how to stop killing fish 

A gut hooked fish is a sign it was meant for the dinner table.

gut hooking is when i end up with a fish fry

Wait i never even thought of cutting the line and pulling the hook out the other way thats amazing for any bad hookset

**barbless hooks have entered the chat** but the method you showed was actually a pretty good one, unless the eye of someone's hook was unusually large for some reason, then it could still cause some damage to the fish.

Ill never forget my first experience with a guthook-- i asked my dad if i could remove the hook and i got too impatient and yanked its guts out. He didnt even scold me cause he saw the look on my face and how disappointed i was in myself for killing it. He just put his hand on my shoulder and said "ill teach you how to take the hook out so that never happens again" Friggen miss that guy, man

I've been fishing so long I don't even remember learning to cast, and just now 27 years in, I finally understand the purpose of a circle hook. The more you know.

When fishing saltwater in australia it’s pretty common to have a fish swallow the hook.

Never ever thought of this and I pinch the barbs on alll of my hooks wether I’m throwing flies on a fly rod or bait on conventional gear and I still sometimes have trouble getting them out due to depth of the set and other reasons. I’m 100% giving this a try next time I find myself in a situation necessary to do so. Seems like such a good idea

If all else fails, harvest the fish.

A lot of the fish I hook end up dying, and I'm not sure why. Do you think it's the fillet knife or the bacon grease?

PRO TIP: You can get hemostats, that have a small section of scissor blades in the jaw, for cutting your line. They're a very good multi-use fishing tool, that are easy to carry in your pocket. I don't remember what brand I have, but possibly Dr. Slick. If you can't find them online, check the fly-fishing section. I bought them 15 years ago and they haven't rusted and the blades still cut line (good for re-tying after snags).

They make barbless circle hooks. Those are the only ones I’ve ever used.

It's super easy to remove gut hooks with practice, try going in from the back of the gills if the bass is large enough. Happens to the best of us!

Dude, thank you. I hate gut hooking but sometimes it happens.

I've used hemostats for years for fish. Work awesome and can clamp to any part of your clothing or use a retractor string setup. Just make sure you keep the ones you use for roaches separate. 😳

Pinching your barbs is also much more humane in general and makes taking gut hooks out significantly easier

Thanks for covering this stuff. I find it important on land and sea not to cause unneccesary suffering

Legit a decent way to fix a gut hook. Not many people share this knowledge. Well done sir

Use barbless hooks, circle hooks, a disgorger, and set the hook as fast as possible. That helps with preventing gut hooks. Usually if I see blood I cut the line to not cause any more damage.

Honestly I always just get the right jiggle to get it out but that’s a good idea I’ll have to try that.

Used to deckhand on a sport fishing boat. Hold the line so there's a little pressure, then unhook the fish from under the gill plate through the gills. Since you're holding the line, the hook usually comes right out 👍

To add on, if you cant pull it out from the eye, you can just cut the line off, leave it in the fish and it will rust away eventually. The fish has a higher chance of survival, as said by DNR

This method is a little harder but you can also push the hook in and away to try and clear the barb-or if you’re fishing salt water and it’s a large enough fish you can just clip it and leave it in depending on the hook since alot of them will corrode away in a couple weeks

Just leave the hook in if it's going to hurt the fish more to get it out. No cowboy surgery to save a 20cent hook is worth a sports fish's life. They either remove the hook themselves, disgest the hook eventually or it'll be rejected by their bodies and fall out.

I stick my pliers in through the gills, grab and twist. Works every time

You can also use a straw if you cut the line higher up guide the line though the straw. Slide the straw down to the hook. You can then use the straw to push the hook out with ease.

It’s a fish oh well

I've worked in a surgical setting for over thirty years and use a needle holder, instead. It's much stronger - Kellys and snaps (hemostats) are too flexible at the tip and offer no rigidity when using a twisting motion.

This has happened so many times thank you so much for this

You can also take your pliers and go under the gills(being careful not to damage the gills) to grab the hook and then do a twist. It was a game changer when i learned it.

