A.K.A. The Fish-N-Fool
Too many anglers have been told for years that the best way to handle a deep hooked bass was to cut the line at the hook eye and let it rust out. I have for about the last 20 years never left a hook in a bass. I believe in that whole time I’ve been fishing I have only have killed one bass and that was because it got hooked in the gills and tore the gills completely in two.
The recommendation that anglers cut the leader close to the hook when bass are “deep-hooked” is a good example. It is hard to find a publication on catch-and-release (C&R) techniques that doesn’t pass on this poor advice. Yet, recent research on release techniques strongly suggests there is a better way.
Professional and TV anglers aren’t the only ones to be slow in learning and applying the latest “word” from scientists, but they continue to advise anglers to handle fish using outdated procedures.
Getting Scientific
Food coming down a bass’ throat can get blocked if the hook shank doesn’t lie tightly against the side of the throat where the barb is lodged. Deep-hooked bass may even feel pain as the food rotates the barb and regurgitate the food. Recently these observations have been scientifically verified.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources recently did a study on striped bass at Chesapeake Bay. Their research used deep throat-hooked stripers between 16- and 28-inches long for observation in half-strength seawater so that hooks had ample opportunity to rust away. Size 1/0 and 2/0 stainless steel, bronzed, nickel, tin and tin-cadmium hooks were hooked in the top of each fish’s esophagus, with an 18-inch length of line connected to the hook.
After four months, 78% of the hooks were still imbedded. Cadmium coated hooks poisoned 20 percent of the fish, and production of these hooks has been stopped. Bronzed hooks were less likely (70%) to be retained than tin-cadmium (80%), nickel (83%), or stainless steel (100%) hooks.
In a second test, the line was clipped at the eye of the hook, as advised by most existing C&R guides. One-hundred percent of the stainless hooks were again retained, while 56% of tin, 76% of bronze, 84% of tin-cadmium, and 88% of nickel hooks remained. Fish mortality was greater when all line was trimmed. So even in salt water that is much more corrosive then fresh water the hooks did not rust out.
Unfortunately they didn’t do a study to see how the removal of the hook faired with the survival rate on the fish, but this does show that the hooks do not rust out quickly like many anglers think they do. I have caught hundreds of bass with hooks in them and released them all hook free
I firmly believe that the best method for treating deep hooked fish is to ALWAYS remove the hook. I have developed my own hook removal technique that has proven to be very successful over the past 20 years. The basic principle is to turn the hook around so it can be popped out with little or no damage to the fish. All you need for this method is a stiff wire on a handle with a small hook bent on the end and a pair of needle nose pliers or forceps. Since it requires two hands to perform this task, I hold the fish gently between my knees while I work on them. You carefully go in through the gill plate on whichever side the hook eye is on and grab the line with the hook tool pulling it down through the gill and rotating the hook 180 degrees. Then simply pop the hook out with the pliers while holding the line tight with the hook tool so the hook stays pointing down.
This method is really quick and simple and far better than leaving the hook in the fish. This works best with the longer shanked worm style hooks, but I have used it with great success on hooks of all types as well.
I hope you will give this method a try and save the life of fish, so we will all have more fish to catch in the future.
Tnx Rick
