Unhooking The Hook From The Fishes Mouth!

[2sweed]

How many times have you gone fishing and sure enough that hook gives you grief in trying to get it out without damaging the fishes mouth or stomach area? Many times the fish is under the legal size and yet that hook is stuck in there tight and you can't seem to figure out how to remove it.

In past years leaving the hook in to rust out worked. But now-days hooks are made out of materials that do not rust, thus if you leave the hook in the fishes mouth it could make it hard for the fish to properly feed or it could cause it's death. And whatever you do don't ever throw a dead fish back into the water.
If you can't get the hook out of the fishes mouth take it with you, even if it is too small. It is wasteful to let a fish die for no reason. You can try to keep it alive in water in case you run into a fish warden so that with help the fish might still have a chance to survive and be put back in the water.

I think it is easier to learn the different methods of fish hook removal by watching an expert fisherman remove fish hooks from different types of fish and different areas in a fishes mouth or stomach area. So I have included two different video's.

The first video shows how to remove a deeply embed hook without hurting the fish.

Second video shows how to remove a hook from a pikes mouth or other large freshwater fish.

 

[Sweetkymom]

I have never gotten a hook stuck in a fishs mouth but then again, I dont fish alot. My husband had many that got stuck but with his awesome multi tool that he packs with him, has gotten the hooks out every time. I think it is awful to just leave hooks in them and throw them back into the water.

 

[happyflowerlady]

I think that it depends a whole lot on the type of fish that you catch. A trout has a delicate mouth, and he will take the bait and run with it in his mouth; so when you set the hook and land the fish, the hook is right there in the mouth where it can be easily removed. In fact, you have to be very careful when you set the hook becasue the trout has such a delicate mouth that , if you yank too hard, you will find yourself landing only a pair of fish lips !
Catfish, on the other hand, tend to totally swallow the bait; so the hook is way down in their throat (or whatever it is called on a fish?).
Sometimes, you can use one of those little red plastic tools that you can put down the fishes throat, and get the hook back out with one of those. They are cheap, lightweight, and easy to carry along and use.

When I lived in Missouri, I had catfish ponds out behind the house, and would sometimes catch a nice sized catfish for my dinner. Since I really HATE even touching that ugly fish, I devised a plan to retreive my hook. I would take the catfish and lay it down on an old railorad tie that was in the yard, and then use my hatchet to chop off the catfish's head. The hook was then accessable from the back of the head, and I didn't have to worry about being stabbed by the catfish barbs when I was trying to remove the hook.