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Seems like a hot topic. What I want to know is there a good way to release Perch and have a good survival rate? About a month ago my brother and I caught probably close to a hundred perch between us at Pineview. We had close to a 25% mortality rate. It didn't seem to matter how slow we brought the fish up, but 1/4 of the fish we iced had their air bladders extended all the way up into their throat. I was wondering if you could pierce the bladder with a needle? Or would this ensure to fish would die? It seems like six of one or half dozen of the other on releasing Perch with "the bends". If anyone has info could you please post or send me a pm?
thanks, Bartman
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Some may recommend fizzing, but unless you know exactly what you're doing the mortality rate will also be high. Even if you know what you're doing, the mortality rate is unknown. If you're not going to keep them, stop fishing.
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This sounds like it could be contributing to the declining perch numbers throughout many lakes over the last few years: People just catching them and hope for the best after they're released. I feel strongly that in order to reduce the mortality rates in some of these species, we should either fish for another species or quit fishing. No use killing 25% of any kind of fish just for an 'outing'.
My .02 cents.
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My son is working on this subject for a science fair. From what I have gathered that is not the air bladder that comes out of the mouth but rather the stomach. The airbladder is behind the stomach so if you fizz from the mouth you are actually puncturing the stomach. Some studies show that fizzing works if the needle is sterlized and the person perfoming the fizzing knows exactly where to punture the skin and then the air bladder with the needle. Most people do not know or care to know perch anatomy that well.
Many states have statements that go against fizzing simply because there are so many variables in performing this "surgery."
I am still looking up info on this subject so if any of you have actual studies let me know where to find them.
Thanks
Windriver
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[cool][#0000ff]The visible "protrusion" from the mouth is only part of the problem when bringing fish up from deeper waters. There is also a rapid change in blood chemistry...just like "bends" in human divers that decompress to quickly when coming up from the depths. Some species of fish don't suffer the "float" problems and can quickly recover if released down the ice hole and they dive to high pressure conditions quickly enough. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Perch seem to suffer more than many other species. School is still out as to whether they can be fizzed. Back in the early days of ice fishing on Deer Creek, we "quick fizzed" a lot of perch, by needling the protruding air chamber. We also clipped fins of the ones we so released. Not only did we catch many of those same fish on other days, we caught some of the ones we released on the same day. We knew that because of being isolated and by other distinguishable marks or hook scars left on the fish. Of course we could not go down and see how many died...sooner or later. But, because they were apparently not traumatized too badly to bite again, we figured that they at least had a better chance by fizzing than by leaving them on the ice or taking them home and cutting them up for bait.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There is no doubt that many more deep water perch die when released than are noted by the anglers. Sometimes the released fish will valiantly dive down and disappear into the depths. Survival? Sometimes not. Often those fish will succumb later and float up under the ice where they are not seen until iceout. Then there will be piles of dead perch on the wave washed shoreline...like there were at Rockport two springs ago.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am proposing at the spring RAC meetings that special winter regulations are applied for perch fishing in waters where perch are an important part of the fishery...not pesky illegal introductions. That regulation would be mandatory keep and kill until the limit is attained...regardless of size...and that the angler then has to cease fishing...period. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That would not be unfair to trout fishermen. It is a simple matter to fish for trout up off the bottom, to avoid perch. But, it would curtail the guys who ice a hundred perch to keep 20 of the larger ones...culling.[/#0000ff]
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Each type of fish is different Browns can burp to let the air out like Lake Trout bass small and large and spots all can be fizzed with 95 to 97% survival.....
But perch has less then 10% survival when caught in 30 feet or deeper water....
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Guilt is guilt. Every single person whom calls themselves a fisherman and has caught their "target" [size 2]species[/size] of fish that they are fishing for, knows or has an inclination of what or how to catch that fish. Everyone on this board and I mean everyone that wants to catch perch has read thread after thread and knows were to fish period! I used to live in Washington and was an avid FISHERMAN. That means I FISHED. There just as here I targeted a specific fish. Whether it was bass or trout inland or salmon, seabass, halibit, steelhead, searun browns, or ling cod in the Puget Sound I knew where and how to look for these fish. Now there was and still is seasons for most all of the fish I mentioned.
Say salmon season was closed but I wanted to fish. I fished for bottom fish. Quill backs are tasty little sea bass. They live on the bottom, so I fished the bottom. I also didn't catch salmon because they are suspended. Now if I was salmon fishing in the sound and halibit season was closed I didn't bounce the flippin bottom with horse herring to catch halibit.
I'm not going to go on anymore. You all know whats right and you all know what fish you can catch. Perch suffer when caught and you can't keep perch on yuba for now.
PS... some folks need to grow a bit of leather on their hide
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Even if you are targeting one specific species of fish, you still catch others. I don't care where you're at or what method you're using.
I like the allusions to the Pacific. I fish that pond an aweful lot. I can prove you wrong, though.
While targeting bottom fish, I've landed salmon on the jigs I was using. Also, not all bottom fish are bottom fish; I've had Quillbacks, Blues, Blacks, Yellowtail, and Coppers all come to the surface while they're feeding aggressively. Not at the bottom; mid to upper level, right along with the salmon. All these fish feed on herring, needle fish, smelt and other smaller bait fish. They're found where the bait is at.
Mooching for Salmon is kind of a common thing to do, too. I don't know that everyone knows that that entails, so I'll describe it. What you do is take a 4-5' leader, put a herring on it, with a 16oz. or so weight at the bottom. You drop it to the bottom, and reel it back through the water column, enticing the salmon to bite. Accidental catches of bottom fish and halibut do happen with this technique; You have to throw them back(if the quotas aren't caught already) but it's accidental.
A few years ago when the Ling Cod quota was caught, we went out trolling for salmon. We came up on a pinacle littered with fish, had three rods bounce off, and wouldn't you know it two of them were big toothy Ling Cod. The third was a 25# Chinook. Lings and Salmon mixed together? Can't be!
Accidents happen. You can target a specific fish all day long and still catch others. No reason to bite others heads off for doing it. And maybe it's just me. But I've "accidentally" caught enough species of fish by targeting one specific fish to know it's a common occurance.
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If I release a fish and it dies I have absolutely no guilt. So what if someone "targets" fish. Now do I feel bad if a fish dies" Of course, but guilt no.
I believe that fisheries should be managed with the assumption that there will be many fish mortalities.
Fortunately the DWR has a heck of a lot more knowlege than I do!
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Jerry,Check your pm
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