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Handling of fish that have swallowed the hook?


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Hi guys,Just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to handle fish that have swallowed a hook deep? Is it worth messing about trying to remove it or is it best to sometimes cut it off as much as possible and leave it in? Does anyone know about how this affects the fish later etc? There's nothing worse than releasing a fish to watch it go belly up. Even when I use pliers to crush the barb before rigging up sometimes they're just impossible to get out with injuring the fish... :unsure:

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Hi guys' date='Just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to handle fish that have swallowed a hook deep? Is it worth messing about trying to remove it or is it best to sometimes cut it off as much as possible and leave it in? Does anyone know about how this affects the fish later etc? There's nothing worse than releasing a fish to watch it go belly up. Even when I use pliers to crush the barb before rigging up sometimes they're just impossible to get out with injuring the fish... :unsure:[/quote']Cut the line as close to the hook as possible and let the fish go. Depending on the species they will spit the hook out in about a week. Bream, Mulloway, Salmon, Snapper etc all have pretty good survival rates (from the reading I have done). Whiting, Garfish and other slime coated fish generally don't fare too well.Don't try to retrieve the hook if you want to release the fish. No matter how careful you are you'll do more damage than necessary.
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Cut the line as close to the hook as possible and let the fish go. Depending on the species they will spit the hook out in about a week. Bream' date=' Mulloway, Salmon, Snapper etc all have pretty good survival rates (from the reading I have done). Whiting, Garfish and other slime coated fish generally don't fare too well.Don't try to retrieve the hook if you want to release the fish. No matter how careful you are you'll do more damage than necessary.[/quote']I'll second all of that, you may also want to try circle hooks, as long as you're keeping your lines tight to the bait fish will almost always be hooked in the mouth, I even use circles on my metals lures for salmon.
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Thanks for the tips guys, after removing the entire gizzards of a 28cm KGW due to a little tug to see if I could free the hook (honestly didn't look that bad... well before I got it out) i started cutting them off, including on a Flathead I caught, but I wasn't sure if I was causing just as much damage but as you all have said cutting seems to be the way. I love catch and release fishing and normally haven't had a problem with this, but throwing back a fish you know probably won't survive feels terrible. Glad I know a better way now, I was surprised when I started asking people (outside of this forum) and no one seemed to be able to tell me which was better.I couldn't care about losing hooks, I'm slack and buy pre snelled so only takes a minute to loop a new one on :)

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There is some really good information here regarding Catch and Release and handling procedures. Even if you're planning on keeping your fish it doesn't hurt to make a habit of good handling practices.http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recreational/saltwater/catch-and-release

If the fish is hooked deeply, cut the line as close as possible to the fish’s mouth rather than removing the hook. Compared to removing swallowed hooks from bream and mulloway, simply cutting the line increased their short-term survival from 12% to more than 85%. Up to 76% of the released line-cut, gut-hooked bream then shed their hooks within around three weeks

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