Do largemouth always swallow the whole hook?

[MNcz]

I don't know if it's just the way their mouths are constructed. Twice now this season I had a yearling largemouth swallow my hook. It was impossibly buried in there. It stinks to harvest a gamefish like that early. I hooked a yearling walleye recently and had no problem, no needle nose, unhooked and back in the water less than 30 seconds after i pulled him out.

Does this always happen with bass? Anyone have a tip on how to get your hook out of a bass that's too small for ya?

Thanks much in advance

[blakjack23]

Usually when a bass guts a hook its because you didn't feel the bite quick enough and they had time to mess around with it and swallow it.

A nice trick that I read on here a few years ago is to loosen you line, then take the eye of the hook and turn it and push it down through one of the gill openings. This will basically turn the hook upside down and its a lot easier to pop out. This has helped me save fish countless times. Of course I don't know if this trick will work if the fish is super small.

[MNcz]

I get what you mean. I was using 6 or 8 lb. monofilament line with a pretty cheap shakespeare spinning reel and light rod. This was the 10" one. I think I'm going to have to get some thicker gear as I bought this for trout streams. Yes, I left it fighting too long in the hopes it was a big walleye or something. Next time I get that hard of a fight, especially since I was shore fishing, I'll have to just reel it in as quick as I can and see what happens... assuming you probably aren't going to get a big keeper bass from shore ever, or not likely

[Juan Grande]

You can catch plenty of keepers from shore. Blakjack is right, you may not have felt the bite and by the time you set the hook the fish has the bait/hook in his throat. I will try to get the hook out, but if I can't I just cut the line and get the fish back in the water. It has a better chance at surviving that way vs. getting its throat pulled out and being out of the water for 5 minutes.

Another trick is to push the barbs down on your hooks. As long as you keep tension on the line you won't lose too many fish and the hooks are much easier to get out.

[Morneau132]

Like Juan mentioned.... I think your problem with the gut hook came from being late on the bite or the hookset. When you're fighting the fish back to the boat the hook is typically not going to adjust or change positions in the mouth. Sometimes the gut hook can be unavoidable, especially when you're fishing a bait that the sunfish are picking up in the shallows.

[MNcz]

i had a real little one yesterday in an unlikely place, but of course bass are always in places you don't expect. he was maybe 5" and all wrapped in nasty weeds, but i just was really really careful with the needle-nose pliers and was able to free him. i made sure i left my nightcrawler in his mouth too hope i didn't hurt this one. he wasn't bleeding. being quick with the needle-nose helps a lot. i have one of those hook pullers but i much prefer my 100 year old needle-nose pliers that once belonged to my carpenter grandpa