What happens to THOSE fish...? (Broken lines)

[Slyster]

I feel bad when I have a huge bass or pike on- and the line breaks- and I lose my lure.. I don't care so much about the lure (I don't lose THAT many).. but I think about the fish for days after that happens.... do they die a slow death with a huge spinnerbait lodged in their mouth? Or do the lures eventually come out?

In my own experience.. I've never caught or found a fish with a lure in it's mouth myself.. so I'm can't guess what happens... I would hope the lure works it's way out and ends up at the bottom of the lake.

I'll never forget the one time I had a large pike in the BWCA where it got away with a metal jaw spreader firmly in his mouth.. I felt so bad I never used one again. Now I only use gloves and pliers.

EDIT: See the yellow spinnner to your left? THAT'S the one I lost tonight..

[Bassboy1645]

I wouldnt worry too much about those fish. I've been lucky enough to catch fish with others and in some rare cases my own lure in their mouth. In their mouths fish have powerful chemicals just like human silava that has the power to slowly break down hooks. However there are some guidelines you ahould play by when realeasing fish. play them as quick as possible and remove the hook with the fish in the water. If you must lift the fish out of the water use a special fish handiling glove or wet ur hand before contacting the fish's skin. Despite these measures some fish still die due to a lack of stress. And if you ever damage the gills forget about it living, you might as well just keep it. un less of course regulations say you can't. Good Fishing!!!!

[Lunker]

Just use appropriate tackle with good line and a drag set well, and that's the best you can do. I don't lose many lures these days except when I'm fishing for crappies up north I'll lose a lot of jigs on pike. You feel bad, but if you took the necessary steps, that's all you can do.

[The Grebe]

In all the years I have been fishing, I have never found a dead fish with a plug in it's mouth? I'm sure others have, but I hav'nt. I have found fish that were dead from trying to eat other fish that were to large.

I have found quite afew Northerns that had fish almost as big as themselves, stuck in their gobs.

I found about an 8 pound wally on Minnetonka that had a pretty good sized sunny stuck head first in it's gill, from the inside out.

I have caught fish with lures in their mouth, seen an old fella catch about a 15 pound Northern that had a big DareDevil stuck in it's throat....the hooks were just about all rusted away.

Interesting question...I'm sure some of them croak, they would have to, would'nt they?

[tonyjor]

I would be willing to bet that a LOT more fish die from having hooks yanked out of them than the ones that get away with hooks left in them.

[Duffer]

ive herd that with time they will disolve or rust away but i wouldnt know for sure but im sure there is a way that they can get it out i havent caught to many fish with hooks or raplas in there jaws.

[danfall]

The hooks rust out, and pretty quickly. In fact, in some cases, the fish is better off if you leave a deep hook rather than removing.

I have caught a number of walleyes on Mille Lacs with jigs in their mouth, but I think they were pretty recently taken(lost). I have also caught northerns with badly rusted hooks in their mouth. I expect at some point they dissolve away.

[carlcmc]

I have seen as well as have been told by others this. Know how often a fish with thrash their head and get off your line? They will do the same for a retained lure. I lost a lure in a big bass this past weekend. Five minutes later I hear this big thrash and turn in time to see my lure go skipping out of his mouth at shore line.

[Powerstroke]

Last summer we caught a northern with a lure in its mouth that we had last 3 weeks earlier. FIsh was fine. This spring I caught a northern with someones tip-up rig in its mouth, braided nylon line snelled to a large live bait hook,

and finally, we caught a northern on opener which suffered a freak accident where the hook came up through the eye and also suffered an unusual tear in its jaw. 2 weeks later on Memorial day I caught the exact same fish with scar tissue in the hooked eye and the lip was healing. All of these fish were on the same small lake.

All of these fish fought well and seemed in good health. I think that the most important thing here is proper care during catch and release.

If everyone practiced CPR on their fish, handled them gently and released them properly, I think fish mortality would go way up.

I can't count how many people fire a fish back into the water cause it wasn't the species they were fishing for or cause they were somehow inconvenienced by this catch. Treat them all well and we can benefit the fisheries all the way around.

[Slyster]

What exactly is CPR? I've seen this word a number of times lately.. figured people just mistyped C&R... so I searched the entire forum for CPR in the subject.. nada.

[carlcmc]

catch, photo, release

[sirsunnyslayer]

(Contact US Regarding This Word), it's ok to use the metal jaw spreader, just have it tied to the boat, that way if you drop the fish it can't get away and surely die.

As far as hooks rusting away, it was either Musky Hunter or Esox Angler that did a mortality study on Muskies. There were fish that still had almost complete hooks lodged in their stomach linings after almost an entire YEAR .

It's not a given that the hooks rust out so we must take as much care as possible to make sure that it dosen't happen, but at the same time your not going to use 85lb. Power Pro to catch sunnies.

