Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations best way to release LMB that swallowed hook

I have always been told that if the bass swallows the hook and you cannot get it out without causing more damage then the thing to do is cut your line and leave the hook in the fish. That it will shed it naturally. That is what I have been doing when that situation arises but this past week I found a fish floating that I had released the day before where that very thing had occured. Does anyone have any input on this occurance? For whatever reason it always seems to happen to me on bigger fish. Your input is appreciated........

I suspect a deeply hooked fish is likely to die no matter what you do. I guess the question is what course of action gives the fish the best chance to survive?

Here are some past discussions on this topic.

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000396#000000

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001330#000006

http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=001048#000003

I think the most humane thing to do for a fish that has swallowed a non-retrievable hook is take a blunt object and hit the fish ontop of the head firmly. You have to do this multiple times, or the fish will not be completed "executed."

You probably need to cull fish anyway, so this is a good situation to do so.

Don't let the fish swim around in complete frustration and panic. The best thing to do is put it out of it's misery.

The more I fish, the more I tend to treat foul-hooked fish with peanut oil. I hate finding them the next day and realizing they could be in the freezer instead. Like Jimmy said, you need to remove some anyway, whether bass, bream, or what have you.

Even if the the fish survives, there is usually a sharp decline in the WR of that badly hooked fish which will take a very long time to recover as it heals.

Eat it. Thats the way it was intended. I have noticed if you try to remove it hardly at all its to late if you see its swallowed either release it without digging at it or keep it.

Here is a good article on removing hooks from deeply hooked LMB, it can be done, but takes some practice to get good at it.

http://www.in-fisherman.com/magazine/articles/if2806_HookRemoval/

I only use barbless hooks anymore. MUCH safer for the fisherman, especially for the kids. Hooks come right out. Last year was the first time I tried barbless and I will never go back to barbed hooks. I can release a bass in 10 seconds most times even using Rapalas with 3 sets of treble hooks. You may want to consider going barbless.

I have used the through-the-gills technique described in the above referenced In Fisherman article for many years. Being a surgeon, it occured to me naturally. But being a surgeon something else occurs to me too, that I have not seen mentioned in articles on swallowed hook removal. It is quite likely in many cases that internal bleeding and organ damage is done by the swallowed hook during the fight with the fish so that whether the hook is removed or not is beside the point just like removing the bullet after a gunshot wound.
After all the fish has been dragged out of the water by a sharp object which perforates its esophagus.The hook point is not waving around in the air as it does when it encircles the mandible, it is it vascularized tissue.
For this reason, I am dubious about the optimism of those who say a high percentage of deep hooked fish survive. Simply watching a fish swim away is not the same as finding it alive two weeks later.
Of course, I still make every attempt to release fish that swallow hooks but have no illusions about all or even most of them living.

Great post, Dr. Runkle!

If a person is using live bait, then I highly recommend the use of circle hooks. We have had many posts on this in the past.

We have very heavy fishing pressure on our 4-acre lake. Before using circle hooks, we would often find fish with 1-4 hooks in their mouths where we had cut off the leaders on swallowed hooks. Now, with the use of circle hooks, 99.5% of the fish are caught in the lip. When a fish has swallowed a hook, we usually find that the hook had been straightened.

It takes a while to get used to using circle hooks. You don't set the hook, just let the fish move away and hook itself.

Barbless hooks do have a disadvatage to the fish as they penetrate much deeper and are much more likely to cause some organ damage when swallowed. It is debatable whether or not barbless hooks are actually better for the fish.

I have been using a method similar to the in-fisherman article for 10 years now and have seen very little mortality at our pond. I don't go through the gills though. The reason I do this is that one October I left a "chrome plated" offset worm hook in a 14" LMB throat, the following spring I caught the same fish with the hook still in it's throat and it was super skinny, I did get it removed at that point. It's probably ok to leave a std. steel hook in the fishes throat to rust, but a chrome plated hook is whole different ball of wax as it will be there a long time before it rusts out.

The through the gill technique works better than anything else I have seen. I know it works because I was recently on a fishing trip when our guide deep hooked a bass and caught it again the next day. It works a lot easier for me on fish that are over two pounds because on smaller fish its harder to get through the gill slits. It also seems harder on hsb because their mouths are smaller. Thanks shorty for posting the article from in fisherman. I'm going to print it to take with me.

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.

Shorty Gamakatsu makes a wide angle barbless circle hook that most of the time hooks them in the lip and for me is easier to remove from the gullet if it swallowed.

Put them in the hot grease slowly so you don't burn yourself.

I too have caught a fish that swallowed a hook, released it and caught the same fish moments later. I personally don't believe the fish was still feeding due to hunger. I believe it was only trying to clear it's gullet of the lodged object. Think of it as a person drinking milk to wash down a dry cookie that grandma made.

Hey Shorty...the first time about a one pound RE kinda "crimps" them crusher teeth on the end of yer finger...makes ya jump a bit, eh? Kinda freaky...but I use your method, too. Prolly outta must filet the dang things out. Haven't seen any floating yet...but expect to see some, now that some of the nephews have figured out I've got some dandies...

Absolutley freaky...it's even freakier is when you get your finger tip 3/4" of an inch past a LMB's crusher teeth.

Helpful hint, when doing this with LMB I try and get my fingernail up against the barb of the hook before I start to turn the hook around.