I DON’T WANNA FISH LIKE THAT.

[nomolites]

2 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

Here's where it all gets stupid though: 

I got on a school of fish in 36-42' a couple years ago, and picked on them for a little over 2 weeks.  I think I caught 40-45 of them from that one particular spot, and only one in 15 would have air bladder issues.  All the rest of them had no problems at all staying upright.   

Why did it effect a few, but not all ?

I catch fish up to 50’ deep regularly - especially in summer, and rarely see any bladder issues.  I think the threshold depth is likely water temp dependent, but I for one am not usually fishing that deep.  Every once in a while I get a floater….and I will usually put them in the box.

Mike

[tjm]

The threshold would be both temperature and depth dependent, if the pressure change is enough to increase the bladder volume almost to the critical point, one or two degrees of temperature change put''s them over the line. Likewise if the temperature change is enough to bring the air expansion near the critical point a foot or three of depth could push it over.  When you are catching several at the same water depth, and one out five shows distress while the others don't, it just indicates that all of them are probably nearly at that threshold. Of course there are probably other factors like individual fish may be more susceptible or one/some of the fish in the group may have just come up from a deeper position and not yet had time to stabilize at the depth that you caught it at.

[Quillback]

Caught a bunch of fish this spring and early summer that were schooled up in one spot for several weeks, probably 90% spots, most were anywhere from 30-50 feet down.  No air bladder issues.  Sometimes these fish would zip up from the depths and eat shad on top.  

[snagged in outlet 3]

44 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

one in 15 would have air bladder issues.

That one was incontinent or a smoker.  IMO.  

[fishinwrench]

I know that in Lake O everything below 17-18 ft. is completely covered in a 2-3ft.deep layer of silty goo.   Why any fish would want to be in that environment is a mystery.     I doubt that there are even any crawfish, leeches, or anything living in that nastiness.    

Surely fish don't settle down into that blanket of snot.  I don't see how they could even get any oxygen if they did.  

 

If you're on this lake and you have this vision that your jig is crawling/hopping around in a pretty textbook rock pile or brushpile in 20-25'...... You're living in a dream world.    In reality you're down there poofing around like a dachshund in a snowdrift, making giant clouds of yuk that fish can't even see through.    It's a wonder that anyone ever catches fish like that.....but they undeniably do. 🤷‍♂️

[Flysmallie]

Too painful to read most of this. 
 

Folks should really pay attention in science class. 

[fishinwrench]

14 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

Too painful to read most of this. 
 

Folks should really pay attention in science class. 

Oh, here we go.....🙄

"Folks"should.     Like YOU are completely above that level.....and have a perfectly accurate understanding of everything being discussed here.     

OMG!    

Painful indeed 🤣 

[Notropis]

On 11/8/2023 at 9:43 AM, fishinwrench said:

Is there a machine that can extract air from water, and pressurize it.....Or is this something that only fish can do? 

You're actually on the right track fishinwrench. Fish with air bladders can extract gases from their blood stream into their bladders through a series of tiny capillaries and veins in the bladder wall. That's how they adjust the size of it to remain neutrally buoyant at different depths. It's a slow process and takes time, which is why deep caught fish can have issues with overly expanded bladders. It makes sense that a fish bladder, adjusted to be the right size to hold neutral buoyancy in deep water will try to expand when the fish is brought to the surface and experiences much lower pressure. 

I don't remember the process the fish uses to reduce the gas in their bladder (been a long time since I took Icthyology) but I assume the gas is slowly reabsorbed into the blood stream through capillary system.

Hope this was helpful! 

[FishnDave]

Clearly, there are three types of people.  Those that can count, and those that can't count. 😏

[tjm]

53 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

Folks should really pay attention in science class. 

Like we could remember all that 50-60 years later?   I don't even recall the name of the girl who sat in front of me or the one behind me either. And doubt that Chemistry held more interest than Biology at that age.