Removing hooks?

[AllenW]

Just wondering, last weekend I watch Bob Messacomer (sp?) on TV catching muskies, it appeared in some cases he just cut the hook off the lure and let the fish go with the hook still in his mouth, hard to tell from what video they showed so I might have missed something??

Is that possibly what he was doing?

Al

[rebs]

alot of people cut the hooks off a lure to release a muskie, it seems to cause less stress to the fish and allow it to be released quicker than trying to get the hooks pull the hooks out

[AllenW]

Thanks, doesn't seem as good a method as removing the barbs, haven't had to ever cut a hook that way.
Suppose it depends on where ya cut the hook.

Personal choice I guess.

Al

[Kingfisher]

Its not a good method at all. There have been studies to back this up. Hooks do not dissolve as once thought. Every attempt should be made to remove all the pieces. We do this after the lure has been cut away from the fish. Use Jaw spreaders and get the barbs out with needle nose pliers. Cutting the hooks loose from the lure can really speed up the release process. Kingfisher

[guest]

Cutting the hooks is a much better option than working too long to remove them. Even if the fish is in the water as you try to remove the hooks, the head is most likely out causing the fish a lot of stress. Ideally, yes, getting the pieces out is best, but again not if it adds a bunch of time to the release process.

[Hawker]

I'll be interested to see how well a (new to me) de-hooking device might work on removing hooks from muskies on my next trip north. While fishing down in the Gulf this Fall reef & rig fishing for red snapper etc, we found that we were "required" to have on board our boat and use a device called an "Arc Dehooker" on any fish that we planned to release. We used it on snapper, shark, mackerel (a very toothy fish) and just about every other species that we caught with 100% success. I figured we'd be able to use what we normally use for hook removal down in the Gulf, but found out that we would be ticketed if we did not have this device in our boat if checked. I don't work for'em, I don't have anything to do with the company, but after having used that particular de-hooker on the many species of toothy critters in the Gulf, I am really looking forward to giving it a go on Muskies and Pike both. If memory serves me correct, do a Google search on Arc Dehooker.

[rebs]

I wtched the videos but did not see how that would work with treble hooks, so I don't think it would work if you are casting or trolling lures
it appears to work great on a single hook

[Hawker]

Actually Rebs, it works very well even on treble hooks. It's a little tricky with a wildly thrashing fish, but once calmed down, it wasn't too bad. We got some 15-20 lb King Mackerel going on the big Super Shad Rap's, and getting them de-hooked wasn't all that hard with that tool. We had a guy at the tackle shop where we bought it show us how to use it on crankbait/treble hooks so that helped. On smaller trebles it might be kind of hard, but on the large ones, similar to what are on a lot of muskie baits, it seems to work pretty good. Like I said, I'll be interested in trying it out next year when I go back to LOTW.