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Jon J and I had a chance to witness something that makes me wish I had a video camera. There were a couple of boats fishing the scour hole , aka the “catch and kill” area below the dam. This created a few drifting sauger and kept the eagles busy. We had a chance to watch a few swoop down and grab lunch. There was one that came within 30′ of the boat. We were working the Mn shoreline above the wing dams when this eagle made his catch and proceeded into a tree right along the shore. As we watched him tear pieces out of the fish he did not seem to mind how close we were. What a fantastic sight. Jon used the trolling motor to keep us right under him for a couple of minutes. To see all of the eagles working the area and the amount of chatter that was going on between them really added to my fun day off work.
Dino

Way cool man! I’m just a little jealous that I wasn’t there to see it! Those kind of events, that you know we don’t see just “any ol’ day” are so special when they come around! I’m thrilled for you both, being able to watch such a marvel at close range!

……………I’m just a little jealous though!

I swear that Eagle had a smile on it’s face!! LOL

There are a lot of those days they just sit up there in the trees and hunker down. Never see them move. Then there are days like yesterday where they are chasing each other around and squaking up a storm. Pretty cool site indeed.

Jon J.

when I was down there on Monday it was eagle city as sauger after little sauger drifted down from the scour hole masacre… it was fun to watch the eagles… but I cant help but be bugged by the slaughter…..

That would be quite a sight!

While it’s an inexcusable waste to kill all those saugers caught in the scour hole, at least it’s safer for the people fishing nearby for the eagles to carry a little sauger around than a carp. A few years back I saw a gull harassing an eagle that was carrying a 2-3# carp about 200′ above me. The eagle lost his grip on the carp and it landed about 50′ from the boat. Sounded like someone dropped a cement block out of a plane. Glad I didn’t get hit by it, I’d probably still smell like ripe carp!

Pool 2 was loaded with eagles today. There had to be atleast 40 of them between 494 and the airport. The first tree I noticed them in had 6 sitting in it. That was when I took a look around and they where everywhere. What a site.

I am not an Icefisherman and am interested in why these sauger are being killed. Are they catch and release fish?
jc

They are fish that can’t swim back down because their air bladder/stomach is coming out of their throats or gills and they can’t take the pressure change from being brought out of the deep water. They end up floating down the river.

Jeremy, Their not icefishing, Their fishing what is called the “scour hole”.It’s the area right below the spillways of Dams and can reach 50′ deep and deeper. The fish can’t take the pressure change as their reeled to the top. Sure they swim back down ,but only temporarily. They end up dieing and become Eagle bait!

What would be the implications of using a hypodermic needle to release the pressure?
I would assume that if you can release the pressure they would be able to survive. I guess I would have a problem catching and releasing these fish knowing there fait is sealed. Is the mortality 100%
jc

Unfortunatley the trip up to the boat for the fish is a one way ticket. Not all of them die though. People need to realize you don’t have to crank the fish up as fast as you can. There is no fix for a fish that has coughed there insides. Not fishing in these areas and slow retrieval are the best cure. Most of the fish in those “scour holes” are of the same year class and most are not keepers. It’s a shame these people are so ignorant to the fact that they are killing tomorrows trophies. But then again these “sportsman” just don’t care. If they did we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

from the information I have on this… there is a technique known as fizzing where they insert a needle through the skin and puncture the air bladder causing it to release the pressure… studies have indicated fish usually die of complications from this procedure…..
also bring a fish up slow is no good.. you cant bring them up slow enough…. studies so far have shown bring them up as fast as possible and get them back down as fast as possible…. to minimize the crush damage on the fishs insides from the over inflated bladder……
BUT…. the main thing is there is NO good solution for deep water fish… except keep them all…… and sadly in the scour hole the size – somewhere from 5-10 throwback size for every keeper… so there is a lot of dead fish out there for each limit “kept”…..
I think the posts we are seeing here are showing there is LOTS of great fishing in depths MUCH shallower……. I myself have mostly been fishing under 20′ of depth and I very seldom catch anything shorter than 15″…….. I think that speaks volumes….

FEED THE EAGLES! FEED THE EAGLES! Catch every single fish you can, reel ’em in as fast as you can, yank the treble out of their mouth, and body-slam ’em back in the water or throw ’em on the bank if you’re close enough!

By the way, I’m joking…lol!!

hey,,, the airsacks can come out of the fish in 30 feet of water,, i have been ice fishing lake pepin alot and have been cing this happen,, the trick is to real the fish up from the bottom as slow as possible, yea that might mean ur going to loose some fish but ur also not killing everyfish u catch,, the wierd thing is that i have never seen the airsack come out of any other fish besides the walleye and sauger,, there are some old guys from town that say that u can pop the sack and they will live,, i really dont belive it!!!!!!

