Need Opinions on Ethical Fishing Question. 2024

luckyinkentucky reply :

A couple of my buddies and I were sitting around the lodge tonight and an interesting question came up.

If a Bass swallows your bait, hook and all, do you ....

A) Throw it back in anyway!

---OR---

Keep it, and cook him up!

I thought about it, and I've never had a fish swallow my bait to the point that I couldn't recover it. In this instance where I couldn't find my hook I would have to keep the fish, and give him an honorable and humane death. I would have to kill him quick, and fry him up at the next fish fry.

I personally don't see any need to 'Catch & Release' a fish that has a 4/0 hook somewhere in his gut. The fish is going to starve to death, and suffer horribly in the process.

That's my opinion, but what do you all think?

What's the consensus? Keep it or throw it back?

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

I think it's just the anglers call, especially seeing how the death wasn't intentional.

If you keep it, you honor it, if you let it go, it still feeds the ecosystem becoming food for cays,turtles,etc

Personally i don't like the taste of bass. If I knew someone that did, I would pass it along , cleaned of course, but I don't.

Raul reply :

You paid your fishing license didn 't you ? legally speaking the fish is yours so you can pretty much do with it what you want.

Is the fish of legal size ? if it 's legal size keeper you can pretty much do with the fish what you want, if it 's not legal size then you MUST unhook the fish and return it, if it survives good, if it doesn 't survive too bad but you did obey the law or regulation.

For starters fishing is a bloody sport, if you don 't want to be confronted with "ethical" delimmas like keeping the fish or returning it to the water just don 't fish, if you choose to continue in the sport and as long as you obey the law there 's no "ethics" involved. Ethical behavior is not abusing of the priviledge to fish on a regular basis.

.dsaavedra. reply :

well....

if i could see the hook and had any chance at all to remove it, i would try like hell. and usually i succeeed in this, by going in from behind in the gills (carefully of course!) then i will plop him in the water, move him back and forth, and if he swims off, great! if he stays there i'll give him a few minutes and see if he livens up...if he dies, i grab him and eat him if i have a way of bringing him home (cooler, bucket w/ water, etc..) i love the taste of bass and i love releasing fish so either way works for me!!!

FishinDaddy reply :

If he is a legal size, in the frying pan he goes...

Jake Grey reply :

I snip the line as close to the hook as possible and release the fish if it is gut hooked. However, if it is already bleeding I take him home and eat him. Bleeding bass seldom survive.

Buick

Bassin_Fin@tic reply :

I tried to squash that bug on my screen. :

Jig Man reply :

If the fish is of legal size and you want to eat it keep it. That is your right as a legal licensed person. It only becomes an ethical issue if the fish is sublegal and you decide to keep it.

Micro reply :

If you happen to toss back a dead fish, try and toss it up on land, not back in the water. Decaying fish take a lot of dissolved oxygen out of the water.

armesjr reply :

I have caught several fish (in my backyard pond and other lakes) that have hooks coming out of their urogential opening (butt), where they had been gut hooked and it worked its way through its digestive tract. These fish were healthy and doing alright, so if you gut hook a fish and leave the hook in there, its not a guarnteed death sentence. If it is bleeding really bad and you know it is going to die, do whatever you want with it. If you eat it or toss it back, it is gonna be beneficial for someone or something either way.

Tin reply :

For the most part the largie is a tough fish. I have caught them in tourneys at 7:30am and accidentley gut hooked them, they can bleed, and when I go to weigh them in at 3pm, usually the hook fallen out and it is in the livewell or they are alive and stick kickin like nothing ever happened. Now smallies, thats a whole different thing, if I ever gut hook a smallie, they are usually up-side down in the well within 2 hours :'(. If they are dead at the end of the day, sure bring them home. If they can swim, put them back because you never know.

HesterIsGod reply :

If a bass swallows the hook I cant remove, I would just cut it. Ive caught bass with plastic worms half out of their throat and with a hook and a worm lodged in its jaw. They're survivors.

LCpointerKILLA reply :

I caught a strong fighting bass that had about a foot of braid hanging out of her butt. My guess is she swallowed and entire grub or something and the angler cut the line. weird.

Avalonjohn44 reply :

Quote
I caught a strong fighting bass that had about a foot of braid hanging out of her butt.

I've also caught a few tough bass with braid coming out the back end. I just snipped it close so they wouldn't get caught on anything. Hopefully it was braid attached to a hook, not the tail end of some hairball of braid blocking their intestines...

Raul reply :

What I find to be the most fascinating fact when these kind of discussion arises is that everybody suggests to cut the line and leave the hook there.

Why nobody suggests to cut the hook with your pliers and remove both pieces ?

C 'mon, how much can a hook be worth ?

You ain 't gonna go bankrupt for loosing a 1 dollar hook ( that 's is you are using expensive ones ) are you ?

bocabasser reply :

Quote
What I find to be the most fascinating fact when these kind of discussion arises is that everybody suggests to cut the line and leave the hook there.
Why nobody suggests to cut the hook with your pliers and remove both pieces ?

