Killed a Big Bass :(

[jkoch]

I was fishing a Tiki Stick and gut hooked a 5-6 lb fish, which is huge for a 130 acre community lake in NEPA.  I feel awful now.  The only good part is that there was another guy there who took the fish to eat.

[SuskyDude]

Well now its dead.

Learn the "Through the gill Technique" and you will be able to release them with a very good chance of survival. Someone with more computer savy will be able to give you a link to the technique.

If you still cant get it out, cut the line and release her. There is still chance that the fish will survive. If you eat it, then there is no chance.

[roadwarrior]

Nope.

Don't think about it, fishing is a blood sport. Do your best and harvest the rest. Learn hook removal as well as you can, but fish are still going to die. Whether you eat fish or not, take them when you need to and find someone who will enjoy a great meal.

No harm done.

8-)

[Redlinerobert]

Last time I checked, bass are not on the endangered species list.    So you killed a bass.  I'm sure there are plenty more there.  Some lakes actually need harvesting to help the rest of the population grow.

[wagn]

Nope.

Don't think about it, fishing is a blood sport. Do your best and harvest the rest. Learn hook removal as well as you can, but fish are still going to die. Whether you eat fish or not, take them when you need to and find someone who will enjoy a great meal.

No harm done.

8-)

x2

Killing fish sucks, but it happens, and if someone is going to eat it then it's really just the same as buying haddock at the grocery store.

[Raul]

The only way you won 't ever kill a bass of any size is not fishing at all.

[tyrius.]

A LOT more bass are killed than people realize.  You can catch a fish and have it appear to swim away fine only for it to die later because of infection/injuries/fatigue/etc.

Fishermen say that they haven't killed a fish, but if they've caught any significant amount of fish then they have killed one without realizing it or knowing about it.  Not every dead fish floats.

[Lucky Craft Man]

Learn the "Through the gill Technique" .

This is a great technique.  I have used it many times and from what I can tell, the fish I have used it on swam away fine (though, from reading the other posts, they may have swam away to die somewhere else).  It's an easy technique to learn and when using Tiki Sticks, it will be used several times.

[roadwarrior]

Learn the "Through the gill Technique" and you will be able to release them with a very good chance of survival.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1128002349/22#22

8-)

[arul]

I went to home depot and got a good pair of wire cutters, and was able to cut the hook shaft way down, and remove much of the hook this way on my last Gut hook, and just left the rest of the hook in there.  I heard they have a chance at living this way much more so than trying to yank it out.

However, I never tried this gill technique though.  Hopefully I won't need to, but if I do end up Gut hooking again, I will give it a shot before going to my wire cutters.

[skillet]

Have done it myself, like wagn said IT SUCKS! Raul or roadwarrior said it better than I could...

                           As Ever,

                            skillet

[smlbass]

In a tournament, I have had a gut hook and just cut the line and left the hook in.  In the most recent tournament, I had a fish with a gut hook and was bleeding very badly.  I cut the line and left the hook in.  I put some Rejunvenade in the livewell, as is my standard practice, with the fish after it stopped bleeding.  This fish was weighed in as a live fish, three hours later, and the hook was gone from the gut.  I hope it survived, but you can never be sure.  

What amazed me was the hook wasn't visible when looking in the mouth an hour later.  The fish had actually gotten the hook down along with the string on the culling tag.  I had to pull the string out of him after he had done whatever he had done while in the livewell.  

A dead fish is just an aspect of fishing.  Sometimes its better to let nature takes its course and if they survive GREAT! if they don't, then it's a shame.  I have been with my kids on the boat and cut the line to give the fish a chance at survival instead of ripping the hook out and definitely killing it.

[jkoch]

Thanks a lot for the encouragement guys.  I've been fishing for 20 years and this is the first time I've tried to release a fish and she just floated.  I feel especially bad about it because the gut hooking is probably because of my own lack of focus.  My wife and son came down to the lake with me, and I was watching them run around while I was fishing.

I read up on the "through the gills technique," so I hope this won't happen again.

Thanks,

John

[Jeff C.]

through the gill worked for me the other day,, 1st time I tried it..

what I have done in the past is...

through the gill I use a side cutter and cut the line eye end of the hook off and then grab the hook with needle nose at the cut off and push the point through and pull the hook out point 1st.

works great too,

[jaystraw]

Yeah, I taught myself the through the gill trick and it's really easy and it works very well.  Takes some practice, but it's not that hard at all.

[wickyman]

Harsh reality is, that no matter how hard you try, with a gut hook, that fish will almost always die.  I had this issue with trout...  They almost always swallow the hook, not a huge deal because my father ate them, or froze them for later, so the issue was just watching your fingers when you gut it.  Bass are a great resource for food, when all else fails, especially in a survival situation.  I haven't ever had this happen to me, I usually hook a gill on the inside, or outside, or the lips.  Then again, I am pretty much away from tiki sticks lately.  

What size hook do you use?  I am using 3/0 wide gap lazer sharps, usually much too big for the fish to inhale, unless you find a rare whopper.  If you are really this worried about the hook embedding itself in the gullet of the fish, maybe try something with a couple treble hooks?  It sounds much harder than a worm, and hook, but it usually saves you a lot of time and effort...  Unless you are me, and hook a fish in the top jaw, and bottom of that same jaw, with both hooks...  Then it takes a little more time! lol

Either way, chances are, if you don't catch a fish by the jaw, lips, or whatever you call them, they are usually going to die...  Harsh reality of nature.  They are built to withstand only so much from their environment.  Just think of it, as a viable food source for other animals, or organisms, without which, the bass would end up dying anyhow.    They all go back to the earth, from which they came from, and life continues for the rest of the fish.    Don't let it get you down, just enjoy, you did a good thing by giving the fish to someone whom used it!  

[roadwarrior]

I don't think that is the case at all. Follow the procedure

described a few posts up and you can remove 99% of all

deep hooks without any injury to the fish.

8-)

[shocker1310]

I gut hooked a fish last weekend using a 5/0 hook.  She was 2lb 10oz, so definitely not a monster.  I just wasn't paying attention, and just for the record I was using 5" trick sticks from *.com, which are every bit as awesome as people say.  Caught 7 bass in the first 11 casts, including my new PB!!!

Anyways, back to the point.  It's possible to gut hook with a large hook if you're not paying attention.....