Vent the fish before return­ing them to the water. It is now state law in Florida to carry a vent­ing tool on your boat. Vent­ing the fish allows 85% of the fish returned to sur­vive when returned to the water. It keeps them from flop­ping around on the sur­face until they die. When you return a fish the water it can be caught again when they are big­ger and bet­ter table fare. Less dead fish means more fish to catch. It is best to vent the fish as quickly as pos­si­ble with a min­i­mum of han­dling. If the fish’s stom­ach is in or com­ing out of the fish’s mouth, do not attempt to push it back into the fish’s body. Expelling the swim blad­der gases will allow the stom­ach to return to its nor­mal posi­tion within a few hours. Hold the fish gen­tly but firmly on its side and insert the vent­ing tool at a 45-degree angle approx­i­mately one to two inches back from the base of the pec­toral fin. Only insert the tool deep enough to release the gases — do not skewer the fish. The sound of the escap­ing gas is audi­ble and defla­tion is notice­able. If a fish is extremely bloated, use your free hand to exert gen­tle pres­sure on the fish’s abdomen to aid defla­tion. The fish’s stom­ach should not be punc­tured. Return the fish to the water as soon as pos­si­ble. If nec­es­sary, revive it by hold­ing the fish with the head pointed down­ward and mov­ing the fish back and forth to pass water over the gills until the fish is able to swim unassisted.

john@crazyfishguy.com