I'd like to see more data on hook deterioration in fish.
Makes me wonder if it wouldn't be better to remove a hook from salmon caught ice fishing then to leave it in.
I know the longer you have a fish out of water at below freezing temps, the more of a chance that the delicate gills will freeze. I wonder which is the more injurious to the fish.
Cal
Good research guys.
Unfortunatley, hook wounding is a by-product of catching, I have heard for years that the hooks more or deteriorate or rust and go away, but from the sounds of the two artilcles, not so.
We rarely hook a fish deep with spoons using trebles, hardly ever, almost always lip hooked. Once in a while a fish will inhale a fly, but even with flys it's a huge percentage that get lip hoooked, we will call them single hooks even if they are tandem.
As far as ice fishing I would say a huge percentage die no matter how careful the anglers are. From what we have read, hooks left in will most likely kill them and if exposed to extreme temps the same outcone will most likely result.
So it's probably fair to say, lip hooked fish have a much higher percentage of surving than fish hooked deeper.
So the question is, do single hooks or trebles catch more fish in the lips or deeper ?????
I feel the faster you can de-hook a fish the better, winter or summer which would give the nod to flys or single hooks, even better if they were barbless or pinched barbs.
Myself, we have a problem hooking them period lately, so it's not an issue on Squam at the moment. If we start catchin fish we might pinch all the barbs, but I doubt I will change hooks again, we did that the last two winters fr different reasons.
Great stuff, I'm convinced now that hooks left in fish, are a sure death sentence.
