Tips On Helping Your Catch Survive

have been asked by Mark Perry to reply to this thread. For those of you who do
not know who I am or what I do, please allow me to introduce myself. My name
is Lane Gergely, and I am a research biologist for Sure-Life Laboratories. I co-own
the business with my husband. While both of us are microbiologists, my expertise is in research and pathology ( the study of diseases). My husband's expertise is in
the chemistry side of our company, in otherwords he is the one who ultimately formulates the products. Many of you have either used or heard of Please Release
Me and or Catch and Release. Catch and Release has been around since 82, when
Tony developed the first formula for holding bass in livewells.
I did not see the show mentioned in this thread, but I can pretty much tell you that
what you are observing with fish floating upside down is SHOCK and not decompression issues. Here is a simple formula that I came up with to help anglers
understand what can happen in the livewell. Stress=Shock=Death, I call it SSD for
short. When wild fish are captured, placed in confinement (many times with other fish) they start to stress. That is why they need to be kept calm. Mortality was very
high in humans before the advent of anesthetics and sedatives. Ice also is very
effective in slowing the metabolism of the fish and calming them down.

Decompression issues ( deep caught fish) will be very obvious when the fish are
placed in the livewell. Their sides will be distended and hard, combined with the
inability to swim upright. These fish should be sedated before fizzing procedures
are performed. There are two method of fizzing, through the side and through the
mouth. Neither procedure is 100% on all fish, so anglers fishing deep waters need
to learn both methods. Studies have shown that the airbladder seals and heals within 6 hours. Fizzing should be performed within the first 30 minutes after capture, otherwise the condition known as nitrogen narcosis develops. This leads to
organ damage or failure. Most of these fish expire before weigh in, depending on
when they were caught.

While O2 systems are nice, not all are equal, and may not be necessary if livewells
are kept cool and aeration systems run on manual. NEVER OPERATE YOUR LIVEWELL ON TIMED AERATION! Temperature is KEY to dissolved oxygen levels.
Cooler water holds more oxygen. It does no good to have a warm or hot livewell
while running a oxygen system. The oxygen can't dissolve fast enough in warm water, thus the oxygen escapes at the surface. If you are holding largemough NEVER let the livewell temps exceed 75F. If you are holding smallmouth never let
livewell temps exceed 68F. If you are holding both species, never exceed 70F.
In the wild bass can tolerate wide temperature ranges, bass can be found at different temperatures through out the course of a day. Large bass have also been
found to tolerate low dissolved oxygen levels in favor of territorial waters. Generally speaking, the larger bass are also the older bass, and older bass are
VERY territorial. This is why confinement is harder on the larger, older bass.

Here is a list of stressors that in some cases can quickly lead to shock.

1. Improper livewell temperatures.
2. Inadequate aeration or timed aeration.
3. Poor water quality, ie foamy water surface, build up of ammonia.
4. Prolonged holding in unatural postion, ie large bass that are forced to lie on their
sides for an extended period of time.
5. ANYTHING that causes the bass to become overly excited. If you can hear the
bass banging in the livewell, THEY ARE STRESSED and need calming. After the initial release of the fish into the livewell, they should calm down within 10 minutes.
6. Improper handling techniques, ie letting them bounce around on carpet and hyperextension of the jaw. We see alot of bass with broken or dislocated jaws. In
a few of these cases the fish die from starvation, because they can't properly feed.

The lowest mortality rates on record occured back in the 80's. There are a few reasons for that. First off, many boats did not have livewells. Anglers used styrofoam coolers with battery powered aerators. The older styrofoam coolers
provided much better insulation (temperature control) than today's livewells. The
coolers , while not as deep as modern livewells were wider and longer than the
modern livewells. Last but not least, Ray Scott, who is a personal friend of mine
went to extremes to educate and surround himself with experienced staff. Several
of these original mortality studies can be viewed on our website.

There were no fancy oxygen systems back in the eighties, they did not need them.
Their styrofoam coolers along with a little education went a long way. I hope that
one of the boat manufacturers will step of to the plate and give these fish what they really need, better insultation and more space for the larger fish to stretch
out in a somewhat normal position.

BTW, we will be working on a fizzing DVD in HD this year.


This was posted in the lounge. Thought it may help.