[rant]
Technically speaking, it's not "The Bends". The Bends is a SCUBA divers' disorder caused by depressurization too quickly after having dived deep. When you're diving deep and breathing compressed air [composed mostly of nitrogen with a bit of oxygen] the nitrogen dissolves in your bloodstream. If you surface too quickly after too long underwater, the nitrogen will form bubbles in your bloodstream, and if you get a bubble in the wrong place [usually your brain] it will kill you. Or make you an idiot.
And if you check out the Bay of Quinte on a blustery December day, you may conclude that there are one or two of us who dove too deep and surfaced too quickly.
The disorder you describe in the fish is much easier to treat since it has nothing to do with the fish's bloodstream. It's just the air bladder. As the pressure reduces, the bladder expands. The solution to the problem is to
bring the fish up slowly.
If you catch a fish "down deep" - not sure what that really means - just bring him up slowly. Yeah, they say for catch and release fishing, you should try to land him quickly so he doesn't get tired, but this is an exception to the rule.
I have never - NEVER - had this problem with a fish in Quinte. Then again, I don't fish as deep as some of you guys do, however that is about to change! My dad and I
have pulled up quite a number of big-ass lake trout from the depths of Lake Athabasca, generally from the sixty- to ninety-foot range. We brought these fish up slowly, and never once created the problem with the air bladders you describe. I'm sure there's a technical name for it other than The Bends, but I s'pose for now that'll do.
Bring your fish up slowly, and it should be OK. In the event that the fish's air bladder does come out of his mouth, I think the best advice would be to pop it with a fishhook, and use your fingers to deflate it. I am a Wall Doctor, not a Fish Doctor, and I can't tell you what sort of survival rate a fish with a deflated bladder would have, but I can tell you this much:
He has a better chance of surviving if you pop the bladder and release him, than you do if you keep him and eat him.
This being said, for the most part, big fish from the Bay Of Quinte don't taste very good. It breaks my heart to see the charter boats come in, bringing in these 12-pounders. I understand that for the most part, their clients probably don't fish all that often, and perhaps have never caught a fish that big, and understandably want to keep it.
But us guys here are different - we don't need to do that. We should know these big fish taste crummy, and we should also understand that it's best to release them to live to fight another day.
To you guys who are looking for a 15-pounder to mount, look no further than the 10- or 12-pounder in your hand that you are considering keeping. Today's 10-pounder is tomorrow's 16.
I disagree emphatically with mouting a trophy fish for any reason, other than you accidentally killed him with a gill hook. Replicas are better looking by far. Yeah, they're more expensive, but isn't the Fish Of A Lifetime worth saving, so that you can catch him again next year when he's that much bigger?
[/rant]
And if you're
still looking for a fifteen-pounder, here's one for you - Paulette's 15 pound 12 ouncer:
Believe it or not, this was the first fish of the day, and being a gentleman [or just plain stupid, according to Neil] I gave away the Fish Of A Lifetime to a girl I met for the first time that morning!
Sheesh.
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
roughrider
