Saw Something Strange This AM
 

Was out fishing this morning and saw a decent size striper floating on top of the water. He was alive and trying to swim down but his belly looked all distended and inflated. Try as he may he couldn't swim down and just floated on by.

Any of you guys ever see anything like that before or know what might have caused it. Just curious.

havn't seen this with stripers, but i know that some deep water species will have inflated swim bladders when brought up from depts and actually have to be deflated before release.

That would be my guess, too. Someone caught him in deeper water and released him with a distended swim bladder.

Took a 27lber years back in100+ ft of water bluefishing (yeah, i said it) anyways, I remember he didnt look to happy when we brought him up, but.. bis belly wasn't all distended etc..
TDF, maybe he needed some tums??

In a situation like that when you reel in a striper from those depths, what do you do? is there anything one can do?

is this similiar to the malady that a diver suffers when coming up too fast from those depths?

Get a small pin and gently puncture the swim bladder if it is reachable. The swim bladder will eventually heal, and you'll have given the fish a fighting chance to survive.

I thought about that but he was to far out to reach.

for those of us unfamilar /w striper anatomy and who dont want to turn the poor fish into a pin cussion where's the swim bladder? i saw that happen once b4 had no clue y

Poorly released fish. Had one 20lb fish go belly up after release (slipped out) on a boat this year. Circled around to re-grab and resucitate.

I was with DF and saw the upside-down pufferbelly of a striper as well. After reading the linked article all I can say is that I would have tossed a plug out and snagged the fish but.... I do not have a hyperdermic needle handy in my tackle box (I am not a junkie), nor do I carry a carpet needle or a ball inflation needle with me (who does?)on a regular basis. I guess I should toss those items in the back of my truck.... just in case! :smash:

Spin

when that happens to cod and stuff, i just squeezem a little and they deflate. it works.

This happens alot of the time when I am boat fishing the reefs in 30 plus feet of water this time of year. It seems to happen once the water temps enter the mid 60s. In the spring and fall it is a non issue. I have been puncturing the abdomen to vent the air. It seems to work, the fish are at least able to swim down without floating back up.

When I lived down in Long Island, I came across the same thing. Turned the boat around and netted the 20lb bass that was floundering on the surface. In its mouth was a 16" fluke stuck right in its gullet. Fish could not get back down with this fluke stuck in its mouth. Pulled the fluke out and the bass swam away just fine.

I saw this happen to eben one evening after feasting on mexican food. Fortunately the situation resolved itself in the form of a pleasant fart, and we didn't have to puncture him. His waders on the other hand were filled beyond capacity and blew apart at the seams with a loud BANG, and a green cloud. We were fishing the upper bay in late august when this happened, and it is believed that this was a contributing factor to the fish kill.

All I can picture now is that 3 Stooges episode about the Wrong Brothers. When Moe falls into the vat of liquid rubber and they inflate him w/ helium to try and get it off. :D :D

Have seen fish up on surface many times over the years and each time found that the fish had another fish in it's mouth or throat. They get a bait fish stuck and can't get it out and cannot manuver properly with the mouth wide open.

If you see one in distress you should really try to help by netting or mouth gaffing and then clearing the obstruction.

it's not uncommon to find large fish floating on the surface, either dead or near death, during the hottest months of summer.
"The fish actually died of natural causes," he explained. "but the circumstances are specific to large fish. As fish grow, they are forced to live in cooler water. The larger the fish, the colder the water needs to be. During the summer, when the surface temperatures rise, the larger fish must go deeper to find the colder water. But this separates them from their prey base.
"When they come to the surface to feed, lactic acid starts to build up. If the fish spends too much time chasing food or stays in the warmer water too long, they're not able to get back down and they die."

Oh, good, I thought you were going to say you had to use the Heimlich maneuver and give Eben mouth-to-mouth. :hihi:

puuuuuu, sounds like Eben needs to stop eating a Poncho's before a night of fishing :hee:

not that time:p

Hey....:mad: :laughs:

Notice blackeye said I ripped a 'pleasant' phart....Does this mean it was pleasant for him to smell??