[Slyster]

Hehe.. can't believe I didn't figure out CPR... I thought maybe it was moving the fish back and forth in the water to promote breathing after being out of the water.. funny. tx.

"85Lb Test for sunnies"...

One thing I did wrong was use the wrong knot for Fireline. Corrected now.

[Lunker]

As kids we would have my dad cut open the stomachs of fish we kept, to see what they were eating. On one occasion while filleting a pike of about 4 lbs, we found an old lead jig in it's stomach. The hook had rusted away at the arc, so about half of it was left, and the entire jig(a large one at that) was in perfect condition. By the looks of the jig type, it had probably been there for most of the fish's life, probably just couldn't pass it.

[The Grebe]

tonyjor...Sunnies are notorious for gobbling up live bait and getting hooked deep...no matter what kind of fish it is, I agree that more fish become turtle food, because of trying to remove a deep hook, then there would be by leaving the deep hooks right where they are and snipping the line...I can still see good enough to retie, have plenty of hooks, so I do it when the need arises.

[tonyjor]

I've heard stories about when the slot limits got put on Mille Lacs and some people were being very careless with removing hooks and handling any fish not in the slot. I guess there was a high mortality rate for them for a while because they thought "If we aren't able to keep it, then neither can they".

[ccarlson]

Guys, please refer to a scientific fish mortality study that was done on hooks left in fish. In the old days hooks used to dissolve but most don't today due to higher quality metal used to make the hooks. According to the study, do not, under any circumstances, cut a snell or line and leave a deep hook in the fish. Do whatever it takes to get it out. The fish is more resiliant to healing from the deep hook removal than it is to leaving the hook in the fish.

Please refer to the article in the February issue of In-Fisherman for more information. It is not an opinion based article but rather an article that reports the findings of a scientific study. It gives several good techniques for going through the gills to gain access to the hook for easier removal.

As far as line breaking off and leaving a hook or lure in a fish, there will always be some risk and loss but use good line and equipment and your doing the most you can do.

My gripe is with people that think it's better to cut a line and leave the hook rather than use newer techniques to remove the hook.

ccarlson

[EBass]

Tip: Crimp the barb down if using plastics or topwater dual hook frogs. Also get a nice long needle nose pliers. Make sure it's long!

Also if the fish is gut hooked, cut the line and give about a foot and a half of line. Feed the line through the first gill and body of the fish and out the gill plate. Pull on the line so its taunt, and it kinda makes the hook go upside down. Then take the long pliers and pluck out the hook. I did this twice on Sunday and I'm sure the smallies are glad that I did.

Also as a side note. I caught a small pike and it had a 20lb test leader sticking out of it's [PoorWordUsage]er. I helped him out and give it a tug so he's free and clear. Any ways, that fish passed a leader.

[msm1018]

I would not be surprised to see some guides and maybe in a few years the DNR have you switch to only circle hooks. (not trebles) I find that once you get used to their way of hook setting, they are awesome for fishing, sometimes more than conventional style hooks. I mean what could be better than a corner of the mouth hook set, no digging for hooks, and never a deep gut hook set. Low fish mortality.

[EBass]

Circle hooks on a crankbait? I don't see the regs changing. Just be as carefull as you can when getting the hook out instead of the grab the hook by the pliers and shake method.

[Tonka Boy]

Ebass, that is exactly what the article said that CCarlson was referring to. I've tried that a few times since and the fish looked lively when I returned them. Of course there are situations when nothing will work, but this is a much better option then leaving the hooks in the fish.

The old "cut the line and put them back" mentality is folklore.

[not_nuf_time]

I've always questioned if a fish really does disolve the hooks. I lost a floating rap to a muskie a couple weeks ago, and it made me think of the number of floating rigs lost to big fish, and do you ever just come upon a lure floating around the lake. I never have in 30 odd years of fishing. ?????

[msm1018]

Quote:

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I've always questioned if a fish really does disolve the hooks. I lost a floating rap to a muskie a couple weeks ago, and it made me think of the number of floating rigs lost to big fish, and do you ever just come upon a lure floating around the lake. I never have in 30 odd years of fishing. ?????

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what are the chances of seeing at most a 7-8" lure on a large lake and how frequently does someone lose a floating lure? even if one floating lure was lost a week on a 500 acre lake your chances are very slim to see it, and with wind and waves being another factor, those lures would most likely end up on shore where someone picks it up or it blends in with the background, and do people regularly scrutinize the shoreline for lures? think about all of the variables.

[jegerjack]

Believe me they do, up in Canada I have caught a couple fish that when we cut them open for a fry we found some jigs with out the hook, all that was left was the head and a part of the stem of the hook...

[LETSgoFISHIN]

i caught a 4 pound northern last year with a leader and blade of a spinnerbait sticking out its [PoorWordUsage]er. so i decided to keep it and when i cleaned it the hook was still good. put on a new skirt and it catches fish.