Yesterday I was throwing a black spinnerbait. A nice bass tooknit and we fought for a few seconds. He eventually jumped and spit the hook.. So I threw a terminator finesse jig with a small creature bait trailer... Well he took it and I made sure to set the hook good this time. When I pulled him in, he was hooked through his tounge and towards his lower gills....

The hook went in at an angle so it was hard to get it back out through all that meat... He bled a bit andbI probably knocked a few things loose getting that hook out...

Is there a tool or better technique that I can use to handle these badly hooked fish?

It makes me feel bad when I think I may have killed the fish ... :'(

Needle nose pliers??

Thats what i used

Thats what i used

Just making sure! Haha

1). There is a video on how to get a deep hook out safely. 

 

2). There is a tool on the market designed to get hooks out of gut hooked fish.  It does work, I never tried it, but one of my friends uses it all the time. 

 

3). There are things you can do to up the percentage survival rate.

I've hooked a bass and went through the eye. Fish had to gone blind. 

 

Im sure the bass is okay. I have caught fish and has gone through the gill. If its to hard to unhook it, I'll do the gut hook tip. Sometimes it works or doesn't. I had a fish this summer that did not make it. I prayed to god that fish will be okay in Bass Heaven.

I have three tools currently.

 

Bent needle nose.

Bolt cutter.

End cutter.

 

I'm considering getting a lip gripper to help me with holding fish securely with maximum access. (My knuckles are rather big.)

2). There is a tool on the market designed to get hooks out of gut hooked fish.  It does work, I never tried it, but one of my friends uses it all the time. 

 

I never knew there was such a thing. Which one is this?

I never knew there was such a thing. Which one is this?

I'm assuming that they meant something like this.

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-SqueezeOut-Hook-Remover/product/10213376/

Not sure which one geo was talking about but here's some

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&searchTerm=hook+remover

I'm assuming that they meant something like this.

http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-SqueezeOut-Hook-Remover/product/10213376/

 

Well, this is for deep hooked, but not necessary designed for gut hooked.

Not sure which one geo was talking about but here's some

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&searchTerm=hook+remover

 

Well, to me if someone said it is designed for gut hooked fish, it should involve some turning of the hook, otherwise hook won't come out no matter how long the neck of the tool is.

Maybe this red hook remover.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/300881320682?lpid=82

If you use a hook remover make sure its one that will turn the hook before you try to remove it. As I said before I have not used one of these tools but I have friends that do all the time.

I do it by following the video procedures, and needle nose pliers. It is simple once you do it a few times.

Maybe this red hook remover.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/300881320682?lpid=82

 

I ordered this from ebay and it was only $1.99 shipped. I'll give this a shot to see if I can make unhooking even faster. I think if this tool work as it supposed to, a hook can be removed very fast.

I'll just cut the hook if possible..  Not worth tooling around in there for too long.

I fished a pond on vacation this spring with my brothers, we fished it a little bit each day for three days, caught the same 22"er once each day haha (not on a bed either) one of its gills was ripped and hanging out of the gill plate, but the fish was fine. I used to not think they could survive a ripped gill since they lose quite a bit of blood when one is torn, but that made me think otherwise...Just some food for thought. Some bass will always end up dead no matter what you do, it's just part of fishing.

I take all barbs of my hooks when I fish sure it decreases your hookup ratio but you get the hook out faster and when you use the barb you don't loose as many fish.

i bring a pair of nail snips.  ill cut the hooks so i can get them out if i cant extract the hook.  i care more about the fish being released with no damage or hooks left in than i do about a $1 hook.

If the hook was clean through i would of cut the tip off.. It was imbedded in his tongue and lower jaw and the angle was wide so i had to bring tye barb back through alot of meat to get it out... I hope it survived.. Was 3-3.5 lb fish.

I caught a catfish on a crankbait all three back trebles in the back plus one in the front were stuck in the mouth. I had to kill him and pry his clamped jaws apart with a stick. Then I had to rip his mouth to get the trebles out. Pretty crazy... I hook bass bad sometimes also very deep in the throat, most of the time they survive.

I've had a pair of Rapala 7 1/2" forceps for nearly 10 years and they are one of the most used, most important tools in my tackle box.  They are long and thin, but sturdy.  They make quick work of MOST any hooking.