Donald Harper told me they use to catch fish down at 45' or deeper at Lake Amistad. A lot of fished would die, but they figured out not only would you have to fizz the fish, but they rigged up a releasing system with a large weight that you simply drop over the boat with the fish to release, then pull the weighted line back up.
Make's sense as if you know anything about air and water decompression - if you take a basketball and drop it one atmosphere or 33' down in depth the basket ball becomes compressed down to 1/2 of its size. If you then take the basketball down to two atmosphere's or 66' down the ball then becomes 1/4 of it's size, then to 99' it becomes 1/8 of its size.
A bubble of air in the fishes bladder at 33' deep increases to double it's size at the surface. If you have ever been deep sea fishing down off shore in 180' of water and pulled up a red snapper the air bladder literally comes out of the fishes mouth cause it gets so big.
I heard about all the dead fish at the high school tourney at Squaw this weekend - so.
Donald do you, or anyone else happen to have a diagram of how to make such a weighted releasing system?

No diagram David but it is easy to build.
- One brick with holes in it.
- One long line 50 ft. attached to brick on a small extension cord reel.
- One short line 1 foot, with metal shower curtain clip attached to other end of brick.

Clip the fish through the upper jaw thin skin area. Leave clip open, fish stays attached very well on the free fall. When you get to the depth that the fish was caught give a quick jerk and the fish will be released.

The reason we had to do this was the number of times that a deep water fish had to be aired off. We found more than 3 times increased the kill rate. Many times on bass caught 30+ feet it will just continue to air up no matter how many times you fizz the fish; so the weight system is much better but very difficult to perform at a tournament weight-in. This will keep a couple of boas on the water really busy. When you are pre-fishing nothing is better than the weight system for the health of the fish.

Buy the Seaqualizer problem solved. The device will release fish to the depth you want to. I have one.

Can someone educate me on WHEN to fizz a fish? I know it's when the fish comes from the deeps, but how do I know the difference when I need to fizz and when I don't need to? Do they act differently/look differently?

Just trying to be more educated. Thank you

They float upside down in your livewell

Sight fisher, the seaqualizer website video says it releases at the depth you set it at but the shallow one they have has 50 feet as the shallowest setting, do you have that one and how well does it release fish in less than 50 feet of water? What if the water is only 18-20 feet deep, does it work as advertised for that depth too?

They will float up on their side. They have two swim bladders. One on each side of their body. I will always poke the side that is floating up.

Donald has an interesting trick with the bricks & clips. Never tried that but I am sure it would work. I heard about another technique for a tournament release that used a wire basket that was open at the bottom that they lower down into the lake. They would put the fish with the swollen air bladders under the basket then lower it down to about 20 feet. In a couple minutes the fish would swim out form under the basket on their own.

I got one from them that releases at 20'. It works like a charm. You may have to call them to get one.

I've caught hundreds of bass 50, 60, 70 feet plus always fizzed them never had an issue

Never have tried it Donald's way. Poking from the side works as long as your in the right area. For me, that is the hardest way. It's pretty simple going through the mouth. Line needle up smack dab in the middle of the crushers about 1/4" above the opening of the throat. Push needle in, not far, just past the skin until you feel like it has penetrated a layer, maybe push it in 1/4"-1/2" or so. Immediately submerge fish and watch the bubbles start coming out. Let the air come out naturally instead of forcing it out by squeezing. I know there are a lot of videos that instruct how to do this. I'd bet that 75% of fishermen do not know how to fizz a fish. It's not rocket science, guys...learn it!

Here is another technique. It is similar to the brick thing except you already have it in your boat. I use the bouy marker with the lead bar on the end. Clamp the ribbon to the fish's lip so that when it gets down to the bottom a quick jerk will open the lead and release the fish.

Good read here, my buddy was telling me last weekend about a fish he and his bud were catching at Amistad in 40'-60' of water. He said if they slowly brought them up they were ok; but he rushed one up and its eyes popped out of its head.

If you bring them up slowly, what is slow enough?

+ 1 that right there!

Just learn how to decompress the fish, it's not that difficult. If they are very stressed then put them in an oxygenated live well with cool water until they seem healthy enough to release. If you can't see a stressed fish it is a dead fish.

This is straight from the TPWD. This is how they recommend fizzing because the "through the mouth" technique while easier for some, leaves more room for mistakes and hitting vital organs.