The pond next to my house is so over flowing right now that I have about 3 ft of shoreline to fish from, seeing as all the surrounding bushes are aqautic plants now.  Hooking fish is no problem, but landing them can be.  A few times in the last weeks the bass have gotten so into the bushes that I've had to cut my line or hang the bass, which means that they are swimming away with a hook and worm in their lips.  Will this hurt/kill the bass?  Or will it just spit it out eventually?  I'm thinking that it wouldn't really hurt them, but wanted to be sure...

Depends where and how it is hooked.  With some luck she'll be fine.

Sounds like you need a pair of waders or a belly boat.

bring a net with a long handle. My pond has a problem like that in the good spots, so i have to move the fish into a clearing that i can find.

A stout rod and line are needed to horse those fish out before they are tangled.  If they are wrapped tight, this enables turtles to move in, if some leader is left for them to swim with, they might, might survive.

try using 30lb fireline, its like a razor through grass

Weed Wacker.  cut yourself some room.  when the pond drops, you can cut away some cover and make "edges".

I couldn't even guess how many bass I've caught with hooks nearly dissolved while part of a lip, gill, throat, stomach.  I've caught them with rusted out hooks in the eye. The line eye end usually lasts longest. Lead takes longer to break down, and most plastics even longer, but it all eventually breaks up and passes out of the fish. There's enough HCL in the stomach to dissolve most anything. Whenever a bony fish ends up in the stomach there's going to be some grinding. I've found pebbles in there which seem to help break hard objects up like a chicken's gizzard does. Even a swallowed plastic hard bait won't last very long there. A fellow not many years ago turned in a gold ring from a bass' stomach. All the markings were worn down to a very thin ring, so it wasn't identified. I've heard of rings falling off when fishing, and I suppose that might look good to eat in any bass' eyes. Gold doesn't dissolve in HCL, but is soft and can be ground down wit hthe slightest amount of sand around it massaged all over it 24/7.

It would be better to not leave a long line trailing. Try doing what you read above and get that bass to you. But your hardware won't do much damage left in a bass unless a wound opens to bleed it to death.

Jim

Thanks for the info, guys, all good stuff.  I do quite often wear waders, but some days I can only fish for a few mins before work, hence being on the shore (and in the bushes).  As for the weed whacking, well, I think I need a chainsaw for most of these shrubs, plus I think the DEC might get a little miffed (a warden lives right next door...) if I go cutting on preserved land.  Guess I'm gonna have to get some heavier line or a net...