C 'mon, how much can a hook be worth ?

You ain 't gonna go bankrupt for loosing a 1 dollar hook ( that 's is you are using expensive ones ) are you ?

i use a 5/0 gama ewg--those hooks are pretty thick. i know my pliers would not be able to cut through the hook. i would snip it as close to the knot as possible, and release the fish.

Siebert Outdoors reply :

There is a hook removal diagram on here that works flawlessly. I suggest everyone learning it and not leaving the hook in.

BTW This is not a ethical question its a question of legal. If its a legal fish then there is ethics there. If it is an illegal fish you need to return it to the water no mater what. Your ethics wont pay a 500 dollar ticket.

Raul reply :

Quote

i use a 5/0 gama ewg--those hooks are pretty thick. i know my pliers would not be able to cut through the hook. i would snip it as close to the knot as possible, and release the fish.

How expensive can pliers can be ? 10, 20 bones ?

surfer reply :

Quote
What I find to be the most fascinating fact when these kind of discussion arises is that everybody suggests to cut the line and leave the hook there.
Why nobody suggests to cut the hook with your pliers and remove both pieces ?

C 'mon, how much can a hook be worth ?

You ain 't gonna go bankrupt for loosing a 1 dollar hook ( that 's is you are using expensive ones ) are you ?

http://www.toolking.com/grip-on-tools_57396.aspx

I use pliers similar to these to do just that. i bought mine at auto zone when looking for something else. I figure half a hook is easier to pass than a whole hook. And some times the two half's can be retrieved much easier than the whole. Make sure to get long handles for better leverage. Those hooks are tough to cut.

guest reply :

There is no ethical question.

You can keep and kill any legal fish.

It is a question of your personal morality.

And only you can answer that.

Even those few of us who primarily fish in catch and release waters are not faced with an ethical question.

The fish may not live. but the regulations require that ALL fish must be released.

As far as tossing it up on the bank due to oxygen depletion,

well, if a dead bass is going to deplete needed oxygen in your lake than you have a seriously sick system.

HesterIsGod reply :

Quote
What I find to be the most fascinating fact when these kind of discussion arises is that everybody suggests to cut the line and leave the hook there.
Why nobody suggests to cut the hook with your pliers and remove both pieces ?

C 'mon, how much can a hook be worth ?

You ain 't gonna go bankrupt for loosing a 1 dollar hook ( that 's is you are using expensive ones ) are you ?

I'd imagine you have to pretty long pliers to cut a hook all the way deep in a basses throat.

Micro reply :

Quote

As far as tossing it up on the bank due to oxygen depletion,

well, if a dead bass is going to deplete needed oxygen in your lake than you have a seriously sick system.

What some may not realize is that many of the finest bass lakes become the equivalent of "seriously sick" every summer. Rising water temperatures and algae growth seriously deplete dissolved oxygen in water. This phenomenon creates oxygen-absent dead-zones and fish kills. Fish kills (and plankton die-offs) do nothing but compound the problem. The decay process uses yet more dissolved oxygen, and the decomposing fish add nutrients to the water that feed the algae.

The air we breathe contains oxygen at the rate of 200,000 parts per million. Freshwater with a dissolved oxygen content of just 10 parts per million would be consider oxygen-rich. Many freshwater lakes, including some I fish, experience oxygen depletions to the level of around 3 parts per million - seriously stressing fish. A drop to 2 parts per million can cause a partial or total fish kill.

Throwing a dead fish in the water may not seem like a big deal. But it is the equivalent of pollution. And if you do it in a lake which is experiencing low oxygen levels, all you do it compound the problem. Not only does it suck more needed oxygen out of the water, it pre-disposes the fish in the lake to disease. It's just bad management.

I've always felt that if we feel bass are worthy of catching, they are worthy of protecting. Protecting them means knowing them. I highly recommend anyone with an interest in the ecology of black bass check this book:

http://www.afsbooks.org/x54031xm.html

It's less expensive than a really good rod or reel. But it will tell you more than you thought there was to know about bass.

guest reply :

Quote
Protecting them means knowing them.

Is this a biblical reference?

guest reply :

Quote

Quote
Protecting them means knowing them.

Is this a biblical reference?

Nah, it's a know it all refrence

Micro reply :

Quote

Quote

Quote
Protecting them means knowing them.

Is this a biblical reference?

For you, perhaps if we were talking about smallmouth.

Micro reply :

Quote

Quote

Quote
Protecting them means knowing them.

Is this a biblical reference?

Nah, it's a know it all refrence

Brilliant. And the post-count climbs to.......

Tom Bass reply :

;D You guys are a riot!

Leave it or remove just depends on the situation for me. I used to use standard worm hooks and would gut hook a bass on a rare occassion but I have tried a multitude of hooks and the best one for me is Tru-Turn hooks. I have yet to gut hook a bass with those. I almost always lip hook 'em with these hooks.

