Anglers who catch walleyes in deep water should carry and learn how to use deep-water release devices to prevent fish deaths.
Walleyes are moving away from their spawning locations into deep water. Anglers reeling them up from depths of 25 feet or more can cause barotrauma in walleyes. Barotrauma is when the gas in a walleye’s swim bladder, which help control buoyancy, expands, forcing eyes to bulge and bladder to push out of its mouth. If the fish is released in this condition, it is unable to get back down to its depth.
Lake McConaughy, Merritt Reservoir and Elwood Reservoir typically are the reservoirs where this can be an issue.
Daryl Bauer, fisheries outreach program manager with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said Nebraska anglers are not aware of deep-water release devices. Instead, he said, they use hypodermic needles to release the gas from walleye suffering from barotrauma, which he said there is no research to show it is effective in saving the fish.
