What to Do..

[r2d2c3po]

What would you recommend to do with hooks that are set way deep, or in the throat?

It has happened to me twice in the last few times I went fishing. Because it is a bit colder, the bass tend to take it very slow, and I wait a bit before I strike. If I strike within 2-3 seconds after a bite, I miss the fish. But I had to cut the line and leave the hooks behind on two separate occasions now, as I mentioned.

Will the fish actually have a decent chance to survive? Will the hook fall out (dissolve in a fish's mouth), or is that just a myth?

 

[Kassie]

Hey Star Wars

Have a look at this document - I received it via an e-mail many many months ago...

I have tried it once and it does work.

 

[r2d2c3po]

Hi Kassie

Thanks for this. I will definitely try it next time.

I'm glad I posted this question here. It might have seemed a bit trivial to some, but I learnt something new today.

 

[EBEE ALI]

i once gut hooked a fish.i did get the hook out by cutting the tip off and pushing down on the hook.Unfortunately the fish died,lost lots of blood

 

[Simen]

There will be less harm to the fish if you cut the line and leave the hook inside it, than try and dig it out.

The survival chance will be high.

The hook will immediately start rusting and before you know it it will be gone.

try and cut the line as close to the hook as possible.

I am sure many anglers can relate that they have caught fish before with a hook or even more still lodged in the fish.

damage gets done when the flesh is torn removing the hook, the small puncture hole the hook makes is irrelevant

 

[lebaka]

^^^ there's the answer

 

[EBEE ALI]

Simen wrote:

There will be less harm to the fish if you cut the line and leave the hook inside it, than try and dig it out.

The survival chance will be high.

The hook will immediately start rusting and before you know it it will be gone.

try and cut the line as close to the hook as possible.

I am sure many anglers can relate that they have caught fish before with a hook or even more still lodged in the fish.

damage gets done when the flesh is torn removing the hook, the small puncture hole the hook makes is irrelevant

But most hooks nowadays have special anti rust coatings so wouldnt the hook stay there longer?
When unhooking a fish crimp down the barb,i found that it makes unhooking the fish easier and safer.
You can still carry on using that same hook,It wont affect your hookups,at least it never has with me.

 

[Simen]

EBEE ALI wrote:

Simen wrote:

There will be less harm to the fish if you cut the line and leave the hook inside it, than try and dig it out.

The survival chance will be high.

The hook will immediately start rusting and before you know it it will be gone.

try and cut the line as close to the hook as possible.

I am sure many anglers can relate that they have caught fish before with a hook or even more still lodged in the fish.

damage gets done when the flesh is torn removing the hook, the small puncture hole the hook makes is irrelevant

But most hooks nowadays have special anti rust coatings so wouldn't the hook stay there longer?
When unhooking a fish crimp down the barb,i found that it makes unhooking the fish easier and safer.
You can still carry on using that same hook,It wont affect your hookups,at least it never has with me.

you are quiet right with the anti rust coating, it will lengthen the rust period a little, but it will def rust, not if its a s/s hook, but luckily few of them are used.

crimping the barb, also great, in fact many anglers crimp the barbes prior to fishing

 

[drkobus]

Slim plan om weerhak voor die tyd plat te druk. Barbless. Verloor nie baie meer visse so nie. Met Catch and Release is dit die roete om te gaan.

 

[Kassie]

But if your deep hooked fish does call it quits, dont throw it back into the dam.

Fresh smoked bass is a flippin tasty snack...

 

[boepens]

With bass being freshwater and all the hooks don't rust as fast
If the hook is not visible cut the line. Often they will pass the hook out
Do try at least to remove the plastic lure as this stays in the stomache

Removal through the gills is an excellent way to get the hook out. I've done this many times and the fish survives
Most bass hooks have small barbs so damage is minimal
To leave a hook in the bass throat is a death warrant

 

[MrD]

Bought myself a pair of medical forceps 180mm long.Clamps down on the hook which makes it a LOT easier to remove the hook and push it through the gills. I use the red alluminium hooks weightless this time of the year so they do not rust away. Fish EVERY weekend so the amount of swallowed plastics is quite high but manage to save most of the little buggers with them forceps. Fishing tackle shops keep them under their fly fishing section but they a shorter version.Ordered mine through my wife who works at a pharmacy.

