Unhooking

[JellyMan]

I am no beginner by any means. But I keep having trouble unhooking bass. The hook isnt ever really jammed in there, but it's usually in the mouth and inside the skin and doesnt budge. It usually takes me  a bit to unhook. I was holding a 7lber "friend thought he got the pics but didnt" and my hand was starting to kill me.

I see these guys pull hooks out within 10 seconds. Is there a little trick to this?

[burleytog]

Plenty of practice.  A gentle slam of the palm on the head of a jig or eye of a hook will usually pop a hook loose.

[Use ONLY Stren]

X2 Pop the palm of your hand against the hook eye.

[JellyMan]

Good tip!

But what if it's inside the mouth? I try to keep the ripping and damage to a minimum but would a quick agresive rip be ok? That seems like the easiest option... a quick pop or rip.

[Dalton Tam]

I had the same problem the other day. I went up to Oklahoma with a buddy of mine and they've got some beautiful farm ponds up in this area. I was using and zoom super fluke "terrin em up" they would sometimes swallow the hook and I's hook them deep in the throat. Most people say to just leave the hook in and let it rust out on its own.  I always keep a pocket knife on me and keep it as razor sharp as I can so I would just make the smallest cut that I could without terring the fish up, and my hook eventually eased out.  The fish weren't bleeding and they seemed to all swim off just fine without any floaters.  When this happens, this is the best explanation that I got.

[BigBassGuy]

A pop of the palm works great. If its inside the mouth the best way I have found is to take your middle and index finger bend them like a hook and use them to clamp into a corner of the fishes mouth. Then use the pad of your thumb and place it onto the top of hook eye and push down with the thumb and pull up with your other fingers. It will keep alot of the pressure off the jaw and help prevent the damage you could cause if your just holding onto the bottom of the jaw and pushing down on the hook.

[grimlin]

There's always bending down the barb.  

[Crestliner2008]

There's always bending down the barb.

X2 - All my hooks have the barb crushed down. No logical reason for it being there, unless you're in a tourney. The only hooks I leave the barbs on are my drop shotting hooks, since 90% of the time they're lip hooked on the very edges of the mouth.

[ShouldBe0utdoors]

Try twisting the hook if it isn't too deep in their mouth. Sometimes the hook will pop out.

[swilly78]

I have to agree with crushing the barbs, I started doing this year and its made a world of difference.  If you play the fish right, you dont lose any fish, and being strictly catch and release Im not broken hearted by the occasional "escapee".

[mrlitetackle]

the barb crush is the way to go......

granted, not all of my hooks or lures are in that boat...... but a good portion of them are....

i havent suffered any noticeable loss of fish with the unbarbed compared to the barbed, and it is much less stressful on the fish im sure.

(as little stress that a hook in the face can cause at least  )

[Fishing Rhino]

When I resumed fishing last year after a thirty plus year hiatus, I was amazed at how tiny the barbs were compared to the barbs of back in the day.

Some were barely noticable.

When I run into a situation such as you describe, I use long nose pliers or forceps to remove the hook. Fingers do not always work because they do not afford you the space to manipulate the hook.

I pull the hook slightly, as though trying to imbed it even deeper while I move the eye of the hook toward the flesh where the hook is embedded. This reduces or eliminates the "bite" the barb has on the fish, making removal easier.

It's the same motion on the hook that is applied with the string technique for quick and easy removal of a hook from a finger or hand.

See figures 2 and 3 in article below. You'll notice that the retrograde technique (which is what you'll be using) and the string-yank technique apply similar forces on the hook.

[Paul Roberts]

Two suggestions:

-Figure out how the hook went in, then back it out exactly the same way. Figuring how it went in makes a BIG difference.

-Go barbless. Seriously. I've even gone barbless with my hardbaits. They hold just fine and are SO easy to remove.

[Tim Ford]

needle nose pliers...

[TommyBass]

-Figure out how the hook went in, then back it out exactly the same way. Figuring how it went in makes a BIG difference.

X2.. no need to "slam" the palm of your hand against the hook and force it out.  That just does more damage to the fish when the barb is forced out in reverse.  All you have to do is look at the entrance and line the hook up right and it comes out easy almost every time.  Somtimes its hard to tell which 180 degree plane it entered on, so just try one, if it dosn't work, rotate it 180 and try again.   Needle nose pliers definately help... they give you more leverage along with more room.   Its mostly just practice though...