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Remember the Alka-Seltzer commercial – "plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is"? That fizzy formula relieves indigestion. Fisheries biologists will do a study next spring and summer to determine what kind of fizzy relief works best for fish reeled up from the depths.

Those fish suffer an overinflated swim bladder, a malady called hyperbuoyancy. A fish's air bladder deflates and inflates to provide the animal with neutral buoyancy as it changes depths.

Hyperbuoyancy results in pressure on the fish's internal organs and affects its ability to swim upright. A fish released in this condition could float on the surface for several hours. Stash that fish in a bass boat livewell for several hours and stress takes its toll.

There are three known methods for treating hyperbuoyancy, but neither biologists nor anglers know which works best. That's where Texas Parks and Wildlife fisheries biologist Randy Myers comes in.

"It's important to understand that if you catch a fish from 30 feet or deeper and immediately release it, the fish usually goes back down with no problem," Myers said. "The fish may have enough energy to swim back to a depth where neutral buoyancy is regained."

Tournament bass held in a livewell represent a different problem. Those fish become exhausted from struggling to stay upright while floating on the surface.

Myers said three techniques have been developed to deal with hyperbuoyancy. Two involve the use of a hypodermic needle to puncture the swim bladder. That procedure is commonly called fizzing because it releases a stream of bubbles. Fizzing can be done by inserting a needle in to the air bladder through the fish's side or through the mouth.

The other hyperbuoyancy treatment is impractical for anglers. It's a deep-release technique that's also called "caging." It involves placing hyperbuoyant fish in a weighted release cage and lowering them to the approximate depth from which they were caught. The fish are then released and are able to achieve neutral buoyancy.

Budweiser ShareLunker program leader David Campbell has extensive experience with using a needle to fizz hyperbuoyant bass. ShareLunkers are largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more that anglers loan or give to the state hatchery system. When Campbell shows up to retrieve a ShareLunker hours after it was caught, the fish are often in poor condition.

"Before we started puncturing the air bladder, all the fish that had hyperbuoyancy symptoms died," Campbell said. "We have punctured the air bladder on close to 100 big bass, and most survived."

There's never been a comprehensive test, however, to determine which treatment method works best. Myers' study is planned for Lake Amistad, a big lake on the Rio Grande, near Del Rio. Amistad is deeper than the typical Texas lake, and bass tend to be caught there from deeper water than is normal elsewhere.

Myers will collect fish for the study. The fish will be placed in a cage and lowered to extreme depths, then brought rapidly to the surface to induce hyperbuoyancy. Equal numbers of hyperbuoyant fish will be treated with each of the three methods.

Some fish will be treated immediately, others held in a livewell to simulate tournament catches. A test group not affected by hyperbuoyancy will be punctured to see how being stuck with a needle affects survival of an otherwise healthy fish.

"We hope to answer two questions," Myers said. "Which technique works best, and will fish survive better if treated immediately? One of our goals is to learn enough that we can provide educational material for anglers."