This topic comes up quite often. Here is a site that contains some info that might change your mind. Catch and Release/Fizzing

Stay above 25′ and stay out of the scour hole. Too bad there’s not some “No Access” bouys surrounding it. Think about the improved fishing we’d see later on!

What a great article.
Thanks for the link…

The fishermen in this area must not have children they wish to pass this resource on to…. just my thoughts.
jc

Rivereyes,you have been misinformed on fizzing.I have done this hundreds of times in Green Bay,and it does work great.We use hypredermic needles.I perform this on big fish 8-12lb. eyes trolling deep water 25-50ft.You can tell right away if the fish should be fizzed or not,they wont upright them selves in the livewell right away and for some reason they dont all need to be fizzed.Three years ago divers went down in Sturgeon Bay shipping canal after a 2 day tourney and only found 15 deadfish out of 245 fish caught.So it does work if you know how to do it properly.

Sorry i forgot to mention that the divers down 4 days after the tourney,right near the release site.(looking for delayed mortality) This was in the month of August and it was 85-90 on the tourney days.

Hi Jamie….
I hear ya… all I know is what Ive read and heard… the studies Ive seen from bioligist seem to point to it being a source of increased mortality…. for several reasons… most often quoted is infection due to needle punctures with non steril needles and also damage due to inexperience with the procedure… for one thing, many people think the air bladder is what you see protruding from the mouth of the fish, this is the stomach and puncturing that will do nothing but harm the fish, you need to insert the needle under the scales and into the fish in the dorsally located abdomen of the fish to penetrate the bladder, done correctly you will see bubbles come out (the fish will appear to “fiz” thus the term “fizzing”)……
I have never personally done this procedure…. and I have not spoken to bioligist who have done these studies… there have been a number of studies done, but I think there could be more done on this subject…. but at this time as far as I can tell its widely believed by bioligist that this procedure causes more harm than good….. I will point out that does not make them right…. but it IS their professional opinion……
so sadly.. all I know is what Ive heard and read…. and frankly I dont know what to think…… except I agree with the concept of keeping deep water catch and release to a minimum… there is plenty of evidence to point to the probability of high mortality……

Jamie and I have both fizzed fish and seen them revive to the point that you could hardly grab them in the livewell because they are so fast. You don’t fizz the fish with a needle in it’s side as mentioned in the article ,(unbelievable). There is a pattern that is easy to followed,(once you have seen it done), that is intended to completely miss all vital organs that was demonstrated to anglers at several Green Bay tourneys by a DNR representative.

Regardless there is no need to fish that deep on the Mississippi. Most of our Ice fishing fish come from the 9-15 foot depths. While those fishing 50 feet away in 35 ft catch infant after infant. I still make sure I wonder over once in a while and mention to them that “Smelt frys usually don’t start till March”, or my second favorite, “I know a lot of folks on the river smoke fish, but the tiny fish in that deep water your catching would fit in a cigar”.

it sounds like you guys have been given some more recent information!… it would be nice if there was an easy and safe way to fiz these fish and increase survival…..

Eyes,It hasnt been recent info that mountain man and I have recieved.I believe mountain man and I could be taliking about the same tourney.Anyways in 1998 in Ocotno,Wi in July I was shown the correct way to do this procedure by Steve Poll,tournrey director then for Team Walleye.Then in 2000 also shown by Wayne Stredue in August during a pre-tourney meeting .In 2001 Mark Kordus director then of WWA had dnr officals show the procedure at meeting in Sturgeon Bay.Catch me at the landing this spring and I will be happy to show you the right way to do it.Its not rocket sience but there is a right way to do this and its alot easier to have it seen done.

Great Article on fizzing thanks for the Info. Greatly appreciated and very interesting

Have any of you ever noticed that when the eagles are
really out there working, the fishing seems to be better
than when you don’t see any? I’ve been kind of keeping
track in the back of my mind and seems that whenever
I see alot of eagles I have good fishing.

the site pretty much has a discussion on deep fishing every month or so. In our river situation, plenty of fish and better quality fish can be caught and quite easily from depths at 28 feet and shallower. mostly 25′ for less. best way to avoid hurting deep fish, is just to NOT DO IT. The folks who need to heed the message, don’t visit this site anyway for the most part, so our posts is pure discussion only, AND that is life on the RIVER folks. Jack..