Warm water increases mortality, as does live bait. If you are finesse fishing, setting the hook soon after they bite will help ensure the fish is hooked in the mouth. Remove the hooks as best you can if you are able to, and get the fish back in the water. Don’t hold it up for a selfie or weigh it on a scale either if you deep hooked it.

Ive gut hooked a few fish. Personally I'll always try to remove the hook IF and only if I feel confident I can remove it without causing any more stress the fish than I already have. 

 

A key part of having confidence in removing a hook in the gut is if I can see the barb. To me, visually seeing the barb sticking out one side of the gut is the determining factor as to whether or not I will remove the hook completely, or cut the hook shank as short as possible.

 

The process is as follows...

1- cut the line to a more manageable length, which is typically around a foot from the fish's mouth.

2- remove any plastic  (which is typically what I gut hook fish with the most often) cough cough seiko...

3- once you're left with a bare hook and a tag end of line, then I will cut the hook shank in half using a pair of side cutting pliers. (I carry a pair of Klein brand side cutters due to them relatively easily cutting even stouter flipping hooks)

4- remove the upper portion of the cut hook that is still connected to line you cut in step 1

5- Use a set of needle nose pliers to grab the BARB side of the cut hook, and simply twist the hook out .

 

This can all be done in a very short period of time. Stay organized and keep your tools at the ready. 

 

 

 

The Accept the fact a % of bass you catch will not survive, the average is around 3% or 3 out of a hundred.

Lots of reasons mostly over stressed. A hook into the brain kills bass if removed or cut off. 

Treat every animal you hunt or catch with respect and if killing it is the goal do it quickly.

Tom 

Since my saltwater days i always remove the barbs from the hook and i never ever felt any difference regarding losing or keeping a fish hooked, Barbs only make everything difficult later if you want to save the fish... barbless hooks all the way

Watching tournament pros remove hooks from bass is usually performed with carefully needle nose pliers. At times with jigs or heavy wire hooks the pro hits the jig or big hook to knock it out. I don’t use the knock out technique. The hooks I use bend if hitting them. 

My normal unhooking technique with jigs, single hook is to push it out using the finger tip on the inside hook bend. Treble hooks needle node pliers are used. Deep gut hooked bass the line get cut off.

Brain hook bass die quickly and heavy bleeding bass end up as my meal.

Tom

7 hours ago, Ravox said:

Since my saltwater days i always remove the barbs from the hook and i never ever felt any difference regarding losing or keeping a fish hooked, Barbs only make everything difficult later if you want to save the fish... barbless hooks all the way

 

Just squish it with pliers or cut it how? I've always just squished them. But I note you said, "remove."

On 4/5/2021 at 10:39 PM, livemusic said:

 

Just squish it with pliers or cut it how? I've always just squished them. But I note you said, "remove."

I always squish with the pliers