 

[MrD]

Forceps at work

 

[Pipeman]

Get a decent hook remover or just de-barb your hook if the bass are swallowing!

Just remember to fight the fish carefully with de barbed hooks, dont allow fish to jump and keep tension!

 

[jmgravenor]

I was also in 2 situations where the bass was hooked in the gut.
The first time was at a private dam where I was using a crankbait with dead blou kurper on the back hooks (the fish are so easy to catch that I wanted to try something new lol). I was reeling the crank in and A huge bass over 2kg smashed it! Brought it in and it had swallowed the whole of the back treble hook in the gut still with the kurper hanging on. I got my pliers fiddled around a bit and surprisingly got it out and what was weird was that the fish wasn't even bleeding while the hook was being removed. Fish was released in great condition.

The second time was when I was swimming a small worm back so I could re-cast and I saw a bass of about 800grams take it. When I got him out he was also hooked very deep. I did'nt have pliers at the time so I used my fingers to extract the hook. There was quite a bit of bleeding though. I tried to put it back but it just floated back up, so luckily I had brought my degassing needle with me I let his gas out :lol:1 and he sank to the bottom so I nurtured him and at last him went speeding off!
Aaaah good times!

 

[Pipeman]

Honestly I don't really care if a bass dies. It is not indigenous so if it is gut hooked, take it out and give it to a local it will not make a dent in the population... my 2c

 

[Kassie]

Pipeman wrote:

Honestly I don't really care if a bass dies. It is not indigenous so if it is gut hooked, take it out and give it to a local it will not make a dent in the population... my 2c

Well... You are right about the exotic species and I believe you are right with the population impact.

But in the incredibly competitive field of club / divisional / provincial / national / international bass fishing, you want your bass alive and kicking and staring up at you from your livewell come weigh-in.

Even your average competitive bass angler knows the value of a live fish.

We do not spend tens of thousands of Rands on equipment, hardware, fuel, accomodation and tolerate the wife's disdain to see our limit floating upside down in the livewell.

So if we can help it, we will try and get that hook out as quickly and with as little additional negative impact as possible in an effort to earn that 1 release point at the weighstation.

 

 

[Pipeman]

Kassie wrote:

Pipeman wrote:

Honestly I don't really care if a bass dies. It is not indigenous so if it is gut hooked, take it out and give it to a local it will not make a dent in the population... my 2c

Well... You are right about the exotic species and I believe you are right with the population impact.

But in the incredibly competitive field of club / divisional / provincial / national / international bass fishing, you want your bass alive and kicking and staring up at you from your livewell come weigh-in.

Even your average competitive bass angler knows the value of a live fish.

We do not spend tens of thousands of Rands on equipment, hardware, fuel, accomodation and tolerate the wife's disdain to see our limit floating upside down in the livewell.

So if we can help it, we will try and get that hook out as quickly and with as little additional negative impact as possible in an effort to earn that 1 release point at the weighstation.

In that case the barb can be flatten and any angler should either have forceps or a hook disgorger

 

[Frogstar]

Pipeman wrote:

Honestly I don't really care if a bass dies. It is not indigenous so if it is gut hooked, take it out and give it to a local it will not make a dent in the population... my 2c

lol, some mothers children. eish

 

[EBEE ALI]

while we are on the subject of handling fish,thaught id shre this story.
Was fishing at emmies one day and this group of hook and coockers arrived.they cuaght a few fish and kept them in a bucket of water.when they were leaving i politey explained to them that this was a catch and release dam and in the future they should release the fish they catch.anyways the fish were dead and there was nothing i coild do,or so i thaught.one of the fish was still showing si gns of life.i held him deep water and pressed his belly,some bubbles came out and he stabilized at that depth.then rubbed my fingers gently over his gills plates.after about 10 minutes a dry almost dead fish swam off alive and well.