At the lake today I eye hooked a tiny tiny sunfish and it actually pushed the eye out of its socket. When I removed it as delicately as possible. well... You know what happened. I felt/feel absolutely awful. Hunting is one thing, but that just made me feel terrible. How often has anything like this happened to yall and is there anything I can do to prevent it in the future? I've eye hooked fish before, but this obviously being the worst. What can I do to hopefully prevent this from happening? Thanks!

Use a smaller hook if you're specifically going for bluegill, something like a size 6. Or use a larger hook if you're T-rigging worms so that they can't actually get it in their mouths.

Thats fishing. Like said if you are going for them then use a smaller hook. Occasionally i will snag a sunfish running a crank. If it dies it becomes catfish bait.

Comes with the territory, even happens with smaller hooks. Not much you can do about but know it does happen and be prepared for it

If it dies it becomes catfish bait.

That's kinda what I wanted to hear, makes me feel a little better bout it... And if I recall I think I was using a size 4 hook so I'll downsize that next outing. Thanks for the help.

waste not, want not.  add some salt and slurp it down like eyeball caviar  

Animals can survive to old age with some pretty severe injuries. I've caught bass missing/blind in one eye plenty of times. A couple years ago I caught a flathead out of a small river that had no eyes, didn't even appear to have ever had eyes, but he still managed to find my jig and eat it as I swam it past him. If the sunfish dies it will not go to waste. 

At the lake today I eye hooked a tiny tiny sunfish and it actually pushed the eye out of its socket. When I removed it as delicately as possible. well... You know what happened. I felt/feel absolutely awful. Hunting is one thing, but that just made me feel terrible. How often has anything like this happened to yall and is there anything I can do to prevent it in the future? I've eye hooked fish before, but this obviously being the worst. What can I do to hopefully prevent this from happening? Thanks!

 

I've hooked so many sunnies through the eye socket. Probably has something to do with the way they attack the bait then dart away. You did the right thing by gently removing the hook (as best you could). I can't remember ever having one lose an eye as I remove the hook; usually they're hooked in the socket, not the eye specifically. But that's not gonna be the case every time.

 

But anyhow, water birds, bigger bass, toothy fish (pickerel, pike, etc.), turtles, catfish, will all be potential eaters. Nothing goes to waste.

just rip it out and chunk it back..........I know sounds cruel but its not for 2 reasons.

 

1. sunfish are prolific spawners, no harm done to the food chain. 

2. it might flop around or swim a little weird, which will make it be inhaled all the quicker by the next 2#er that swims by.

I know you feel bad, it was not done purposefully, however,unfortunately it happens when we fish.