Have you ever caught a fish without hooking it in the mouth?

[Mumbly]

I don't have a picture but 2 years ago I had probably my worst bass catching experience, where I caught a smallmouth on a spook and had a treble in each eye. I even clipped the trebles off just past the barb to try to minimize damage while removing it, but I can't help but think that I blinded that fish.

[Spankey]

Doesn't happen to often when I'm out but certainly not uncommon. This was from August of 2015 and pretty sure I've had foul hooks since. "Ouch" is all I can say. He want back and took off like no problem.

["hamma"]

  Many times, I dont photo op alot anyways as my attention is on the bite, and setting a possible pattern.

 I once felt a "hit" and got a good hookset, the fish fought hard and as I finally got a look at it I noticed its a fouled hook fish, and near the tail,...I brought it aboard, and found that the hook had inserted itself in the fish's anus,....Talk about a pain in the ,...

[Jar11591]

Hooked a walleye in the base of the tail. No idea how. 

[SMcLamb]

A good bit of my fish on a vision 110 are hooked outside the mouth. They swipe at it or go to hit it and don't get it in their mouths but the hooks are sharp and stick in their sides. More impressive that I wouldn't believe if I hadn't seen was a 4 pounder that choked a one knocker so hard it had the whole body of the lure past its gullet with both trebles sticking out not touching anything, he just wouldn't let it go.

[jimf]

One of my "bizarro" fishing stories had something to do with this.   Boy scout camping trip - we were fishing a small spring fed pond with gin clear water and when the kids would hook up a bluegill the bass would emerge from the depths and investigate.   Kids figured out pretty quick that what that bluegill on the end of their line really was was bait.   One kid had a bass on shore but didn't lip him - the fish was not hooked by a hook, but rather the splayed dorsal fins of the bluegill that lodged in it's throat.  The fish broke off as the kid was trying to lift him.

 

Fast forward a few hours, nighttime, kids around the campfire, I finally get a chance to do a little fishing myself.  I take a fly rod out with a big deer hair popper.   BOOM.  Something hits it hard, I end up landing the fish, it's probably 5 pounds.   As you probably can guess, it was the same fish with the bluegill still lodged in it's gullet.  

 

That was a hungry fish that day.

[Spankey]

I my opinion or findings is that this happens more with juvenile fish. A few smaller fish will run right along with the bait and bump at it. Any nice bass I've ever caught in my lifetime has never been foul hooked. A foul hooked always feels bigger than it really is. I would say this situation is just very rare but not totally unlikely considering how aggressively they hit and feed at times

[Dwight Hottle]

I once netted three walleyes with one dip of the net. While netting one hooked walleye two others swimming with the hooked walleye ended up in the net. It was during spring spawn when the males are always a little crazy. True story. 

[WDE]

On 2/3/2017 at 6:48 PM, reb67 said:

 

 

[iiTzChunky]

I've had problems with hooking bass nearly right between the eyes on the top of their heads, almost like they just bump the lure and I set the hook thinking they've taken it. Luckily never hooked into an eye blinding them. 

[Dwight Hottle]

29 minutes ago, iiTzChunky said:

I've had problems with hooking bass nearly right between the eyes on the top of their heads, almost like they just bump the lure and I set the hook thinking they've taken it. Luckily never hooked into an eye blinding them. 

 

It's not your imagination. Fish will bump a bait to stun it before eating it especially if they have been following it. This happens frequently with lake trout. 

[iiTzChunky]

1 hour ago, Dwight Hottle said:

 

It's not your imagination. Fish will bump a bait to stun it before eating it especially if they have been following it. This happens frequently with lake trout. 

It's only happened to me at a high pressured lake, has happened 3 times probably but I kept thinking I was doing somthing wrong, with being new to fishing and all, till I learned the bass will bump them like that. 

[sage]

On 2/3/2017 at 4:13 PM, mllrtm79 said:

I should have taken a picture, but my hands were cold... caught one last night on a Livingston something or another that I got from one of the boxes. Hooked him just behind the lip on top of the skull. I thought when I pulled him up that the tail hook was in his eye socket, so I went to work on freeing him instead of taking a photo. 

 

 

This past season I caught I was fishing the river using a drop shot. I caught about a 6" rock bass as I was reeling it in a 40" musky swallowed it up. After about a 15 minute fight I brought him to the boat. The musky was never hooked just to stubborn to let go. ?

[VAHunter]

I caught a 3+ lb. bass on a t-rig.  When I got it in the boat I noticed the line somehow wrapped around the fish's head and was pulled under the gill plate when I set the hook.  The worm and hook were both hanging about an inch below the fish.  The hook never even penetrated all the way through the worm. 

[WTnPuddleJumper]

hung a 45lb grass carp in the tail once throwing a 6xd.  for the first couple of minutes thought I hung a state record.  Also once set the hook on a 3 lb largemouth pitching a brush hog, fought him, and flipped him in the boat. He came off as soon as he landed in the boat, so I released him, then went to re set my brushawg on the hook and realized the bass was never hooked.  the hook had never broke the skin of the bait. 

[Choporoz]

3 minutes ago, WTnPuddleJumper said:

hung a 45lb grass carp in the tail once throwing a 6xd. 

Last year I tail hooked a large carp from my kayak.  Took me for quite a ride.  Not a lot of leverage available.  No clue as to the weight.  I was barely able to get the tail alongside and retrieve my crank; let alone land it.

[scaleface]

21 hours ago, iiTzChunky said:

It's only happened to me at a high pressured lake, has happened 3 times probably but I kept thinking I was doing somthing wrong, with being new to fishing and all, till I learned the bass will bump them like that. 

Several times while fishing in an aluminium boat  I heard  bass  bumping into a lip-less crankbait while hopping it off the bottom . Sometimes they will smack it repeatedly all the way to the surface .

[blckshirt98]

I've landed a few foul hooked bass but the worst one that I still think about to this day, was one I had hooked right through the eyeball.  It was a big one too, 5+ easy but I didn't weigh it, I just wanted to get the hook out and let the fish get back in the water.  It fought hard and I was pulling hard on it too, no idea how the eyeball didn't just rip right out the socket.

[scaleface]

On 2/5/2017 at 11:13 AM, Dwight Hottle said:

I once netted three walleyes with one dip of the net. While netting one hooked walleye two others swimming with the hooked walleye ended up in the net. It was during spring spawn when the males are always a little crazy. True story. 

I have never heard that one before . 

[Scarborough817]

a smallmouth turned on my popper so quick it hooked itself in the side i thought i was like a 6 pounder bringing it in but it was just foul hooked

[Spankey]

4 hours ago, Scarborough817 said:

a smallmouth turned on my popper so quick it hooked itself in the side i thought i was like a 6 pounder bringing it in but it was just foul hooked

Thought I caught a few state record smallies only to be a foul hooked runts.

[soflabasser]

Interesting subject with good timing. A couple weeks ago I caught a bass with my bare hands since the bass beached itself like a Orca while attacking some baitfish on the shore.

[Bucky205]

Yes,  Fly fishing for salmon in Alaska during the spawn.  They are so thick it looks like you could walk on them.  They have to be released when not hooked in the mouth.  It literally seems you catch 4 to 1 not hooked in the mouth.

[Dwight Hottle]

On 2/6/2017 at 5:38 PM, Spankey said:

Thought I caught a few state record smallies only to be a foul hooked runts.

 

 

 

I say this all the time " this is a big smallmouth unless it's foul hooked"

[RoLo]

"Ever caught a fish without hooking the mouth?"

 

Oh yeah, and a few times I believe I hooked the fish next to him