It’s in the interest of all fishermen to keep their fish alive.

Whether the goal is to get your catch to a tournament weigh-in or into a skillet, keeping fish healthy should be a priority.

One problem that anglers face when catching bass from deep water is that the fish’s air bladder, which allow fish to suspend at various depths, can become overinflated when fish remain near the water’s surface.

“Fish that are caught and brought to the surface are suddenly under less pressure,” TPWD Inland Fisheries biologist Randy Myers said. “If a fish is released immediately, it will usually have enough energy to swim back down to the depth it was caught from.”

But fish caught in tournaments are particularly susceptible to this problem.

“Fish caught in tournaments are typically held in a live well for several hours before weigh-in,” Myers said. “After a few minutes at the surface, the air bladder can expand to the point the fish is unable to submerge. The overinflated air bladder presses on vital internal organs, and the fish’s stomach may protrude from its gullet. The fish becomes exhausted from trying to submerge and floats on the surface, where it may die or be injured.”

Myers conducted a two-year study to determine the best way to treat bass suffering from this condition, known as barotrauma, and a technique called “fizzing” can increase survival rates in affected fish.

Organizers of several bass tournaments allowed Myers to use fish caught in tournaments to train TPWD employees how to use a needle inserted into a fish’s air bladder either through the mouth or the side to release excess air. The procedure is called fizzing since the air released from the bladder makes bubbles in the water.

He then conducted a study on fish collected by electrofishing. Some were fizzed through the mouth or side by trained personnel, some by untrained personnel, and some not treated at all.

“We wanted to determine if fizzing results in greater survival, and if so, whether fizzing through the mouth or the side was more effective,” Myers said. “Our study proved that side fizzing resulted in the survival of 14 percent more fish than mouth fizzing.”

TPWD created a video, entitled “Treating Barotrauma in Largemouth Bass,” that’s available on YouTube, and in it, Myers demonstrates the proper technique for side fizzing, including how to locate the needle insertion point and how long to release air from fish of different sizes.

Outdoor family bonding

Sports bridge generations. Young and old alike will get together today to take part in a ritual that involves watching the Super Bowl, eating and drinking too much and actually staying put when commercials come on.

Outdoor sports bring generations together, too, but instead of watching other people perform, hunters, anglers, golfers, campers and other outdoorsmen are actually part of the action.

Recently, Dub Moore arranged a hunting trip to South Texas with his two sons and 11 year-old grandson, Jonathan. It was the youngster’s second year to hunt and hopes were high that he’d bag his first buck.

The Moores set up camp near Cotulla, and the action was slow, with little more than longhorn cattle hanging around the stand for most of the morning. A doe or two and some small bucks wandered in and out of range, but the longhorns seemed to intimidate the deer and kept them away from the nearby feeders.

So the hunters sat and watched cardinals and jays swooping in and out of the trees until the cattle finally meandered away. About the time they were ready to cut their losses and pack up for home, a big buck came out of the brush about 50 yards away, joining two smaller bucks at the feeder.

Jonathan got his gun into position and found the buck in his scope, roughly 140 yards out. The deer appeared agitated and was moving around quickly, and it was pretty clear to the veteran hunters that it wouldn’t hang around long.

So the young hunter set up for his shot, but was struggling to steady his aim. He later told his dad, Kerry, that he remembered playing an Xbox hunting game where the shooter takes a deep breath and holds it before pulling the trigger, so he fell back on his training, squeezed the shot off, and knocked the 13-pointer down with a perfect shot. 

Hard freeze’s benefits

I don’t envy my friend and plumber, Lamar Zettler, for what he’s facing over the next few days.

He and others in his profession will be working long hours repairing the high number of thawing broken pipes that sprung up this weekend. But in the long run, this week will be good for him — he’s already drawing up plans for his new swimming pool.

In fact, Central Texans in general will benefit from the recent hard freeze when it’s time for the bluebonnets to bloom. Our state flower tends to thrive during years with cold and snowy winters. Bluebonnet seeds have a tough shell, and experts say that scoring the seeds with a knife or putting them into a freezer for a day or two will crack the outer layer and allow more flowers to sprout.

So a few days of sub-freezing weather with a sidecar of snow should be just the recipe for a bounty of bluebonnets this spring.

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