James, here is my method, I take my finger and run it down the hook to the inside bend of the hook, this frequntly means running my finger past the crusher teeth.
Once there I use my thumb to turn the hook upside down, putting the eye of the hook off to the side of the gills, with my finger in place I can pop the hook similar to the "through the gills" method. One of the advantages is that it is much faster than the in-fisherman method, it usually takes less than ten seconds and no tools are required. The trick is to turn the hook 180 degrees before popping it. You are right about the mouth size, the smaller the mouth, the harder it is to use this method.
