Is Fishing Deep Water a Problem?

[FishnDave]

I've read articles about how fish caught deeper than @ 30 feet often die when released....either immediately or delayed.  Anybody have any experience of this?

https://www.echopress.com/sports/outdoors/4616332-DNR-warns-against-pulling-fish-from-deep-waters

 

[nomolites]

I am no expert(let me get that out of the way now), but from what I’ve seen it depends on how fast they are brought up, the temperature, and what species as well as how deep they were.  I fish regularly in the 30-35 ft range and don’t see many issues; crappie seem to be most fragile, walleye are rarely an issue and the catfish species can take a licking and keep on ticking. Bass species are in between.  Wintertime is usually no problem; warm water and deeper fish seems to increase the risk. 

Mike

[Dutch]

I have caught bass to 60’ and seen no problem when they have been released.  I see a lot of crappie that come from 30+ fow and they seem to have the bends.  One thing guys do is fiz them.  I have heard pros and cons about that.

[MrGiggles]

Crappie will usually come around if you give them kind of a hard toss back into the water. Either mouth first or slap them pretty good on the side. Seems barbaric but it's better than letting them flounder around on the surface until the birds get them.