Bass Hooked Through Eye

[stk44]

I caught a few bass this morning. My biggest one was on a buzzbait. I Hooked him through the jaw and right through the membrane beneath the eye. I couldn't bend the eye of the hook to get a better angle for hook removal, since it was still imbedded in the fishes jaw. I tried to easily unhook it and I could see a little blood filling up in the bass's eye. I switched to hemostats and tried to hold from the bend of the hook and pull with my finger and it made the fishes eye bulge out. Finally I wet a rag placed it around the fishes eye and held my two fingers on either side of the bass's eye and pulled the hook out. It didn't look as bad as I thought, but I'm pretty sure the fish is blind. Is there a better way to approach this? I'm pretty sure the bass survived, I revived him for a about a minute, he stayed shallow but was completely upright for a few minutes, eventually he swam off.

[Montanaro]

Part of fishing. Best thing to do is pop hook out asap and get it back in water with or without eye. I've caught a couple one eyed fish and I'm sure others here have as well.

[BassnChris]

Yep...part of fishing.

If the hook is sticking out enough.....I will take the diagonal cutters I have and cut the barb off....to make hook removal easier for the fish. That's just me.

[Jdw2920]

Yea I had one do this and I tried to get hook out pulled eye out but I did my best and it swam off just be a one eyed fish

[blckshirt98]

Man, I caught a 5 pounder but I reeled him hooked only by the skin of it's left eye.  Got the hook out and didn't see any blood or eye fluid leaking out, released it hoping it made it through okay.

[BassinLou]

Unfortunately this happens sometimes. Do your best to remove the hook as carefully as you can. That's all you can do.

[MIbassyaker]

Yeah, better to not lose an eye, but better still not to die from being out of the water too long.

[gardnerjigman]

It's as common as biting your own lip or tongue. If it bothers anyone, they better just put their gear in the fishing flea market

[RoLo]

When you blind a bass in one eye, you've blackened half of that predator's world for the rest of its life.

Does that bother me?  You bet it does, and if I attempted to trivialize that event I wouldn't be true to myself. 

However, the alternative is to give up angling, and that bothers me even more  

 

Roger

[Bluebasser86]

Pinch the barb down and it will slide back out much easier next time, but you're still going to get one in the eye once in awhile. 

 

I've caught big fish that were blind in both eyes and doing just fine. Bass live in water so muddy they can't see their noses sometimes and still feed effectively using their other senses. While it's unfortunate when it does happen, just know you didn't give that fish a death sentence by doing that. 

[boostr]

Happened to me a few weeks back. Caught one on a frog, and had both hooks thru the top of the mouth. Unfortunately when I removed the hook one of the eyes started filling with blood, but he swam off fine. It bothered me a little, but realized that there are bass out there that were caught totally blind or have one eye that are chunkers.

[Josh Smith]

I just did this yesterday.

First thing I did was to get the sun on my back instead of the bass.

Second thing I did was whip out the Leatherman, rather than waste time at the tacklebox getting tools. I squashed the barb and slide the hook right out.

I don't know any fast way to check a bass's vision, but there was no blood or other fluid so I assume it was fine.

Josh

[Neil McCauley]

I keep a very sharp 4-5" fixed blade knife + sheath on my belt for removing hooks from eyes. The sharper the better, so you can just graze the surface of the eye and allow the hook to come out. If you can't get it out you should just keep the fish.

[*Hootie]

Yep...part of fishing.

If the hook is sticking out enough.....I will take the diagonal cutters I have and cut the barb off....to make hook removal easier for the fish. That's just me.

Did this just last week. I used mini bolt cutters. Cut the barb off, slid the hook out, no harm done.

Hootie

[kadas]

Yep...part of fishing.

If the hook is sticking out enough.....I will take the diagonal cutters I have and cut the barb off....to make hook removal easier for the fish. That's just me.

