It happened again

[Craigums]

I was doing a little shore fishing today and managed to land 4 bass within the hour before the rain got to annoying, Anyways last fish of the day I bring up only to see he gut hooked the barb on my 3/0 worm hook...He bled everywhere and im pretty sure he's not gonna make it. Thats the second time this has happened this season and it always puts a damper on the fishing day. I know its just part of fishing but does anyone have any tips/tricks to avoiding the infamous gut hook or gill hook?

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Are you setting the hook when you first feel the fish or know its there? When fishing artificals you should be. Sometimes the fish just really inhale the lure. I usually have a bolt cutters with and lots of times can cut the hook out.

[Slyster]

I blinded a bass in one eye last week on WBL... really felt bad... worse than I should of perhaps. After all.. there must be millions of bass in White Bear Lake.

[Craigums]

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Are you setting the hook when you first feel the fish or know its there? When fishing artificals you should be. Sometimes the fish just really inhale the lure. I usually have a bolt cutters with and lots of times can cut the hook out.

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I watch my line very carefully, the second the slack starts going tight or the line moves I set, Difficult to do sometimes in choppy weather

[Juan Grande]

What do bolt cutters look like? Whenever I gut hook a bass, I can usually poke the barb back through the gut and if I had some pliars that were long and narrow enough (with enough power to cut a large hook), I could save quite a few fish.

I usually just cut the line rather than trying to work the hook out.

[ikeslayer]

it has been posted before but there is an article from infisherman that tells how to take out deeply gut hooked fish and how to do it with little damage. Hopefully someone will post it. ike

[Duffman]

I used this method on the fish in my avatar last week. Those bigger fish sure seem to suck down the offering quickly at times, gut hooking can be tough to avoid. Grabbed my hemos, stuck it up thru the gills and grabbed the eyelet of a 5/0 worm hook and pulled it down, then you reach into the mouth with the hemos and grab the bend in the hook and pull it free. Works awesome!

I de-hooked it, measured it and got a couple quick pics in under two minutes (yes, I timed it). If I think it will take longer with any of the above activities, I'll hold the fish under water for tad-(in-between measuring and pics). It should be required learning for anybody who regularly fishes bass, the bigger the fish, the easier it is to work thru the gills with a hemostat. Make sure you see which way the hook faces, and then go thru the appropiate gill.

[Double]

There is a tool available called The D-Barb. It is like a long-nose pliers that cuts the barb of the hook off. A magnet holds the barb in place so the fish does not swallow it. Then all you do is back the hook out. This tool has saved several gut-hooked fish for me, and it paid for itself with the feeling I got the first time this tool saved a fish that surely would have bled out otherwise. They run about $21 + shipping. For tournament fisherman this can save you a dead-fish penalty as well as a guilty conscious. I highly recommend it for any fisherman!

Regards,

Double

[TurnUpTheFishing]

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What do bolt cutters look like? Whenever I gut hook a bass, I can usually poke the barb back through the gut and if I had some pliars that were long and narrow enough (with enough power to cut a large hook), I could save quite a few fish.

I usually just cut the line rather than trying to work the hook out.

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Any hardware stores should have them if you ask. For bass size hooks you could get away with heavy wire cutters or even a good pair of side cutters. Ive used the rapala side cutter, they take a bit more elbow grease but do the job.

[MNBassGuy]

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I watch my line very carefully, the second the slack starts going tight or the line moves I set, Difficult to do sometimes in choppy weather

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The first thing that comes to mind reading your comment is that you shouldn't really have slack in your line. By the time the fish picks upi the slack it has more than engulfed your lure. Many people make the mistake of leaving slack in their line while dead sticking a bait. The best thing to do is to hold the line taught while the bait is on the bottom. This can be tricky at times, but it is the best way to avoid those dreaded gill or throat hooks.

Despite everything you may try, sometimes it just can't be avoided. The best thing is that you obviously sincerely care about properly hanlding your fish! I've seen too many people in the past who just rip the hook out and throw the fish in. That always gets me going!

[lotsofish]

I had one this year. The fish got hooked deep in the throat. I used the method Duffman described and the hook came out pretty quickly. I set the fish in the water and revived it for only about 5 seconds before it swam off. 5 minutes later though, it was floating on the surface. The problem was not with the hooking deep itself, but that the fish got itself into the weeds after it got hooked and I had to keep the line tight and force it out a bit. I think that caused more stress to the fish than the dehooking. I tried to revive the fish for at least 10 minutes, but it wouldn't stay down. Luckily, it was only a 13" fish. I say luckily because I catch and release about 97% of all bass I catch and those 3% I keep (usually due to pressure from my wife or kids because they think they taste so good ) I only keep the 11-13"ers. After trying to revive it for 10 minutes I could tell it wasn't going to make it so I brought it home. I wasn't planning on keeping any fish, but that felt better than leaving it float dead in the water.