I have a question that I have been pretty curious about.

For many many years I have heard that a hook left in a fishes mouth that you are going to release will rust out in 2-3 days because of the acid in their mouth.

I've been told that If I cant remove the hook fairly easy,clip the line close and release the fish with the hook still embedded in the mouth.This as explained to me is a better alternative than being overly forceful in trying to remove a stubborn hook.Giving the fish a better chance of living.

So hopefully some of you knowledgable guys can steer me straight on this.Is it true? Or is it a fallacy.If true,does it work for all fish or just certain species?

Thanks for any input.
Rick

I have heard that the hook will eventually fall out in the salt, due to rust, but I am not sure if the same thing happens in fresh water.

Ya it works in all water and all fish, just cut the line right close to the hook

I have caught fish that have literally passed hooks from there mouth out there a$$.No where in that process did any acid eat the hooks.?

Its not realy like acid eating the hooks, its more like when you get a sliver in your hand a in a few days it festers up and pops that baby out like a zit. and if its still stuck the same puss eats at the hook. is you find it going from mouth to its a$$ it was embedded it some bait and was just passing thru without being stuck in the gut liner...DJ

I too have found chinook with about 4 feet of leader hanging out there a$$, and the hooks were not only both stuck in the asophagus (sp), but one of them was through the throat and into the lining of the belly. This was a spawned out fish that had just died, and was completely spawned in a small trib. Tough fish.

NEN

HntnFsh,

The is a lot more water than acid in a fish's mouth, and hooks last a lot longer than 2 or 3 days. I don't know how long a hook can stay lodged in a fish's mouth in freshwater. If the hook is in a fleshy or bony part of the mouth, and not in the throat or a gill arch, I'd take the time to remove it - being careful in handling the fish, of course.

A regular hook doesn't last too long in salt water, but a lot of stainless steel hooks are sold for saltwater fishing, so I would expect that they could stay stuck in a fish quite a while.

I've not seen any specific data on hook longivity in fish. Could be a paper there for a student at the U.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

What a timely topic...

Over the weekend my father and I caught and released over 100 trout with about 30 fish between 15 and 20 inches on a small private pond (newly stocked). We left hooks in about half of them on Saturday with bait so Sunday & Monday we switched to plastic and plugs.

Wednesday night my brother caught one about 18 inches with a hook deep in it's throat.

He kept the fish and I was able to identify it (almost positively by the short leader material and hook) as one of my size 2 Gami baitholders.

Approx four days later the hook was still shiny with only a slight hint of discoloration where it was embedded in the fish. The entry point showed a tiny bit of irritation, but no festering wound.

In my opinion;
I don't think hooks go away as fast as we would like, but I do know that by cutting my leader (Yes it can be a pain to always retie) I am giving that fish a chance (as slim as it may be) and I am giving another angler a chance to enjoy that same fish.

I have caught kings out of the Forks area with
big siwash hooks in there jaw from trollers
that were fishing in the ocean.Im not sure how long the hooks had been there but they were stainless steel hooks so they most likley
wont rust.But those kings were still full of fight!!

The purpose of clipping the line on a deeply hooked fish is to minimize the damage from trying to get the hook out. Regardless of where the hook goes after it's clipped, that's less damaging than ripping out it's gills or stomach. This is particularly true for salmon headed upstream to spawn. If it's a wild fish that's deeply hooked, just clip the line and let it go. That's the best you can do.

Except, of course, you could sell all your fishing tackle and take up bowling. You won't hurt any fish doing that......

A lot of these fish that you find with hooks up there ass are from snaggers putting them hooks there
I've been told that the stainless steel hooks don't rust out very easy.

Caught the same summer run steelie last year that broke my buddy off two weeks earlier. Hook was still there with about 10" of line hanging out her mouth. No sign of rust or corrosion whatsoever and I removed both hooks from the fish and sent her back.

Nickel finished hooks will rust and deteriorate much quicker than NSB (black) or annodized (red, blue, green).

I see a lot of punk rockers with piercings all over their face and God knows where else. They all seem to be doing fine with a face full of metal so I'm sure that hooks just become "jewelry" when left on the fishes face and might even help attract mates when spawning I know that I like to spawn with pretty girls who have tongue rings