Hi Guys and Gals,
With late fall and winter approaching and fish moving to deep water haunts has anyone used this product? Its called a roklees fish descender and is supposed to help in survival rates on released fish caught from deep water. Wonder if it worked?
Jeff
Didn’t look for a place to buy until after I posted. Sorry didn’t know it is sold out at the places I checked. If any had seen this in action would liked to know if would help fish survive. Thanks
Jeff
What are you fishing for?
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
What are you fishing for?
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Agreed.
If the fish need miracle devices to save their lives from barotrauma you’re fishing too deep. A simple solution would be to fish shallower.
I could be wrong but I believe such devices and practices like fizzing are illegal in MN.
I don’t fish that deep in any season for any species. I had just seen it and it looked interesting for the fisherman that does fish that deep on occasion. I had not looked at any regulations for the use of the device either. The way I fish I wouldn’t have any use for it.
I’m checking with a biologist because I’m not one.
To me it seems like once the damage has been done, dropping them back to the depth might make the air sac smaller, the there will still be damage to the internal organs.
I don’t believe these are against the laws in MN…however it would sure take away from fishing time if a person needed to hook that and a fish up to it, then drop it down, snap the fish off and then take the contraption off the line before starting to fish again.
Just my 2 cents worth. Never used one and never will.
That makes sense about damage being done already.
1. Attach a depth bomb to a rod with a snap on it.
2. Clip the depth bomb to one of the fish’s pelvic fins.
3. Lower the fish to the desired depth and give a yank.
At least you are giving the fish a chance.
I think the overall message here is that this may help some survive but it isn’t an excuse to potentially harm fish that you don’t intend to keep.
Lake trout and some ocean species may be different. I know this doesn’t harm lake trout unless you are bringing them through unusually warm water at the surface. A method like this does work for lake trout but it’s not usually necessary if you can simply get them swimming down. Dropping a lake trout head first from about a foot above the water is a perfectly acceptable method for releasing them when they don’t burp out the air.
I’ve only used my method 3 or 4 times in 50+ years of fishing.
Dropping a lake trout head first from about a foot above the water
I call this the toaster release.
I need one of these for my collection. It will go along side my Bite me box and Black Betty.
Unless you’re fishing around the 50′ mark, no need.
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