Cold water smallie

This Friday, water temp was 38F to 43F. I was not able to find so called deep honey hole but I managed caught few smallies. We met a huge school of white perch. It appeared on my sonar like a giant cloud. I even snagged couple by just drop the spoon straight down. Unfortunately it disappeared quickly as it showed up. Couple pictures below were from last week.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYXKJAI0WY8[/youtube]





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Awesome job as always

Nice job Willy those are some great lookin fish

nice job. how deep? what happened to those smaller ones? they survive?

Thanks kamilfishes， and shawneramone.

To Sam: I netted them back. I found paper clip straighten it out. It was too difficult to punch in. Their belly was as stiff as a basketball. I managed to deflate them and gave them oxygen wash. Too bad, it didn't help. I end up took them home. They were still alive in my drained live well at home. I caught them as deep as 60+feet. Some were 40-50 range. Last time I did caught them deep too but they didn't have a problem to dive down. I guess must be the water temp made difference.

Disturbing release. Those hard nylon nets can do a lot of damage to the slime coat FYI

Maybe to a trout. Bass are tough fish. I have caught them broken jaw, broken gill plate, hook in their throat, in their ass. No worries.

Disturbing release. Those hard nylon nets can do a lot of damage to the slime coat FYI

Doesn't hurt to take good care of your fish.

Dude，I don't abuse them. I do what I can. If I have such intensified concern about fish, then I should never touch a rod.

If released immediately fish caught as deep as 92 feet will swim back down. This is from personal experience! Also, if your gonna fish for deep fish, you owe it to the fish to KNOW how to deflate them, or create a release trap to return them to a safe depth. A paper bag with rock in it would work as well. Ive seen plenty of people stick fish with needle not knowing how to properly deflate them, doing more harm than good. Always fun catching , absolute blast, and easy to catch 50 or more a day from now til x-mas. Dont put them in your livewell if they come out of 25' or more, unless they are going in a skillet!! A better pic would be an arms length pic of the release as the fish swims back to the depths!!

I posted above without watching your video. After just watching that, Id suggest deleting your video. Thats appalling to watch you take floaters from your live well and dump them back in the lake. Those could have easily been returned healthy as they were in good shape other than needing to be equalized.(Not sure how many you speared with the paperclip?) A paper clip will NOT deflate a swim bladder, a deflating needle costs about 5 bucks, comes with instructions,as well you should watch some video showing how. You handle your fish terribly! They shouldnt be dropped on the deck. Sit on the edge of the boat an lip them, get a rubber net, or flip them to your hand. Your video is a good example of what not to do when cold water fishing for deep smallies!!

Actually I had a long needle in my boat I didn't find it at that movement. I catch one throw one back 99% of the time. Twice I met some local guys fishing deep they kept the fish until they move to next spot. The theory is releasing it back immediately could spook the rest of the fish. I tried this time but doesn't seem to work. Maybe I wasn't on the hole. Youtube shows 50 fish a day in deep holes, but it never happened to me. Does that happen to you or someone else on the board? I would like to learn.

Sorry, I have no guilty feeling at all the way I handle the fish. Stop bitching right here right now. If you feel sad about them then you shouldn't touch a fishing rod.

here is how I usually releasing fish:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPfG3iyLDw[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpBHYZeAQnY[/youtube]

Good fish, shame many of them died. The video is bad, the kind of stuff you wouldn't want a game warden viewing. If those fish were properly vented and released right away their chance at survival would have been much greater.
I experienced similar when ground fishing in over 300 feet of water for cod, haddock, and pollack. Releasing them alive is never really an issue. When catching fish in deep water try reeling them up a lot slower, that allows them to adjust to the different pressures and temperature changes on the way up.

Last edited by tunameltdown on Mon Nov 25, 2013 12:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

haha, we didn't catch a lot either. We took home couple floating smallmouth and two white perch. I have given my effort to the smallmouth. My hands were numb in frigid water giving oxygen swim. You worry too much, there are plenty of them in the lake. I don't feel bad as long as I don't have the motivation to meat fish them. What if I kept them all for meat? I have the rights to do so, right? So, please , everyone's standard is different. Don't put your standard on someone else and make a judgement.

Good fish, shame many of them died.

Great thread on the downside of posting videos

But it has provided an interesting discussion about equalizing swim bladders, something I would have not known about.