If you haven't checked out the Flip Clip yet, you need to if you do any bass fishing 15 feet or deeper. A simple and inexpensive way to take better care of your bass - the Flip Clip is actually not simple backed by a lot of experimentation and review from well known fish scientists and experts like Ralph Manns and Doug Hannon.
We all want to take better care of our bass and truly make sure they survive to be caught another day, or to make the next generation of bass for the next generation of anglers. The Flip Clip is safe and easy to use by anyone, which is why I was very happy when owner Jimmy Kramer signed on with GreatLakesBass.com.
Check out the full details at: http://www.greatlakesbass.com/forum/index.php?topic=4308.0
Or go directly to Flip Clip Fishing (http://www.flipclipfishing.com/) and pick up a few sets of Flip Clips for yourself, and for your bass. I'll be using mine.
I'm considering starting another test group up north there. I've got one going right now in Texas and another in California with lots of guys that target deep water fish. Would there be any interest in doing this from you folks on this forum?
I will talk to some of the Erie guys in particular and the St. Clair River anglers.
Good info Lt. Dan. I'm checking into this and will be talking about on my blog as well. I'll have to put another GLB link on the blog. Did you read the Burt and Mullet BFL article?
Not yet - I will this weekend.
What do you consider deep water bass? I regularly taget fish in the 15-20' range.
Hay Mike, we regularily targeted bass in 30-50 ft of water in SoCal,
Bring a fish up from that deep their eye's bug out and belllies are baloon's, a few of the guy's had a tool to release the pressure in the bladder, i had no clue about that procedure, but this clip thing should be a sweet fix if? the OVER sized bladder dont kill the fish 1st
Trick was in my opinion when we were deep jigging castmaster spoons was to bring the fish up SLOW, alot of guys would use spinning gear and not use the antireverse, but rather back reel, was slow going and anticipation high, hard to resist cranking that bass in, but if you do you sign his death warrent!
Water pressure in fresh water goes up another complete atmosphere every ~33 feet. That means at 33 feet, the pressure on the fish is twice the pressure on us at ground level. 66 feet is 3 times the pressure.
So about 15 to 17 feet is 1.5 times the pressure. Many bass seem okay from less than 20 feet, but if you have one caught there that seems to be having trouble righting itself, use the Flip Clip to help the bass struggle less and breath easier = less stress.
Real deep caught bass - like close to the 50 foot depth or more - that show definite signs of an overexpanded air bladder need to be fizzed right away to really protect them, but you HAVE to do it right with a non-shared needle to avoid doing more harm. The Flip Clip will still help better than nothing. And if the bladder has not expanded enought to damage internal organs, the Flip Clip may be all you need.
Most of us probably catch most of our bass shallower than 30 feet most of the time and don't have much need to learn how to fizz. If you do fish real deep and catch a bass that needs fizzing, and you know how, you still want to only remove enough air to relieve internal stress, then use the Flip Clip to keep the bass upright and down in the water.