fish damage

today whilst removing a hook from a deep-hooked flounder i did some damage to his gill raker. feeling pretty crappy about it. what i need to know is how bad this is to a fish as fish need 'em to 'breathe'? the fish bled from the gill but swam away strongly. is he likely to die??

I have caught several pike with broken gill rakers (gill raker actually hanging out of the gill cover) so it's obviously not always fatal.

Hope that's of some consolation...

Twaite Shad bleed profusely when hooked in the gills and die very quickly. Most times they are barely hooked if at all!
A brother caught a Shad recently with a large fresh lump taken out of its head. Possibly by a Pike as an angler nearby was smashed on light gear by a Pike.
I have also returned Flounder with some gills torn and hope they survived. Also some Pike and pollock.

when fishing for flats Mark as you know it is not good to strike and better to let the fish take bait in. What I do is to leave the hook in if to deep. I heard they can get them out in time. maybe not but because mouth so small I don,t know what else to do.

Colin

I think some fish can handle it and others cant, it probably comes down to the type of life they lead and so forth. I got this device from the states, its very similiar in width and lenght to a knitting needle but at the end theres a u-turn and a two inch scissors type thing pointing back towards the user. Its super thin and ridiculously sharp (I've gone through 6/0s with it no hassle). Its absolutely the business if you have to leave a hook in the fish because you can trim the hook down to the smallest possible size to avoid it impeding food flow etc. I dont know where the old man got it but it says Viking on the side. Well worth having it in the bag

Colin i would normally leave a hook in the fish if removing it seemed a worse faith. i took a chance on this fella. must look out for those Viking thingies. an oversize freshwater disgorger would be great. must look into that too! thanks for the feedback lads.

when fishing for flats Mark as you know it is not good to strike and better to let the fish take bait in. What I do is to leave the hook in if to deep. I heard they can get them out in time. maybe not but because mouth so small I don,t know what else to do.

Colin

I'm far from being an expert here lads, but I always thought that the opposite was true - that it's better to strike than to let the fish swallow the bait as much as it can.

Obviously if you allow the fish to take the bait in then you are pretty much guaranteed that the fish is going to be hooked pretty deep down.

I always assumed that striking would miss you more fish but it wouldn't bother me too much. I absolutely HATE having to damage fish while unhooking them and seeing them bleed.

Apparently off-setting the point of your hooks with a pair of piers increases your chances of lip-hooking a fish, as do circle hooks...

i off-set most of my hookpionts. u still get the odd fish that wants to gulp the lot down though. also how u put your bait on the hook can affect where the hook ends up in the fish. sometimes striking can be good but for flatties in particular it can lead to missed fish at times.

Hi Kleeneeze , don't want to take issue with you but don't see how fish can shed a hook any more easily than we can . Sure the exposed part may rust off ( don't know how long "sea" hooks would take ) but imagine that the embedded bit would eventually disintegrate into the bloodstream . Mind you , I'm no expert .
Personally I might let the fish swallow if I intended to eat it anyway . Otherwise strike and risk a miss would leave me feeling better . May be why I never land anything .
nick

Have just ordered some semi circles from Veals... from what I've read they can make a big difference.. will post back results... has anyone got experience of them for flats?

all far points excuse the pun but you have to find a happy medium.

Colin

Hi

I've been using VMC circle hooks 1/0s for flatfish for the past year or so and can recommend them - the key with them is not to strike as the hooks are self-impaling, but you do end up with less hook ups IMHO than with standard J hooks. Circle hooks work best with active predators but flounder in particular are buggers for wandering up to a bait and delicately gobbling the whole damn thing down with almost no tell tale signs (or am I going blind!). I only use the circles when twitching over sand, retrieving slowly in steps, as this generate more active "attacks".

I would be interested to hear what other people have to say on this...

FWIW

varivas semi-circles are great for fishing small lively baits for flatties. particularly good when used with light snood lines. also quite strong without being too bulky. best order a size up from standard sizes as they seem to verge on the small side. found more lip hooks with these but thats probably because of the way i presented the bait on these hooks, moreso than the hook itself- anyone have a different opinion? i have only been using these a few months now. Kieran have you got a VMC catalogue?