Releasing small perch?

[Bullship]

I was just wondering if there is a trick to safely release small perch in order to keep only limits of larger fish. I fished out of Ashtabula on Tuesday, and boated 3 limits of nice sized fish, most of them over 11" with a few in the 13+" range. Yesterday, I was back in the same location, but the fish we were catching were much smaller. I hated to keep the small fish, but we had many releases that swam straight down only to pop up 15 or 20 feet away from the boat and become dinner to the waiting seagulls. We tried reeling them up very slowly when we could tell we had a small fish on, and this seemed to help, but when you get doubles of little ones or a double with one good fish and one small fry, they tend to get cranked in rather quickly. I hate to see small fish go to waste and they are a pain to clean. Is there a method of venting these little ones that works, or should we just keep everything that we bring to the boat?

[skinny5382]

I don’t have much experience perch fishing open water but I think if it were me, I would just keep em. Not sure you could do anything differently.

[docwet]

I usually pull the hook and move to another location if I'm getting lots of dinks. You might try the Mustad Circle hooks in size 4...as these hooks are difficult for small fry to swallow.
Remember big fish and small fish are not compatible with each other.
Regards, Docwet

[half pole]

Are you referring to the air bladder popping up ?

[soldier67]

I get out 10+ times a year and have had that experience also. The air bladder swells and they cannot return to the bottom. I bass fish alot and we use what is called "fizzing". You take a needle similar to the type you can buy to put air in worms, and pop the air bladder in the back of the throat. It releases the air and the fish is unharmed because the bladder is a membrane and will grow back. I am not a pro at this, but I have used it on smallmouth and perch with success.

[half pole]

i have heard same method. dont no if it works. never tried it. take a pin or needle and poke a hole. people say it works ?