TOPIC:

Okay guys, here’s a chance to put your creative juices and McGiver skills to work.

Many fishing reports seen here and other places indicate a good number of lake trout are released. I’ve released lake trout. Some swam right back down to the depths like a hook-stung bluegill darting back under the lily pads; others, bobbed on the surface like a wayward mylar balloon.

The culprit is their swim bladder inflating with the pressure change at the surface when they are rapidly hauled up through the water column. It happens.

I’m not wanting to ramp up opinions pro or con releasing trout, whether they get over it and floaters become swimmers eventually. I’m coming from my personal school of thought which is I have no personal reluctance to keeping a legally caught lake trout. However, should I choose to release a lake trout, I want it survive. I believe getting the fish back down to or near the depth it was originally swimming, as quickly as possible is a key component to it surviving.

This is a common problem bass fishermen face catching deepwater bass in southern lakes. It’s also a common for deep drop saltwater anglers. For them, special tools and techniques are available to allow them to get the fish back into the depths; usually, some sort of weight that pulls the fish deep, then detaches letting the fish swim free. Studies with red snappers and other reef fish show 90% success rate which is close to the survival rate for released fish caught near the surface.

These fishermen have the advantage of fishing from a stationary boat. I’ve not seen any of their techniques or tools that would work or work easily to pull a laker back down to a depth from a moving boat.

Your assignment: devise, describe, even draw a schematic, need be, of a tool or tactic which you think could do the job.

Here’s an idea you can build on: Have a three foot loop of fishing line ready. Tie one end of the loop through the fish’s lip where the hook made a hole. Put the other end of the loop of line in the downrigger release and tape a cherry bomb with a long, waterproof fuse near the middle of the loop. Send the downrigger, fish and lit cherry bomb into the depths. When the cherry bomb explodes it will break the line and the fish will swim free.

I'm sure we can come up with some ideas that seem more workable than undewater cherry bombs. If so, I’ll write them up for a future article in Great Lakes Angler or some other magazine. More important, we’ll all have a method to release lakers should we opt to do so.

I'm not really sure if you are serious or if this was tongue-in-cheek.

Besides, when I read "McGiver", I thought the Irish Salvation Army was giving free handouts. I'm all about the freebies.

I guess I spelled McGyver incorrectly. My example laker sinker rig was tongue in cheek, but I would like to see if anyone can come up with a good method of sending a laker back to the depths while the boat is trolling. No mullets needed.

The Irish have a Salvation Army? Who knew? Probably ring bells outside of pubs at Christmas time.

Christmas? Nah...St Paddys Day maybe.

In all seriousness, an opinion from a Biologist would be a good starting point before we start randomly poking holes in fish or dragging them back to the abyss on the deep rigger.

If Ben wants to chime in, he's welcome but the science of barotrauma in fish is more settled than climate science seems to be. I've seen plenty of lakers, either released on purpose or becoming unhooked shortly before being boated become floaters. Some don't, for sure. Lakers are "physostomous" meaning their air bladder connects to their gut so they can release the gas inside their swim bladder (it's not really "air") to their gut which in turn can expel the gas through burping.

They often don't do this. After all, it's not an instinctive response. Lakers evolved over eons - only in the last century or so have they been humanly hauled from 100 feet of water or more, rapidly, being pulled along by a steel hook on a string.

Some burp.

Some of the ones that don't "burp" are likely strong enough to overcome the balloon in their gut cavity and swim back to the depths.

Most don't burp or lack the strength and need some assistance.

You can rub their belly and get them to burp. Of course while you are rubbing them, they are holding their breath. And that only releases the gas they've moved from their air bladder to the gut. Rub some more?

Some advocate deflating them with a hollow needle. A "fizzed" fish probably has a slightly better chance of survival than a fish floating on the surface being pecked by a seagull. Slightly. There are so many ways this can go wrong. Ever felt gassy? Did sticking a hypo needle into your belly seem like a good idea?

My point is, if lakers are the fish of the future for Lake Michigan and anglers want to release some of them to swim on into their future, a method to easily send them back to the depths is important.

I have some ideas (that don't involve cherry bombs) that might work. Just hoping some gather some other ideas that may be easier or better.

One of the new vise grip style fish grips may work. Attach to down rigger or weight on rigid handle and heavy fishing line on moveable handle. When fish gets to desired depth snap line up to open jaws and raise grip and weight.

I'm not an engineer and I've never used a lip gripper but if you could attach a lip gripper to a mag dipsy somehow and hand line the fish down to a certain depth then when you jerk the line to pop the release on the dipsy the lip gripper would release too. Just an idea.