I was fishing a nice little pond this morning when two young teenage boys came to retrieve their catfish rods they left over night. On one they pulled out a nice catfish, on another they pulled out a nice largemouth. The bass swallowed the hook, so one of the boys said to the other to just cut the line. I yelled out, no, I'll get it, but they cut it and threw it in. That bass was probably a good four or five pounds, and now it will die. I hate seeing that, especially when I could have gotten it.

It really upsets me when I see unattended rods 

there is a good chance that fish may survive, but using circle hooks, even for cat fishing would have eliminated their need to cut the line and insured that bass' survival. 

Yes, I agree.

 

Sorry those boys don't know better.

It might have a chance to survive for sure. I pulled out a hook for bass butt before. Removing a gutted hook got a chance of killing fish also. So I would say 50-50 or may be 40-60 in this case.

Awful. Does your state have laws against leaving fishing rods unattended? Not that they'd be able to enforce it anyway. Sad story.

#basslivesmatter#notahashtagger

Did somebody say hashbrowns?  

Not the way most good fisherman would release a fish, but its still just a fish.  I would try to educate the boys on what to do next time it happens, but I would not let it mess up my day fishing for one second.  At least they released it, and it has a shot at living on.  I have caught a bunch of fish with hooks in their mouth and gut from someone else.  Those fish chose to eat again, and luckily got hooked by me.  I just remove both hooks and released them.  I even found a line at the bank and when I pulled it in a 4 pounder was on the other end.  These animals live in a tough environment, they have to survive predators most of their life.  They have to survive ice out, pollutants, starvation, and the whooper popper, they are not as fragile as most think.  Life is too short to let this crap get you upset for one second.  Just a life long bassers opinion!!!!!

I pulled a hook out of a bass' throat Monday that had been there so long it was starting to rust out. The fish was healthy and fought hard, obviously not hurting from the hook in it's throat. I was able to remove it easily, I'm guessing she wrapped someone up under the dock I caught her out from.