Yelloweye is my latest design for the safety-pin style fish descending device.

Yelloweye fish descending tool is a compact, heavy-duty fish descending tool for kayaks, small boats, & crowded decks.

The patent pending safety-pin design keeps the point safely stowed until deployment, so you can descend a yelloweye with speed and control.

• Pre-rig your weight. Attach an appropriately sized weight to the weight point for expected fish size (be ready to add more if the one landed is larger).

• Keep it stowed and safe (optionally clipped to your PFD).

• One-rod setup: keep fishing with your rod as normal—attach your descender line/rope only after you land a fish you’re not allowed to keep (a prohibited/no-retention fish).

• Deploy (attach your line) and attach to the fish. Open the pin and poke it through the fish’s lip (not the gills).

• Send it down ASAP. Lower/drop the fish back to depth smoothly—every second counts, so skip the photos.Survival can be low even with careful handling (see PDF links below).

• Release at depth. When you reach depth, jerk the line to release the fish and retrieve the device. (Many anglers aim for at least ~60 ft; ideally to the depth caught when practical.)

• Re-stow one-handed. Use the inside of the first loop to guide the pin with your thumb until it clicks back into the stowed position.

PDF research links:

Post-release survival & prolonged sublethal effects of capture & barotrauma on deep-dwelling rockfishes(genus Sebastes): implications for fishm anagement & conservation (NicholasC.Wegner et. al)

A Review of the Use of Recompression Devices as a Tool for Reducing the Effects of Barotrauma on Rockfishes in British Columbia

• Yellowtail, Bocaccio, Quillback (plus Copper/Brown): generally show fewer barotrauma issues and recompress/survive well (short-term survival often high).
• Black/Blue/Deacon: survival can be good in shallow/moderate depths, but drops as capture depth increases(Deacon especially fragile deeper).
• China/Tiger: limited data; China shows high short-term survival in small samples, but physiology suggests slower gas recovery; Tiger likely lower survival (deep, sedentary).
• Yelloweye: short-term survival after recompression often high, but deep-caught fish can suffer severe internal injury—best practice is avoid deep Yelloweye contact.
• Canary: can do fine shallow, but survival drops sharply with depth (very low in deep captures).