Hooked fish survival rate

[exudedude]

This morning I lost a pig of a snook, it gilled the leader. It was hooked on a large topwater plug and it was definitely inside the mouth( both hooks). I feel pretty bad about it, in my fishing career this is probably the 3rd time I have lost a large fish like this. I have seen the surveys on gut hooked fish but never seen anything with lures. Anyone have any info or what are your thoughts on the survival in these situations...

[fishinfinatic]

I have caught more than a few fish with hooks and lures in their mouths. I doubt you will find any convincing or sound scientific data on the subject, but it is not an outright death blow to a fish to have a lure in its mouth. Saltwater and fish slime rust hooks rather quickly also. As long as the fish can open its mouth it can eat.

[TOP SHOT]

sure helps to pinch down barbs on lures with (esp. two or more) trebles... also safer for the angler. if fishing's slow and i really WANT that fish, or am in an area where trophy fish are likely, i may not bother, but when fishing's fast, i usually debarb. even that won't completely mitigate damage if hooks end up in the gills, but it sure does help reduce release mortality. -- doug

[Jiggin Junkie]

He will shed it pretty quickly if it didn't close his gullet and keep him from swallowing his meal.

[Intrepid377]

sure helps to pinch down barbs on lures with (esp. two or more) trebles... also safer for the angler. if fishing's slow and i really WANT that fish, or am in an area where trophy fish are likely, i may not bother, but when fishing's fast, i usually debarb. even that won't completely mitigate damage if hooks end up in the gills, but it sure does help reduce release mortality. -- doug

Good points (pardon the pun) There are a few issues here. First, how quickly does a fish shed a hook? My opinion is usually pretty quickly ASSUMING it's a single hook. Multiple hooks tend to work against each other preventing the fish from getting rid of them. It's for this reason I won't use double hook rigs while Marlin fishing. To great a chance of breaking a fish off and leaving him with a "jaw lock". I think lures with multiple treble hooks would do the same thing and mashing down the barbs seems like the "sporting" thing to do.

The other issue is how long can a fish live with a hook in it's mouth? Frankly, I don't know But I do know a firmly hooked SS hook is going to stay with that fish forever and non-SS hooks will rust out. So, that's why I use non-SS for nearly all applications.

[horseradish]

This morning I lost a pig of a snook, it gilled the leader. It was hooked on a large topwater plug and it was definitely inside the mouth( both hooks). I feel pretty bad about it, in my fishing career this is probably the 3rd time I have lost a large fish like this. I have seen the surveys on gut hooked fish but never seen anything with lures. Anyone have any info or what are your thoughts on the survival in these situations...

I don't know where you fish but, with the water temp being low compared to summertime, the mortality, especially with temp sensitive snook, is going to be higher than normal. With a multi hook situation locking up jaws the rate is going to be very high. I doubt a large fish can survive long enough to let hooks rust out. Your description also hints at possible gill damage.

I think your snook is in the receiving line of the food chain!

They say all life evens out in the end. I certainly hope so!

[fishinfinatic]

I didn't know that low temperature mortality in snook had any correlation to metabolic food demands and disease. Could you expand on this?

[estero]

This morning I lost a pig of a snook, it gilled the leader. It was hooked on a large topwater plug and it was definitely inside the mouth( both hooks). I feel pretty bad about it, in my fishing career this is probably the 3rd time I have lost a large fish like this. I have seen the surveys on gut hooked fish but never seen anything with lures. Anyone have any info or what are your thoughts on the survival in these situations...

I have had the same thing happen. I pinch all the barbs down on my trebles and haven't lost a fish because of that.
I think when a fish has a lure with trebles in its mouth and is lost it will die unless it can get the hooks out somehow.
Hooks do not rust out very fast as some may think. I have caught fish with hooks or wire coming out their butt. It would more then likely take several months for a hook to rust out in a fish.
That would be a good experiment for a lab to do. Put some hooks in various fish and keep them in a captive area for a long enough time for the hooks to rust out. That would settle all ideas about how long it takes to rust out.

[Seanfish]

That would be a good experiment for a lab to do. Put some hooks in various fish and keep them in a captive area for a long enough time for the hooks to rust out. That would settle all ideas about how long it takes to rust out.

Only if you could do it without any enviro-wack-jobs finding out. But I'll be damned if that isnt a good idea.

Amazing to think of using actual scientific findings...nah, we couldn't let that happen, it would make too much sense.

[horseradish]

I didn't know that low temperature mortality in snook had any correlation to metabolic food demands and disease. Could you expand on this?

I've been told the main reason for the closed wintertime season for snook is to mitigate the stress imposed by the low temperature water environment. Snook are a true "warm" water fish as evidenced by their southern range which appears to be mandated by water temperature, not salinity or food sources.

While I've not seen it in the five years I lived on Charlotte Harbor they say you can see, on very cold days, snook floating around the PGI and BSI canals, not quite dead but certainly comatose. Stories are told of people just picking or netting them out of shallow water during cold spells. I think its water temp in the low 60's F that's critical for them