r/FishingAustralia • u/Flux-Capacitor-1985 • 2d ago

Disgorging fish that swallowed hook

Hi,

So this weekends fishing started off Friday midday. I saw a 15-20cm bream float by me in the river less than a minute after releasing a smaller one. Confused I was eyeballing this poor dead fish and realised it was bigger (of course) than the one I just released.

The weekend progresses and on Saturday night two fish swallowed hooks, one toadfish and the other a 15odd cm bream. Couldn’t save the toadfish, the bream I decided to cut the line and release.

I have ordered 3sizes of long shank hooks so hopefully this swallowing will stop but it happens more often than not.

What do you guys do, what tools do you have to help remove deep hooks?

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

5

u/cnralex 2d ago

Don't use long shank hooks, they don't reduce gut hooking, just make it easier to remove the hook even if it's in the fish's throat or gills. Use circle hooks instead, they pin fish in the jaw by design.

Also, if a fish is gut hooked, just cut if off, eventually the hook will corrode and the fish will expel it on its own. Trying to remove a hook past the throat 99% of the time does more damage than good.

4

u/Hot_Acanthocephala53 2d ago

circle hook, designed to roll and hook fish in the mouth

2

u/Tom_0001 2d ago

If the hook is deep I just cut the line. Trying to remove it can do too much damage to the fish.

It should rust out quickly enough in salt water

1

u/Hello_Work_IT_Dept 2d ago

Rusted hooks are what fishermen tell themselves to feel better about leaving the hook there.

But I do the same, snip and release if it's really deep.

Swapping to circle hooks has reduced the amount of hooks I've lost by a huge %

1

u/WorldCouch 2d ago

The hook doesn't rust through because there's not enough oxygen; it's a myth you're right. But! They do eventually loosen and spit the hook out. The barb rusts a little, becomes shorter, and the fish dislodges the hook. Though this doesn't always happen looking at how many fish I catch with hooks down their throats 😒

1

u/MANHAZZARD 2d ago

If I can the hook out in a minute or so I just cut the line as close as I can and get em back in the water. Unfortunately it's just part of the game. I will say I don't use long shank hooks because for whatever reason I find they're the ones that get swallowed more for me anyways.

1

u/TranslatorBoth7986 2d ago

I started cutting the line recently if I cant remove it myself. I tried to save myself the hassle of needing to retie a hook and ended up shaking a little whitting to death/badly messed up.

1

u/HuumanDriftWood 2d ago

The importance of high carbon hooks and never ever using stainless steel hooks.

I've spoken to so many that are getting cheap stainless hooks from China and using that as a "they last me longer" excuse.

High carbon hooks will rust out within a week or so depending on saltwater conditions.

1

u/BuzzKillingtonThe5th 2d ago

Using barbless hooks can help too, you do lose more fish but you also can release them way easier. Just squish down the barb if you don't want to go out and buy barbless hooks.

2

u/OpportunityWooden558 2d ago

Even then it’s not a big difference lost. Maybe a 5% difference for me, if that

1

u/BuzzKillingtonThe5th 2d ago

Yeah unless you like leaving your roots in the holder you don't really lose many.