When fishing for deep-water varieties such as rockfish, walleye, black bass, lake trout, or groupers, you can run into a problem if you happen to hook smaller ones; you know…ones you have to throw back. This is because you can’t just “throw ‘em back!”
See, they can suffer from barotrauma—expansion or rupture of air bladders—when they’re brought up from deep waters. Barotrauma can cause stress, injury, and sometimes death. Especially if they float on the surface instead of sinking back down to their normal depth.
Über-fisherman Bill Shelton is not amused. “Ethical fishermen don’t leave floaters!” He sells all kinds of clever gadgets on his website at www.SheltonProducts.com. Among them, you’ll find the Shelton Fish Descender (SFD), a simple device used to decend fish with bloated air bladders back down to depths greater than 30 feet, allowing water pressure to recompress the fish’s air-bladder.
Shelton is all too aware that fisherman may be reluctant to spend extra time on fish they can’t keep anyway, so he’s designed the SFD to be quick and easy to use. With practice, it shouldn’t take much extra time at all, perhaps five or ten seconds per fish released. Here’s how it works:
The SFD—an S-shaped hook that points down, not up—is installed on your line, one to three feet from your standard weighted fishing rig. Instead of unhooking the fish and throwing it back in the water, you hook the fish through the lower lip with the SFD. Then remove the lure you caught the fish with, gently lower the fish into the water, throw your weight over, and let it pull the fish down to a depth where it can recover. Once the fish recovers, which you’ll know by the tugging on the line, snap the line upward to release it. Then keep fishing; your line is already in the water, ready to go.
There’s slightly more to it, of course, and it may take a bit of practice to get the fish moving toward the bottom in a gentle and controlled way. Follow the links to learn more about the SFD, watch the videos, and purchase this innovative little device, which sells for $3.99. That’s not much to help ensure that these fisheries remain healthy and sustainable.
Thanks to Mark Philbrook of Flex-Fold Crab Traps for the tip!