X2

[golfrnut]

I have recently, after seeing others say they do it on this forum, started smashing my barbs down.  I do it now before I even use the lures.  Haven't had any ill effects so far and so much better for the fish.  I am sold on it now, even more so for treble hooks which I hate with a passion.

[stk44]

Since the hook was through the jaw and into the eye, I couldn't smash the barb down. That was the problem I was having.

[StinkyBass]

Did this just last week. I used mini bolt cutters. Cut the barb off, slid the hook out, no harm done.

Hootie

 

This is what I do if the hook is sticking through a tender part of any fish. my leatherman does the job well and it prevents from tearing out flesh and further complicating the injury.

 

part of fishing, hope this helps!

[Paul Roberts]

It's a part of fishing, but something I try to avoid by refining my gear to minimize damage. Fish are beautiful creatures –I appreciate every one– and disfiguring them just detracts from the experience.

 

Hook gap is the major culprit in piercing eyes, and spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are probably the worst. Lots of bass lures have large gapped hooks, but on spinnerbaits the shank tends to be long and the hook point rides upright, more often hooking fish in the upper jaw, sometimes deeply. In some waters, where the bass are generally smaller, I'll use smaller SBs with a smaller hook.

 

The other problem with SBs, esp the older models (I have a bunch) and those with cheaper hooks, have extra large barbs on them, which makes unhooking both difficult and more destructive. So I bend the barbs down quite a ways. Many good hooks nowadays have small or “micro” barbs and these hold well and make unhooking less traumatic.

 

Many jigs use large gapped hooks, esp the Flippin’ variety, and they ride upright too. But they more rarely stick eyes, possibly bc jig hooks tend to be shorter shanked but also possibly due to the way bass strike and handle jigs, placing most in the corner of the jaw, inside the gill covers, or near the front of the upper jaw. Nostrils are at risk and I’ve not found much I can do about that.

 

The other place I use large hooks is with soft plastics. Here again, the nature of the strike to hook-set sequence (often with some amount of slack at play) places hooks more randomly, with many in the corner of the jaws. I do get some gill and esophagus hooked fish and these are the most dangerous for the fish. I finally went barbless with many of my soft plastics and they catch and hold fish just fine. The exception is when using heavy sinker weights or when on jig heads. Jigs simply need the barb to hold due to the compact weight affixed to the hook allowing the fish leverage to throw it.

 

The last place I finally went barbless was with trebled crankbaits and topwaters –excepting lipless cranks. Got sick of the mangled jaws they can produce. Barbless trebles hold just fine and are so easy, and safe, to remove it’s… amazing. Micro-barbed trebles are a good compromise, esp when spirited, high-jumping smallies are apt to be encountered.

[Nelson Wormefeller]

Be careful with your eyes if you cut the barb off with cutters. The tips can go flying off at near light speed.

[BooyahMan]

It sucks, but it's just something that happens when fishing. I've done it accidentally a few times with sunfish, and usually the hook isn't through their mouth but just through the eye itself. The worst one I experienced was hooking the eyeball on a Steelhead smolt while fishing for early season Coho Salmon. I didn't realize where it was hooked at first but when I tried to land it the hook "popped" off. I suddenly see the smolt swimming around in circles down the river, and upon inspection I found one of its eyes still attached to my hook.

 

Luckily, this is a very rare occurrence. You're using a sharp instrument to puncture a fish in the mouth, and sometimes it just doesn't end up where it's supposed to be. 

[Karma]

If they meet regulation length...

 

I usually take those eye hooked fish home and eat them.

[Rhino68W]

I've actually pulled an EYE up with a small crankbait. Guess the bass took a swipe at it and it took his eye off. Bad luck for him and me!

[OntarioFishingGuy]

Crush your barbs. Its easier on you and the fish.

[BooyahMan]

I definitely agree with those saying pinch your barbs if you are that concerned about it. As long as you don't let the line go slack while fighting, the hooks will almost always stick just as well as a barbed hook.