I will cut the line and let the fish have my hook, it is not worth the headache with our warden service (DNR) or my time to bring a fish to small to keep home.. They make reasons for size limits to ensure that fishing will go on in the future and to keep a certain species from disappearing from a lake altogether..Here they have been increasingly adding slot limits to landlocksalmon, 14 inches up to 24 inches you can keep but over that you need to release.. That has been increasing on different lakes every year. It used to be 14 inches and up you could keep.. I am not sure but I believe it is to encourage more spawning and less time stocking them..
Just a question for you guys. I understand answers may vary pending on fish species and such,but here is something to talk about. Say you hook an undersizedfish deep in the throat or gills, and know that it will die. If you are keeping fish, do you keep it? What do the DNR say about it, although I understand it is still an illegal sized fish?
Our law states it must be released..I usually don't kill fish..If I hook a bass deep and can't savethe hookIdo not try and force the hook out resulting in a dead fish..It's cruel to me..I carry a long pair of wire cutters and cut the line..90% of the timeI can cut the hook off and pull the shank right out..it takes time but it's the right thing to do..
when you hook a bass deep, try turning the hook down underneath the gills (careful not to touch the gills itself), and with a quick pop of the hook, it usually pulls right out and doesnt harm the fish.
__________________
Dear, Mr. Trophy Hunter - I just shot the buck you passed up.
Proud member of the Quality Deer Mis-Management Association
Josh,I was thinking the same thing..butI think this fisherman meant ..when all you see is the eye of the hook at the top of a closed stomach..anything else I can remove..where the worm and all is completely in the gut. those are tough,,
I have become quiet good at removing them myself, but sometimes I just can't do it. Every one in a while they die, and I hate just seeing them struggling in the water, so now I have resorted to cutting my line, wether it works our not. I have heard some saythe hookwill rust and disengrate away and the fish can still live in the amount of time.
Sadly, some fish are different. I mean we have super abundant bluegills, so I'm much less careful then say our state fish the brooke trout. I shouldn't be, but I'm not a perfect fisherman.
__________________ ...on the water or in the woods...
Poll: Fatally Hooked Fish
