04-03-2017, 12:18 AM
[quote Wallows]I'm a bit curious, having caught a lot of lakers in FG, I've never had a bloated Lake Trout, or one that couldn't descend under his own power. Nor have I ever seen a bloated laker stuck on the surface that was released. I was under the assumption that lakers had the ability to release air, hence all the air bubbles that surface when fighting a big laker. Not that this is a bad thing and I'm certainly in favor of helping the fish in anyway I can, just wish a biologist could weigh in on this and answer the question of necessity.[/quote]
With all due respect, you've been lucky for barotrauma not to happen to any of the fish you've caught---yet. I see it monthly, and sometimes even weekly. I've had three since ice-out a few weeks ago. All three had black kokanee tails in their throats (and the whole kokanee in the belly!). These fish could not and did not expel their air bladders. Most lakers, over 95 percent, will release the air as they're coming up just like you've observed. But for those few, which are for some reason some of the very largest and oldest, its prudent to have some kind of descender to get them back to equalibrium.
Google "fish barotrauma" or "lake trout barotrauma" or something similar for hours of reading material on this.
As for necessity, I know the biologists at Lake Granby in Colorado, and Scott at Bear Lake, both use a descender (mine I think!) to release lake trout at their lakes when gill netting, and fishing.
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With all due respect, you've been lucky for barotrauma not to happen to any of the fish you've caught---yet. I see it monthly, and sometimes even weekly. I've had three since ice-out a few weeks ago. All three had black kokanee tails in their throats (and the whole kokanee in the belly!). These fish could not and did not expel their air bladders. Most lakers, over 95 percent, will release the air as they're coming up just like you've observed. But for those few, which are for some reason some of the very largest and oldest, its prudent to have some kind of descender to get them back to equalibrium.
Google "fish barotrauma" or "lake trout barotrauma" or something similar for hours of reading material on this.
As for necessity, I know the biologists at Lake Granby in Colorado, and Scott at Bear Lake, both use a descender (mine I think!) to release lake trout at their lakes when gill netting, and fishing.
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