unfortunantly the best of the northwest circuit is cancelled for this year, so there will just be tons of boats out prefishing for nwbass.

Bass,

I would fizz all fish caught 20 feet or greater. You will notice quite quickly when the fish has trouble going back down.

Russ

Absolutely - playing a fish too long is extremely harmful!  During the winter I bring fish up from 50 feet and NEVER fizz the fish because I get them up to the boat on a fast elevator!  I then watch them swim straight to the bottom on my depth finder.  No trouble!  The fact is, most of the time those smallies are heading for the surface themselves - even to the point that sometimes I can't wind fast enough to catch up to them.  Why (if depth change alone was harmful) would a fish voluntarily commit suicide?  They wouldn't!  

Sometimes in a tournament, I've seen an angler who doesn't want to loose a fish and so they play it, and play it, and play it.  I've forgotten the scientific language that explains what happens to the fish's flesh during an exhausting fight, but it's bad news.  I'm not against fizzing, but you have to know what you are doing or you end up doing more damage than you fix.  

By the way I did get out on the lake Monday for a couple of hours in the morning and managed to catch 6 smallies - the largest was 3-8oz.  They came out of the mid 20's in terms of depth.  But the experience also confirmed my belief that more North Winds occur on Mondays (my day off) than any other day.  Just a theory - but then my perception is my truth, heh?

It's possible that more fish die than we are aware of, but in the winter time I may spend all day in one area - and I've still never seen a fish floating in all the 17 years I've fished the lake.  (with the exception of perch, that is)  But that doesn't mean there wasn't something else wrong with the smallie you caught.  Like people, there are healthy ones and unhealthy ones.  Maybe it had a bad ticker or something.  The depth you caught her in was not that deep.  We may never know what caused it.  I've heard other folks tell me they've  had a "floater" after catching them in 3 feet of water - so go figure!