Deep hooked bass

[guilford]

I was fishing with a berkly powerworm and didn't feel the strike. So I ended up with a deep hooked bass. I removed the plastic worm but left the hook alone and released the bass. Does this bass have any chance of survival? I feel bad for doing this I hope I did the right thing by leaving the hook in there?

[Jigfishn10]

IMHO you did the right thing.

It's funny that this topic came up: The other day I was walking the dog at my local pond and caught a LMB. When I got her in I found a worm hook caught deep in her mouth. I was able to thread out the worm hook...although I had to go thru the gill plate with my pliers to get at it...set her back in the water and she splashed me with her tail while swimming away. That's gratitude for ya, but she was healthy.

[Bass_Akwards]

It can and most likely will survive. I've recaught the same bass I had to cut the line on and leave the hook in it's throat. After I found out about the method below, I recaught the bass and took the old hook out of it's throat. It looked like it lost a little weight, but it was still eating and hunting.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1128002349/16#16

[SoFlaBassAddict]

It can and most likely will survive. I've recaught the same bass I had to cut the line on and leave the hook in it's throat. After I found out about the method below, I recaught the bass and took the old hook out of it's throat. It looked like it lost a little weight, but it was still eating and hunting.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1128002349/16#16

Best way to handle it IMO. Takes a little practice, but it's fairly easy and quick to do it.

My daughters tend to hook fish deep like that, thats one reason I learned to pinch barbs down on most of my hooks.

[guilford]

Thanks for that info. I will do things differently from now on.

[Brian B]

I have read on here before and other sites to pour some 7-Up (or similar soda) down the throat.  I guess it helps to cauterize the wound.  Don't know if it really works or not, but I do it and havent lost a fish.

[Glenn]

Boy, sometimes I wonder why I even created the FAQ's.   :

[jerkw8nonajerk01]

Hi Glenn I was hoping you could direct me to this FAQ..not to say the discussion here is not helpful...i'm just a FAQ dork and pretty much learned the game from them here...thank you for any help

[Glenn]

Link is in my signature, the upper right (under "Quick Links"), and near the top of every forum.

[bassfiend]

If you can get the gill methoud to work to remove the hook definitely the best option (and has worked for me countless times over the years). However, once in a blue moon they flat out just eat and swallow what you have or you can't get a good angle through the gills and so forth. In that case, cutting the line and leaving the hook is your best option. I've caught a number of fish that had a hook in them still that seemed fine, but everytime that happens I will still try the gill methoud on those when it's practical b/c it's obviously best to get it out if you can do so safely.

Anyway, I was never really sure if they could survive with the hook in there as there's so many theories on what might happen over time but a few weeks ago I caught a smallie that was about 3 lbs that actually had what looked like a 3/O hook that was frail and rusted sticking out of his bung hole He was in the process of passing the hook. I helped him out by pulling it out and there was a few inches of line still attached to it as well. Been bass fishing for about 15 years or so now and never seen that so was pretty psyched to finally get some confirmation that they can actually pass a hook like that.

Of course, the best thing overall is to minimize the chance of deep hooking in the first place by really paying close attention to what your doing and using proper tackle and technique. You can't avoid it entirely but you can most certainly reduce the frequency of how often it happens.

[whoopbazz]

I have a buddy who has a long pair of wire cutters. H cuts the HOOK off at the where the hook actually enters the fish. This leaves only the point of the hook left in the fish. We all feel this is the best because in give an unobstucted ath for eating and breathing.

[Grey Wolf]

Link is in my signature, the upper right (under "Quick Links"), and near the top of every forum.

Sometimes people can't see the Forrest for the trees.

[bigbill]

I have heard stories of monster bass frozen in the ice here about 10 years ago.  Its called winter kill.  They run out of oxygen plus there's too many fish so nature takes care of it. Its good to take some smaller bass out of the water at times.  A deep hooked bass to me is lunch for my kittens.  I don't take hardley any fish at all but 1 or 2 a year.

Our goverment did a survey and they said to eat the smaller fish and let the bigger ones breed.

[Chris W.]

My girlfriend and i were fishing and she happened to hook a sunny just right and a nearby 4lb bass had liked how the fish was in distress so it came to investigate. Upon her bringing it in, the bass grabbed it and ran and when my girlfriend went to set the hook it tore out of the sunny's mouth and into the throat of the bass. Well, then her line snapped. So i go OH GREAT! in my head lol. Hooked her up with a large circle hook, hooked another sunny for her, setup the line and let her cast out. It took the bait, again, and when she set the hook she brought the bass in. I grabbed the hook with pliers and patiently worked it out as to not injure the fish. No blood or anything, and that fish still gets caught to this day. She's healthy as ever and put on some weight. I've also seen fish with half deteriorated hooks in their mouths, they do go away after a while. I'm sure it's fine.

[fat1]

I bought a pair of side cutters from autozone that I use to cut the hook.  I leave my line in tact for pressure and cut any place on the hook I can get to, then I push on piece thats left in the throat to expose the barb end of the hook.  Once I see the barb end I just pull it out.  The side cutters are pretty long but the cutting portion is just normal size.  This is 100%

[jignfule]

de-barbing the hook can help.

[BulletDon]

great article and works every time.

[bassfiend]

Just wanted to second what fat1 said about cutting the hook, great if you can get to it and works almost everytime, also the main reason why you should always have some cutters in the boat.  However, if you can't get to it or can't get enough pressure to cut a heavy superline hook, then last case option is to just leave it in there and hope for the best...

[urp]

In some cases an embedded hook will rust out of a bass. Some hooks are made of materials that won't rust. In that case the wound will fester and release the hook. Seldom will a bass die from an embedded hook. And yes, carbonated drinks[Mountain Dew?] will often stop bleeding. Bass are hardy fish.

[Team9nine]

Turns out it doesn't matter which technique you use as survival has been determined to be equal among most all options presented here. Bass will resume feeding faster using the through the gill technique, but in the long run all techniques showed little negative effect. Some, like just cutting the line and leaving the hook in are much faster (through the gills removal was slowest), but again, doesn't matter.

Just keep a good pair of hemostats, long nose pliers or something like a debarb tool handy and get to it with whatever technique you decide to use.

-T9

[wis bang]

I read about this method the other day.

Yesterday I had a loop come off the spool after I cast my worm. After untangling things I started to wind in the line and found a fish on. I use Gamy circle hooks to reduce the chance deep hooks but this one was almost out of sight.

I didn't see my worm and figured the worm and O ring were gone!

I reached up thru the gill and turned the hook down. Then I reached in to pull out the point and along comes my worm & O ring!

I never liked cutting them off and I'm glad I was able to learn how to do this! Thanks alot... 8-)

[FivePoundBluegill]

It is obviously always best to get the hook out if you can.

Always be sure to bring some needle nose pliers to help in this situation.