I keep three tools in my boat that help. A sturdy set of forceps, a long set of needle nosed pliers and a set of wire cutters. These help get the hook out. If you really have concerns about removing the hook smash the barb down. Sure, you'll lose a fish on occassion but that helps with hook removal in a guy hooked fish.

Tom

guest reply :

Quote

Quote

Quote

Quote
Protecting them means knowing them.

Is this a biblical reference?

For you, perhaps if we were talking about smallmouth.

:-*

SimonSays reply :

Quote

I've always felt that if we feel bass are worthy of catching, they are worthy of protecting. Protecting them means knowing them. I highly recommend anyone with an interest in the ecology of black bass check this book:

http://www.afsbooks.org/x54031xm.html

It's less expensive than a really good rod or reel. But it will tell you more than you thought there was to know about bass.

Wow, I really wish I could afford that, it looks like a very interesting read

Low_Budget_Hooker reply :

That book isn't huge but it's packed with great info. This is the book that convinced me that keeping a Bass in a tank is un-ethical (to me) It was given to me by a marine Biologist from U.R.I. It's a little "sciency" but a great read if you can slow down and look up a few words,lol.

Jake Grey reply :

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I tried to squash that bug on my screen. :

What bug?

George Welcome reply :

In 40+ years of fishing for bass, I have never had one swallow bait and hook completely.

Sam reply :

I have seen bass pass hooks.

I have pulled a plastic worm out of a bass.

I would throw the fish back and hope for the best.

jwo1124 reply :

Two things; First, that Black Bass book does look like a good read. It is a bit pricey, about the same price I spend per book for college. But, seeing how it is meant for students, scientists, and wildlife agency and conservationists, it is probably a very accurate and dependable source worth every dollar.

But, it's either buy that book, or a new IM7 worm and jig rod....::stop bait monkey that hurts::....I guess I'll just stick to reading articles on Bass Resource for now...

Secondly, the choice you make is one of personal morality as Muddy said. It is great that anglers like many on this forum have such repsect and empathy for the bass, even though we spend every waking moment learning how to trick it into biting a false food item and sticking a hook into its face ;D

All kidding aside though, I would say as long as the fish isn't bleeding, cut the line as close to the hook as possible, and let the fish swim off. Try to hold it in the water for a few seconds to let it recover from the stress of the whole incident and get some O2 back in it's system. I have always read that fish are tough animals, and are able to pass and even break down and digest a hook because the acidity of their stomachs are very high. Think, they have to digest whole organisms, bones, fins, shells: they are tough critters. Some members here have posted that they have been witness to this.

So I would say, If you do gut hook a fish, and it looks like it's in ok shape, NOT BLEEDING, cut the line and throw it back. Chances are the fish will survive and keep feeding. I was shiner fishing one day, gut hooked a dink bass, cut the line threw it back, and ten minutes later I caught the same fish with the hook still lodged in it's throat. Fish are tough, don;t under estimate them, they have been here alot longer than us, and probably will be here a lot longer after we're gone.

Hope this helps.

-Joe

Matt Fly reply :

I have a pair of commercial dykes. They make fast work on any hooks I have came across.

I'm one who tries to totally remove the hook with minimum damage to the fish.

I have caugh one bass over 7 pounds from Fork that had 4 existing hooks in her mouth, two with some line hanging out of her mouth about 18 inches on the longest.

Those hooks showed some rusting, but looked like they needed alot more time. Hooks are made with alot better alloys than in the old days. One thing about her, she broke them all off, cause they were in easy places to remove. Go figure. All removed and she swam away.

This was in 96, slot was only 21 inches so she stayed in livewell for awhile. I let her recooperate before completing all removals.

lineman reply :

no harm in keeping a fish once in a while to remind you how much of a pain in the but it is to have rottin fish smell in your garage!

guest reply :

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I have a pair of commercial dykes.

Not my idea of a good time but hey, if you got the $$$....................go for it.

guest reply :

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I have a pair of commercial dykes.

Not my idea of a good time but hey, if you got the $$$....................go for it. :

luckyinkentucky reply :

I think we got a little 'off key' here. I was implying a scenario as if the fish completely swallowed the hook all the way to the stomach. You can't see the hook in the mouth or under the gills. It is in the internal organs of the fish.

The reason I initially asked this question is because I have gutted 10+ pound catfish that have had treble hooks hung up in their intestines. I'm just beginning to wonder how ethical it is to let a wounded fish go that you know is going to die a slow and painful death.

I think it would be more humane to eat the fish, and save it the trouble in the long run. That's my conclusion.

Long Mike reply :

Avid, I'm not going to touch this one with a ten foot pole. I good pair of commercial dykes would just chomp it into small pieces. ;D

Micro reply :

Quote

Quote
I have a pair of commercial dykes.

Not my idea of a good time but hey, if you got the $$$....................go for it. :

LMAO. ;D

It's a spectator sport.

11087

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