of the boat, then lose your grip on the fish? Well I have seen too many times that loose fish finds their way back in the lake. Here is an idea screw the check stick against the kick board below the console. It will sit relatively flat so you don’t trip over it and it will always be handy to use. On top of that, if you lose grip on the fish it has no where to go. This boat modification takes minutes, but in my opinion it is worth a lot more. Furthermore, I like to store my cull tags under the console as well. This makes it real easy to check fish and tag them in a controlled environment. Here is a picture of my install I hope this helps.
Checkstick screwed into the floor board under the console