Caught this red drum the other day with someone’s jighead ripping out his intestines and anus. The fish was lucky enough to pass the jighead from throat through stomach, but the luck ended there. We have all removed wire leaders and hooks hanging out the back end and the fish have probably survived when released, but how many throat hooked cutoffs become casualties ? I removed the jighead and released this guy, but I don’t know if he will make it with his intestines ripped up.
A few years ago, I participated in a red drum project for DNR and noted that 90 of 100 red drum caught with circle hooks were hooked in the mouth and released without harm. I released the 10 deeply throat-hooked fish (hooked past their crush plate) with the mono cut and hook in place, hoping that they would successfully pass the hook.
HaHa
After passing that . Ouch !!! I think I would have gave him a chance to keep on.
I caught a 50"+ redfish several years ago. Little River jetty. The eye of a hook was sticking out his throat. With about a 3’ wire leader. With a swivel & a couple feet of mono. I clipped it off at the eye. A couple days later. He was recaptured Huntington Beach. About a week after that he was recaptured Georgetown jetties.
Hey circlejerker I’m not giving up my jig heads until they pry my cold dead fingers from around them.haha. I just picked up a hundred from opti.The real problem is that most people don’t keep their reel and rod in hand with a tight line.This would eliminate the gut hooking.
Seems to me like it’s few and far between where the fish totally inhales a lure like they do a piece of cut bait or live bait. I am rarely dealing with gut hooks when using soft plastics
I don’t think there’s a good option when it comes to fishing jigs and artificials. Can you offer one? I do pop off all the barbs on my hooks, it makes dealing with bad hook ups much easier.
I don’t disagree with you regarding circle hooks if you are fishing live or cut bait.
However, jig heads rarely gut hook fish if they are actively fished, ie not dead sticked.
Of 100 fish I catch on jigs, 100 of them are hooked in the lip. I can’t recall the last time I could not retrieve the hook.
I’ve also caught a few with jigs coming out the anus, and they didn’t look like yours, it was pretty clean in fact and with little effort was able to remove with no apparent damage to the fish.
Now, if you are leaving the jig on the bottom without moving it, yes, you are much more likely to gut hook it.
It sucks, but it happens so good job helping the fish out! There are several options to help with that, sman said it best. When it does happen just take an extra second and be careful do what you can to help. Sort of like you’ve done here.
Fishing Nerd
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They had a fish a giant jack cravele at aflorida aquarium and it had a big hook in the jaw when it came in and they left it to see what happened and all that would happen is the area around the hook would get infected periodically and nothing happened to the hook. It was a stainless steel circle hook and is part of the reason for some of the bands on stainless steel hooks. If the hook rust easy when using it, then it will rust in the water. A lot of hooks have coatings so they don’t rust.
</font id=“Arial Black”>If fishing with cut bait, there is no reason not to use the Lupton rig with at big circle hook. It will prevent a spottail from swallowing the bait and hook virtually every time, and will make hook removal much easier.
I participate in the SCDNR tag and release program and have tagged a few reds over the past few years. When I gut hook I leave hook in and cut line short as possible. I make note on my tag report and always review when I get a recapture report in. I’ve had numerous recapture reports back on previously gut hooked reds. IMO, leave the hook in, even if it’s a $1.25 trouteye jig with a $1 Zman rigged on it!!!
On your recapture with the jig out the anus, personally I would have left it alone, it traveled that far through the digestive system and the fish survived, it would likely survive one more crap before the hook finally have rusted out.
Point is, trying to remove a gut hook or azz hook will likely cause more harm than good.
There are several options to help with that, sman said it best. When it does happen just take an extra second and be careful do what you can to help. Sort of like you’ve done here.