question about saving fish

i caught a 5 lb smallie at a depth of about 45 feet when i got him up it looked like he was swelled up, i tried to let him go but he would not go down, i spent at least 30 min trying to get him to go down but no luck, he ended up on the dinner table. I wanted to release him but i thought he would die anyway and i didnt want it to go to waste. i was told i brought him up too fast, also a guy told me that you could let the air out of them and they would survive, anybody know how to do that? thanks

http://www.insideline.net/1999/sak-0102-99.html

Hope this helps. When you do this keep um in the live well with some "rejuvinate" or "please release me". It realy help their chances, but sometimes they'll still go belly up, and I prefer a burial in garlic butter, to a burial at sea.

You can buy needles for cheap. They are large hollow points made for vets and many bass tournaments will have them to sell or hand out. If the air bladder is puffed up into the throat you can poke that with the needle or along the lateral line about a third of the way back where the bulge is biggest you can poke the needle through the side until you hear air going out of the fish. Doesn't hurt them.

thanks, that was exactly the info was looking for, also got to put in practice this weekend, i popped the bubble on a 6 pound smallie from 45 feet down, seemed to work very well, maybe that will give a lot better odds to survive, thanks again

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/MNR/pubs/Fizzing.pdf

It's from 2001, so I'm not sure what kind of studies have been done on this in the last 6 or 7 years, but still some good information.