Penn 210M or 310 GTi for Descender Reel

[Gfish]

The last bottom fish I caught was hooked at about 110'. A Moana(Hawaiian Goatfish), a Carp lookin reef fish with long chin barbels. It grabbed a knife jig. Biggest I've seen yet-about 5 lbs., but for the first 1/2 of the fight I was thinkin small GT, 20lbs. or so, heck of a tug-a-war.
Then the decompression lethargy must have set-in. When released it floated on the surface until I lost sight of it, but couldn't see any signs of swim bladder bloating.

How long does it take to decompress usually? Would it be practical to allow it to sit down there at say at 50'? Could it be reeled in slowly enough to come-up and survive?

[oldmanjoe]

  I bring fish up slowly for better survival rate .  Bottlenose dolphin will change the plan in the bay . Venting usually helps , if the eyes and tongue are not hanging out .   I can watch on my depth recorder when the fish swims away at times , when I use a descender rig under the boat .

      Party boat fishing makes this hard to do most times .

[MACflyer]

Now looking to buy a used Penn 210m or 310gti for a little more speed. Both sell for about $30-$40 used.

if you can rebuild this reel, i have an old 310 gti that i can ship to you at no charge. not sure it works and i would have have time to work on it to make sure.  headed to canada tomorrow.  send a pm with your mailing address today, if interested.  thanks!  alan

Thanks Alan but I just bought a 49L on eBay. I think it should be just about right once filled with line.

[MACflyer]

A 49 with a rock cod handle on a solid glass rod cut down to 4 feet or so is almost a downrigger for your purpose. put in holder and crack up with power and speed.

Agreed. I'm putting a 49L on a XXH Reaper Rod someone threw in the trash because it's missing about 2'. Found a huge tip that fits.

[Gfish]

Alright! Recycle the fish and the tackle.

[MACflyer]

Alright! Recycle the fish and the tackle.

That's funny Gregg!

[Maxed Out]

 I use a 114h for descending fish.

 The 49 has small drag washers, and would probly need to have star cranked down all the way, which could create problems. Sometimes 5 pounds aint enough to descend a larger fish

[Keta]

Venting usually helps

ODFW tagging studies had a zero re-catch for vented fish indicating a poor survival rate.  Even with descending devices the survival rate is not great and the deeper they are caught the lower it is.  They have also stopped retrieving at various depths to let the fish adjust with little success.

The habitat of our fish of concern, yelloweye rockfish, is specific and it is best to avoid fishing there.   

[Keta]

Venting usually helps

ODFW tagging studies had a zero re-catch for vented fish indicating a poor survival rate.  Even with descending devices the survival rate is not great and the deeper they are caught the lower it is.  They have also done research on stopping the retrieve at various depths to let the fish adjust with little success and often it feeds the blue sharks.  People have also lost high $ descenders to sharks,  I advocate rigging them on cable.

The habitat of our fish of concern, yelloweye rockfish, is specific and it is best to avoid fishing there.   

Sometimes 5 pounds aint enough to descend a larger fish

And sometimes a 8# downrigger ball isn't too.

[alantani]

I had a long discussion with a marine biologist.  The kid insisted that repressurizing a rockfish had a high survival. I called BS from the beginning, but he insisted that the science was there.

[Keta]

According to ODFW taging studies there is some survival but no where near 100%.  The deeper the fish are hooked the lower the survival.

[oldmanjoe]

  The sad part is most fisherman don`t know to properly vent a fish .    Some think that a knife to the stomach works .

   When you do hit the swim bladder , you will hear and feel the air coming out  .  Don`t just stick him and pull the needle rite away either , the hole seals up pretty quick .

 I will post two videos , the second one show how long it take air to vent.

[MACflyer]

Received the Mariner 49L yesterday afternoon in nice condition. Cleaned and serviced it today, added line, and mounted to my trash pick broken Reaper Rod. Should be a lot faster than the Longbeach, and not as difficult as the Squall 30.

Wish we had it yesterday instead of the Longbeach, as we caught a lot of undersize red grouper. Several showed no physical signs of barotrauma, but still needed help to recompress. We used to vent, but after seeing this article a couple years ago, we descend with the Seaqualizer we got free from Returm 'Em Right.

https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/2023/which-barotrauma-mitigation-method-is-best-for-red-snapper-and-red-grouper-caught-in-deep-water.aspx

[Keta]

"In this study, fish that were recompressed using a descending device to at least 60 feet were twice as likely to survive than those that were vented."

ODFW found zero evidence of survival of fish that were vented.