Treble Hooks & Bass

[Jigfishn10]

This has been bugging me for a couple of years. I really like topwater fishing and 9 times out of 10 I would get a bass on the belly hook. Inevitably the rear hook always gets caught on the side or top of the fish or on the end of the gill plate. A few times when I remove the hook from the side or top of the fish, I draw blood or I drew blood with some scales removed. They seem to swim away ok, but how much damage did I just inflict on the fish and will it make it?

[Bluebasser86]

A few of them might not make it, but that's just something you have to accept to fish with treble hooks. Bass get plenty of injuries from cover, predators, baitfish fins, and crawdad pinchers and survive just fine so I probably wouldn't worry that you're killing a large number of fish unless they are bleeding very badly.

[Hyrule Bass]

if it really concerns you, you could always remove the rear treble hook from the lure

[SirSnookalot]

As discussed in a recent post fishing can be a blood activity, somewhere along the line a fish will be injured and stressed. I can't get overly emotional about any mishap to any fish, it's just part of it.

[MuffinMan]

try removing the back hook, buying a smaller lure, or replacing the back treble hook with a smaller treble hook to reduce damage to the fish.

[dhami013]

Brother if you don't want to catch the fish, don't use a hook. Fish are not equal. They are on the food chain a lot lower than us. I do somewhat respect the fish, and almost always catch and release unless I'm catching to cook. But I try not to feel too bad when I hook a fish, I mean that is what I'm trying to do.

You can always try crimping the barbs down. That way the hooks come out easier.

[zenyoungkoh]

don't worry! If they swim away fine, their blood will most likely clot within 1 minute and they'll be fine. I've caught fish missing eyes, and they seem to find food just fine. Maybe 1 out of 30 fish that u hooked in the wrong places wont live but most will.

[deep]

I've caught fish with a gillplate torn away and hanging loose from some previous catch-and-release. How about that?

[Jigfishn10]

I'm sure a few of them won't make it and Im good with that. You're right SirSnook, it is part of the sport.

Thanks guys.

[Wisconsin Heat.]

its part of it, but if you dont want it to happen, im sure it can be helped, a few others have already mentioned some good tips, try downsizing the rear treble and pinching down the barbs, an ewg style treble may help prevent in those odd gill/side hookups- but im not sure on that- it just seems like it would make sense so dont shoot me if you try it and it makes it worse, all in all good fishing buddy

[Bassn Blvd]

Put a fishy band-aide on the wound and give it a kiss.

I don't want to sound too much of an arshole, but who cares? It's a fish and I love to fish. Besides, a little pain is good for ya, and the fish. It makes'em grow big.

[Jigfishn10]

Put a fishy band-aide on the wound and give it a kiss.

I don't want to sound too much of an arshole, but who cares? It's a fish and I love to fish. Besides, a little pain is good for ya, and the fish. It makes'em grow big.

BUT YOU ARE SOUNDING THAT WAY!

I'm neither sensitve nor insensitive about the issue. I've been fishing for 15 years and will continue to do so. My purpose of the thread was to get some opinions of the effects of the flesh wounds I'm inflicting. To be honest with you, I am in SirSnookalot's camp on the issue. Some members answered the question and appear to share the same opinion I have prior to this thread and others offered opinions on how to minimize the problem and I appreciated that.

If you don't care, don't participate in threads such as these. Your wise @$$ remarks I have read in the past used to be funny.