gut hooked fish

[Clumsy fisherman]

I looked at the following video. Very interesting. Opinions?

 

 

[A-Jay]

Like many here, I have a few decades of experience successfully removing hooks from bass including deep deals.

Using the right tools, learning how to delicately enter through a gill if necessary,  and I very rarely have anything but a successful release. Can't remember leaving a hook in a fish.  Some of that comes from strike detection ability.  I do occasionally catch bass where it seems like an angler may have simply cut the line and those bass almost always seem a little rough around the edges.  If I can safely do it, I'll normally relieve that fish of it.  

A-Jay

[padlin]

I have no problem cutting the line for a gut hooked fish when using something fairly cheap like a T rig, I'd probably thinkhtwice if it were a $7 crank.

[Clumsy fisherman]

20 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Like many here, I have a few decades of experience successfully removing hooks from bass including deep deals.

Using the right tools, learning how to delicately enter through a gill if necessary,  and I very rarely have anything but a successful release. Can't remember leaving a hook in a fish.  Some of that comes from strike detection ability.  I do occasionally catch bass where it seems like an angler may have simply cut the line and those bass almost always seem a little rough around the edges.  If I can safely do it, I'll normally relieve that fish of it.  

A-Jay

It sounds like you do a good and careful job. I thought the same as you until I watched the above linked video. The problem is you just see them the instant they swim away, not days or weeks later. So there is no way to know about the long term survival rate. Here is something else I found:

 

https://anglingunlimited.com/fishing/catch-release-properly/#:~:text=If a fish is gut,to them when they bite.

 

I fish from banks and piers, so there is no way that I can follow the advice in the article, but I will be using octopus circle hooks from now on and reeling the fish in as soon as it bites. I may see if I can get a bucket of water to put the fish in when I land or net it or at least to dip my hands in before I touch the fish to dehook it. 

[Team9nine]

Circle hooks will definitely cut down on the mortality of fish, mainly because you'll simply miss a lot more fish than you would have otherwise. Hard to hurt a fish that bites that you never end up hooking  

 

There have been several more recent studies come out than those mentioned in the video supporting line cutting over any hook removal techniques. These have primarily come out of Stephen Cooke's lab. How well the lab data translates to the field is the big unknown. If I were using live bait or a single wacky hook where the hook was swallowed deep and I could easily remove the plastic/live bait, I'd seriously consider just cutting the line and releasing the fish without attempting a hook removal based on those studies. Most other bait types, you probably have to go in and try to safely remove the lure/hook.

 

The last thought on the video is at the end when he mentions barbless causing less mortality - that has largely been disproven at this point. Several other advantages to going barbless you could point to, but decreased catch mortality isn't one of them.

[Bird]

Pair of cutters on the boat has put many smiles on my face.

 

[Clumsy fisherman]

3 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Circle hooks will definitely cut down on the mortality of fish, mainly because you'll simply miss a lot more fish than you would have otherwise. Hard to hurt a fish that bites that you never end up hooking  

 

There have been several more recent studies come out than those mentioned in the video supporting line cutting over any hook removal techniques. These have primarily come out of Stephen Cooke's lab. How well the lab data translates to the field is the big unknown. If I were using live bait or a single wacky hook where the hook was swallowed deep and I could easily remove the plastic/live bait, I'd seriously consider just cutting the line and releasing the fish without attempting a hook removal based on those studies. Most other bait types, you probably have to go in and try to safely remove the lure/hook.

 

The last thought on the video is at the end when he mentions barbless causing less mortality - that has largely been disproven at this point. Several other advantages to going barbless you could point to, but decreased catch mortality isn't one of them.

Thanks for the additional info. Since I release anything I catch (which has been nothing lately) I would rather miss a catch than kill a bass.

3 hours ago, Bird said:

Pair of cutters on the boat has put many smiles on my face.

 

Do you cut the hook itself or just the line?

[DogBone_384]

On 7/16/2022 at 4:09 PM, A-Jay said:

I very rarely have anything but a successful release.

Ditto…

[Bird]

1 hour ago, Clumsy fisherman said:

 

Do you cut the hook itself or just the line?

I cut the barb and usually saves the fish.

Get rid of the barb and the hook is more manageable to remove. 

[hunterPRO1]

9 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Circle hooks will definitely cut down on the mortality of fish, mainly because you'll simply miss a lot more fish than you would have otherwise. Hard to hurt a fish that bites that you never end up hooking  

 

There have been several more recent studies come out than those mentioned in the video supporting line cutting over any hook removal techniques. These have primarily come out of Stephen Cooke's lab. How well the lab data translates to the field is the big unknown. If I were using live bait or a single wacky hook where the hook was swallowed deep and I could easily remove the plastic/live bait, I'd seriously consider just cutting the line and releasing the fish without attempting a hook removal based on those studies. Most other bait types, you probably have to go in and try to safely remove the lure/hook.

 

The last thought on the video is at the end when he mentions barbless causing less mortality - that has largely been disproven at this point. Several other advantages to going barbless you could point to, but decreased catch mortality isn't one of them.

someone needs to learn how to set the hook with a circle, just reel, don't swing.

