Cutting Fish Free

[Reeso]

does anyone know what the chances of survival are for fish that get hooked and then break free with the hook still embedded in their mouth. Would a fish be able to feed normally witha hook in its mouth and would it be able to rub it free on a rock or something? or do they just eventually die?

[trev]

Most of the time hooks just rust away if the fish is hooked just in the mouth, but if it is hooked in he throat or gut it will most definetily die quick.

If the fish is gut hooked and bleeding the best thing to do is put it out of its misery.

cheers

gabzi

56411[/snapback]

I have caught a tailor off the beach and a flathead in lanecove that when cleaned had hooks in the guts old black and rusty but still there. Pretty freaky

Cheers

Trev

[Heath]

I've caught several fish with hooks in their gut as well. Some with new hooks some with the hook that rusted that it almost fell apart when removed.

[Trouble]

The usual fish that i find gang hooks in the stomach are salmon,tailor flatties and they have been of good size fish so yeah dont think it affects them too much but off course there is allway going be fish that you catch that arent going to survive for much longer..this topic also brings up the question, should we use chemically sharpened hooks or hooks that are able to rust away in a few months time..

[pogo]

Dont know if I agree with you Gabi,

The studies I have read have indicated that a high proportion of fish ( over 80% and some species high into the 90s) will recover from being hooked as long as they are handled correctly,

Remove any hooks in the mouth or jaw, (Barbless hooks help here so if youre fishing intending to release squash down you barbs with a pair of pliers,)

this is best done with the fish still in the water or removed for the shortest period of time possible (if removing from water avoid coarse nets and place the fish on a wet towel or similar to avoid damaging its protective slime coating for larger active fish placing a corner of the towel over their eyes tends to quiet them down)

If the fish is hooked in the throat or further down, the best release is to cut the line close to the fishes mouth while it is still in the water. The worst possible option here is to try out your surgery skills and try and remove the hook, this will usually damage the fish badly.

Most fish will readily eat some pretty sharp and spiny things, oysters, crabs, small baitfish with sharp spines. Trout eat wasps and beesand live yabbbies. So their systems will handle punctures to the gut system.

Ive caught a number of fish that had evidence of being previously hooked, the two most noteworthy where a trout that had a hook in its throat that still had a live wriggling scrubworm on it and a tailor from pittwater that had a gang of three stainless hooks in it, two of the hooks were hanging out the gill rakers on one side.

The stuff Ive read reckons that a fishes body fluids will corrode a hook down in 7 to 10 days,

Fish hooked on lures will try and rub them off, I hooked a litlle barra near weipa once and had the line go loose cause of a dodgy knot (DOH), the litlle bloke was about 35 cmslong and jumped once and then tried to power into a snag at which point the line let go. Anyway to cut the story short, I tied on another lure, more carefully this time and went to cast back at the snag, as I was looking at the snag my other lure floated to the surface. You beauty.

The secret to successful release is to minimise out of water time and get them off as soon as possible, cut the line if necessary, hooks are cheap, dont use stainless if you can. If your fishing for a feed using bait and get your feed, change to lures as you get a lot less deeply hooked fish with lures and usually are much easier to release.

If fishing for fun debarb your hooks, you'll be glad of it the day you are on the pointy end, it happens to us all sooner or later and a debarbed hook just slides back out with a minimum of pain

The only fish that seem to recover poorly are those bleeding heavily from the gills, but once again if you put them in a bucket they are dead for sure.

Treat all fish the same an unwanted species or an undersize fish deserves the same respect as a prize species.

Except CARP KILL THEM.

Regards POGO

Edited July 4, 2005 by pogo

[kevvie]

I don't agree with you either gabi. If your releasing a fish and it is gut hooked i believe that how you relaese it will determine whether it will live or die (not always so cut and dry i know).

But putting a fish out of it's misery sounds a little defeatist to me

[Warpig]

does anyone know what the chances of survival are for fish that get hooked and then break free with the hook still embedded in their mouth

56400[/snapback]

What about if they're trailing a 2/0 deceiver and a 8WF flyline?...

I haven't quite done that yet, but had plenty of bust-ups on kingies and giant trevally etc where the fish has taken a big lure, 3 m of 50 lb leader and a few metres of mainline.

Anyone caught a fish trailing anything long? I guess such fish would be to preoccupied to eat anything, but I'm always concerned about them when this happens.

[pogo]

have you seen no no nos picture of the jewie with a dog collar on

The trout I caught with the worm in its mouth was trailing about a metre of about 10lb mono and it scoffed a olive wooly bugger

Edited July 4, 2005 by pogo

[Aero]

Even a gut hooked fish has a better chance of survival in the water, than in the esky.

Chris

Edited July 4, 2005 by Aero

[dart]

I caught a flathead 70cm and it had one 1/0 hook in its gut and it seemed fine and boy was it good on the plate

Edited July 4, 2005 by dart