Ever had a bass purposely swallow your hook?

[Nibbles]

So yesterday I caught one that was *sort of* gut hooked. I mean, the hook was barely hooked onto its gullet, so it should have been an easy removal. However, as I lip the little guy and bring out the needlenose, the fish starts to bite my thumb. I look in its mouth, and lo and behold, the dumb thing was attempting to swallow my plastic worm along with the hook! I get my pliers onto the hook, and it just makes the fish try to swallow everything even harder, like I'm trying to steal his meal or something. ;D

It becomes a tug of war of sorts. Fortunately, the hook didn't get hooked even deeper and it eventually was released unharmed. It did manage to swallow the plastic worm though, although I do not know how bad it will be for the fish in the long run. Unfortunately, I'm no surgeon, and by the time I noticed, it already had most of my hook down its gullet as well.

Has anyone ever had a similar scenario where a dumb bass just does the most ridiculous things after being caught?

[billsarima]

I caught a largemouth Bass last weekend on a crankbait.  As I was removing both treble hooks from his mouth he decided he wanted nothing to do with surgery and began to flop around. My fingers slipped off his lower lip and the fish fell.  Somewhere between me pulling out the hooks with my needle nose and his flopping one set of trebles came loose. As the fish fell the one set of trebles lodged in my hand and the fish was still hooked on the other end.  Needless to say he was still flopping.  I grabbed the fish pulled the treble from my hand.  As the blood ran down my hand I continued to pull the treble from the fish and then debated if I was going to keep this fish for dinner.  I guess it was his lucky day, I threw him back as my fishing partner just laughed.

[boneil]

I think its a natural reaction for the fish.  I've had it happen numerous times when the hook is just starting to go down the throat.

[Gale1980]

happens quite a bit to me with frogs..... ticks me off to no end lol!

[Nibbles]

happens quite a bit to me with frogs..... ticks me off to no end lol!

Kind of makes you wonder just exactly how smart these bass really are doesn't it? People constantly talk about outsmarting the bass - I think they give those dumb fish way too much credit. ;D

I refuse to believe that a fish dumb enough to try to swallow a plastic lure right after having a hook jammed through its gullet for attempting to hit it in the first place is at the same time smart enough to avoid my baits on purpose.

[Missouribassman95]

I caught a largemouth Bass last weekend on a crankbait. As I was removing both treble hooks from his mouth he decided he wanted nothing to do with surgery and began to flop around. My fingers slipped off his lower lip and the fish fell. Somewhere between me pulling out the hooks with my needle nose and his flopping one set of trebles came loose. As the fish fell the one set of trebles lodged in my hand and the fish was still hooked on the other end. Needless to say he was still flopping. I grabbed the fish pulled the treble from my hand. As the blood ran down my hand I continued to pull the treble from the fish and then debated if I was going to keep this fish for dinner. I guess it was his lucky day, I threw him back as my fishing partner just laughed.

Ohh man that must of sucked!

[NorCalFishinguru]

It's just a reaction. If you touch the fish around the crusher plates or back of the throat theyll try to swallow. They dont want whatevers there clogging their throat and being irritating, its not because theyre hungry. I hooked a small bass on a frog and oe of the points was hooked well into the hard white ridges of the gills. I frantically looked at the side of the fish hoping i didnt bleed it and was elated to see it was fine. I striggled to unhook it with my needle noses because his mouth was so small and the frog was all bunched up and he kept trying to swalow everything. When i finally popped the hook point out and was carefully trying to remove the point from hif gills he shook super violently and shot blood all over my face, sweatshirt and the boat. I felt sorry for that little guy, not much more i could have done  :'(