 

personally feel like I get better hooksets with them (i use owner)

[Team9nine]

8 hours ago, hunterPRO1 said:

someone needs to learn how to set the hook with a circle, just reel, don't swing.

 

personally feel like I get better hooksets with them (i use owner)

Use what you like - but there are numerous studies out there supporting the hooking inefficiency of circle hooks compared to other hook types. It seems circle hooks exist to solve for a bass fishing problem I don’t have, but perhaps some do based on how they fish. All good. Now, if I was using live bait or fishing for catfish…

[BassNJake]

I use my cutters everytime now.

I became pretty good at the thru the gill method.

But now its 10 times faster. I cut the hook as far down the shank as I can.

it pops out with my line, I grab the hook with the barb and it just slides out.

fish is back in the water pretty freaking fast with no metal

Hooks are cheap 

[gim]

Most often in the past, the gut hooked bass occurred when I was using a soft plastic wacky rig stick bait.  90% of this problem was solved when I switched over to a VMC Neko hook.  Almost all of the fish are hooked in the roof of the mouth.

 

On rare occasion, I still to hook a fish in a spot where it starts to bleed heavily.  The right tools and a short period of time out of the water should be adequate in all cases except a few.  I can't remember the last time I needed to consider cutting the line and leaving the hook in the fish.

[Jigfishn10]

Circle hooks have to be used with live bait - whole or cut - for striped bass here in New England. Research proved that striped bass didn't live much longer after being gut hooked. 

 

Along the US East Coast in 2019, it is estimated that:

 

My son (fairly new angler) missed so many yesterday on cut mackerel and circle hooks, it was frustrating to say the least. He had fun though.

[J Francho]

I keep a set of linesman's pliers in my boat for cutting hooks. That is probably the fastest. For any of those studies, I'd like to know what the time out of the water was and if they eliminated that variable. 

[Jigfishn10]

Fair question JF and a hard one to answer. Some guys are good at getting a deep hook out, some guys don’t care and will get the hook at any cost and some will just flat out take their time and basically suffocate the fish. 
 

The ones that don’t care about fish mortality in order to save a hook are the ones that drive me crazy.

[padlin]

Got curious and Googled "how long can you keep a bass out of the water without harm". A quick scan of the 1st page of hits shows answers ranging from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. Now I just have to Google who to believe.

[J Francho]

You have less than a minute. It might be still alive after 20 minutes, but it's pretty ridiculous to think it's going to live much longer. 

[Jig Man]

I can usually turn the hook and get the barb loose and remove the hook.  Once in a while I can’t so I keep a pair of D-BARB pliers handy.  I cut the hook and the magnet in the pliers holds the cut off when I pull them out. I’d rather put on a new bait than kill a fish.

 

[Zcoker]

If the fish is bleeding badly from a gut hook or gill hook, put back into the water for a few seconds to get the blood gelled up before the handy work begins. Fish blood coagulates much faster in the water. I've actually seen the bleeding stop altogether after a few seconds submerged. Out in the open air, the fish will bleed like an open facet. 

[king fisher]

    If I gut hook a fish, so deep I don't think I will be able to remove the hook without injuring the fish, or if the fish is bleeding badly, I eat the fish.  If I were fishing a place where it is illegal to release the fish, I would try my best to remove the hook, or cut the line depending on the situation.  wound and release does not help the fish population.  It doesn't hurt to keep a bass now and then, and they taste great.

[Team9nine]

55 minutes ago, padlin said:

Got curious and Googled "how long can you keep a bass out of the water without harm". A quick scan of the 1st page of hits shows answers ranging from 30 seconds to 20 minutes. Now I just have to Google who to believe.

 

I've got and read the studies showing no mortality of bass kept out of the water for 10, 13 and 15 minutes. Some of these studies included smallmouth, others were largemouth only. Smallmouth are more "sensitive" or affected than largemouth in this regard according to those studies. These would be 'worse case scenarios' in most any normal fishing situation. They also can't cover all environmental conditions, so these results aren't absolutes.

 

In regard to air exposure, shorter is better, and no exposure, keeping the fish largely in the water while unhooking and immediately releasing, is best...but bass are apparently much tougher than some other fish species.

[Cbump]

I’ve had my bass boat two years and fished probably 20 tournaments and numerous fun days. I’ve gut hooked 1 bass in that time and that was only because I stopped paying attention to my wacky rig to watch my son reel one in. That fish got eaten and I lost zero sleep over It. 
I’m just not seeing this as as big of a problem as this thread makes It seem. 

[Jig Man]

22 minutes ago, Cbump said:

I’ve had my bass boat two years and fished probably 20 tournaments and numerous fun days. I’ve gut hooked 1 bass in that time and that was only because I stopped paying attention to my wacky rig to watch my son reel one in. That fish got eaten and I lost zero sleep over It. 
I’m just not seeing this as as big of a problem as this thread makes It seem. 

We have a 15” minimum length limit.  Most gut hooked fish seem to be shorter.

[Cbump]

9 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

We have a 15” minimum length limit.  Most gut hooked fish seem to be shorter.

? agree it’s unfortunate to have to throw back a fish that will possibly die due to length requirements.