Grandpooba

I've made a couple of purchases and posts on here but might sell a few items in the future so I should introduce myself. I grew up fishing Grand Lake in NE Oklahoma. Flipping wood in rivers is my first choice but with all of the grass lakes around here that's where I fish 95% of the time.

Last fall I had the same concerns as Kevin when I gill hooked a 6.5lb smallmouth then the next week throat hooked a 4lb largemouth. Both times I had to leave the hook in when I released them and wasn't feeling too good about their chances. So I did some research. Most of what I came across wasn't encouraging. We've all had experiences when lucky things happen, but the data says when a hook is left in the fish it has a small chance of making it. Here's what I found: Here's one that says live-welling fish takes a toll: http://www.lsu.edu/seagrantfish/resources/factsheets/catch_release.htm This is a good diagram and how-to on taking out a throat hook: