Save a bass life by deflating the swim bladder
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How to deflate a bloated bass.
Ever caught a bass and a few minutes later it went belly up in your live well and then hours later it died a painful and lingering death???
You can be a life saver. If you caught it deep, the chance was that the air in the "swim bladder or gas bladder" of the fish expanded.
There are many symptoms of this "decompression" problems. They are: an unusual swelling in the midsection; bulging eyes; gas bubbles in the fins and eyes; ruptured blood vessels; or, in the worst cases, a stomach distended into the mouth of the fish by pressure from a bloated swim bladder. Usually, the bass will stay belly up and eventually dies of exhaustion and lack of oxygen.
Save a bass life by deflating the swim bladder
Use a hypodermic needle. To determine the safe insertion point, draw an imaginary line downward from the notch between the soft and spiny portion of the dorsal fin to the anal opening. About three to five scales below the lateral line - the dotted row of scales running from head to tail along the side - insert the needle under a scale at an upward angle. Proper depth of the insertion depends on the size of the fish.
If the bass and the needle are held slightly below the water's surface during the procedure, bubbles will escape from the needle when the swim bladder is pierced.
After the bubbling has stopped, the fish should be ready for release with a much better chance of survival. Even if you are not ready to release (you haven't weigh in yet), you should do this while the fish is in your live well to prevent it from dying the painful death especially if you catch it early. Besides, you will lose points if you weigh in a dead fish! Have some passion, won't you?