At this one place I fish, I havent caught many big ones but definitely know they're in there.  I was trying to "match to hatch" for some bigger ones and thought that this would probably help in figuring out the fish's diet.  I've been catching some smaller bass that have fat stomachs and I didn't know if this would hurt the fish in any way, but I put my finger down into its stomach to feel around and when I felt something, I gently squeeezed the bass's belly and up came the food.  I wasn't sure if this actually harms the fish in anyway, other than just emptying its stomach.  The fish seemed to have swam away just fine, but I wanted to post here and see if anyone knows more about doing so.

I haven't heard of that, but I'm sure someone has.

I personally wouldn't care for someone sticking their finger down my throat until I vomitted, however.

You aren't necessarily "hurting" the fish like in a pain way but it DOES take away food that the fish has already expended the energy to catch.  Sometimes, it just comes up anyway though.  This popped out of a 5 lbr llast week.  I released the fish (in the pitch black darkness) and put my hand on the floor but felt fish corpse instead of carpet.  I was thinking,....wait,....I just released the fish,....what the,....turned on the light and I had just "palmed" this...

I would hate to contribute to teaching fish to binge and purdge!   :-*

I think a fish can get hurt purging something, especially when they are regurgitating anything with a dorsal fin.  Those spines in the fins sink into a soft throat just as easily as they do to you if you grab one wrong.  We've all gotten finned in the palm or thumb.  I always thought that a bass swallows a shad or bluegill head first so the spines went down easily.  I would think regurgitating is not as controllable as swallowing and those spines would be able to rip up a fish's throat coming up...  I don't have any 'facts'  or proof regarding this, but it would concern me if I saw somebody forcing a fish to regurgitate...

Posted by: Avalonjohn44 Posted on: Today at 1:57pm

I think a fish can get hurt purging something, especially when they are regurgitating anything with a dorsal fin.  Those spines in the fins sink into a soft throat just as easily as they do to you if you grab one wrong..... I would think regurgitating is not as controllable as swallowing and those spines would be able to rip up a fish's throat coming up...

Maybe next time you go fishing, you might want to dull your fishing hooks cause you dont want to them to hurt and get stuck in the fish's throat. ;D

LbH tell them how you cooked it up for breadfast   yum