Will gut hooked fish survive?

[Hoffer]

Hey all - I was out the other night on a lake I grew up on - and was nighttime walleye fishing with slip bobbers. The fishing was pretty good - but the smallies were also biting too - even past midnight. When they would take the bobber down - I would try to set the hook pretty quickly but sometimes they would still get the hook down to the stomach. I had a long hemostat along to get the hook out - and generally they would come out pretty easily with a little turn of the hook - but i could tell the stomach still had a small hole present where the hook had been. All the fish took off like there was no issue - but were they doomed? I am thinking I should have simply broken the line and retied - and next time to be safe I will. But just wondering about these fish??

[Slyster]

I would say it will survive. See this topic as well!

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1108308&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

[EBass]

It should heal and be fine. I caught a pike in Tonka that had a 12" wire leader and single hook that was probing outa it's um butt hole(can I say that on here?) It was a lil pike too so how crappy of line was the person using? Any ways, I helped the lil guy out with a slight tug. So it passed an entire leader with hook.

Now if a popper or crankbait gets stuck with the trebles buried/bleeding and you can't help it out then it's doomed.