STEP-BY-STEP
GUIDE
Step 1: Open
the fish’s mouth and note which gill flap the hook shank
is closest to.
Step 2: Gently
open that gill flap and, using your thumb and index finger,
reach in through the space between the last gill filament and
the fish’s side. Carefully pull the hook eye through the
opening and rotate the hook so the bend becomes exposed and
begins to back out of the fish’s throat. (Note: To keep
things simple, the fishing line has been left out of the drawings
in steps 2 through 5.)
Step 3: Continue
rolling the hook and, amazingly, you’ll feel the point
and barb slip free inside the fish’s stomach and begin
to slide out of the fish’s throat.
Step 4: Depending
on the size of the fish and its mouth opening, use your fingers,
a pair of pliers or forceps to grab the bend of the hook once
it’s fully exposed.
Step 5: Lift
the hook free.
HARD TO SWALLOW
If you leave a hook inside a fish, will it eventually rust away,
as many anglers believe? Not according to John Foster, recreational
fisheries coordinator for the Maryland Department of Natural
Resources. Foster kept throat-hooked striped bass in holding
tanks containing 50 per cent seawater—which should have
sped up the dissolution process—and measured the time
it took for various types of hooks to dissolve.
After
four months, not a single stainless-steel hook had disintegrated.
Bronze hooks deteriorated the most, but fully 70 per cent remained
embedded. Tin-cadmium hooks were even worse at 80 per cent,
as were nickel hooks at 83 per cent. As well, he found that
the cadmium-coated hooks, which are no longer manufactured,
poisoned 20 per cent of the fish.
Foster’s conclusion? Get
the hooks out. 
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