Going for larger hook size and barbless hooks helps. Larger hooks does limit your catch to bigger fish but is more difficult for the fish to swallow, and barbless hooks make it far easier to remove throat hooks and does less damage over all to the fishes mouth (also reduces trips to the hospitals for yourself). Also if your bait fishing braid is better then flourocarbon because you get better hit detection and can strike early before the fish gets a chance to swallow the hook. Bigger baits help also, more difficult for the fish to swallow.

Med school experience has a surprising amount of practical use in fishing

You’re a good teacher man. Keep teaching us things

I always smush my barbs. Not because my rods have shitty action, actually because all hooks even trebles just pop right out and theres no struggle

I’m going to remember this. I’m pretty good at backing hooks out on Rockfish, Lings, Salmon… sometimes though, you need a different tactic

Predator fishermen in the UK (pretty much only predator fishing + sea fishing use barbed hooks here) carry wire cutters to cut the hook. So no pulling through an eye, just clip the eye if you can and then pull it through. No damage at all... Or go barbless

We just cut them off, the fish can digest it better than we can take it out

This is why when i do catch and release fishing (coarse fishing in uk), I use barbless or microbarbed hooks. Sea fishing is a different matter, but usually i intend to keep those. Sadly eels have a habit of taking the bait and swallowing it quickly... :(

Nice tips dude 👍 i normally use circle hooks too and smash the barbs down.

The damage is done before you ever get near the hook. You just finished reeling in a gut hooked fish. The whole reeling and it fighting tear it apart. It might swim away, but it'll likely die later. I see dead stripers floating all the time. Someones catch and release product. Them swimming away after you release them doesn't mean they love

Or fish barbless.

The only time this won’t work is treble hooks

Thing is if you are in Australia you have to keep the fish. If gut hooked.

One time when fishing with my dad we accidentally did this and the fish died when we were trying to take it out. Usually we catch and release but this time we kept him and cooked him over a fire, because we were camping.

Great vid ty

I was just fishing today with my dad I just got a bass then he got one when we saw that it got gut hooked it was already bleeding and we knew it was in pain so we ended quickly this video will help thanks for posting this

Use barbless hooks. You'll rarely lose a fish if you keep tension during the fight.

there's no evidence fish feel pain like we do

Fun fact! This is how they get fish hooks out of people in the hospital

You could use barbless or micro barbed hooks.

So the dude stopped fishing just because he gut hooked a fish, like what? 💀

Wait till he finds out about snag fishing

Good lord, we're getting weaker and weaker as a species. 🤦🏽‍♂️

Nice video man!

Aren't these hooks designed to eventually rust out? Idk if that makes it any better

In Canada we don’t use barbs, I caught a nice northern pike that was 60 cm and it had a hook by the gut, since we don’t use barbs my 13 year old self took that hook out with no problems

Always fish if you're ready to take it home for food

You have the best fishing channel!

At the end of the day it’s a fish. You didn’t mean to gut hook the dude. I’ve cut the line and left the hook before, I’ve heard it rusts away surprisingly quickly

If you cannot remove a gut hook, simply cut the line but as an absolute last resort. Gosh can definitely survive after being gut hooked or throat hooked

I gut hooked a 0.1 kg perch and it unfortunately died so when I pulled the hook out the gills came with

Barbed hooks are illegal here in Manitoba, and I can honestly say I wouldn’t use a barbed hook even if I could.

Just fish barbless

Felt horrible first time I gut hooked a bass, I didn't have pliers at the time but was able to cut the line and get the hook out with my fingers, felt weird feeding the line through the hole I think the only reason it worked was the super small hooksize I was using at the time

I accidentally gut hooked a fish a month ago (I don't fish normally so I was very surprised) I didn't know what to do and my cousin didn't know what to do. We called my step dad (he says he is an expert on fish but doesn't know that they can last out of water for over 2 minutes) and he said that we are supposed to rip it out and just let him go... We ripped it out. Lets just say. It didn't swim away.

I've got a gut hook tool, basically a little piece of bent wire on a handle. It works very well. I've throat hooked pan fish, things you definitely couldn't get a pair of hemos into, and used that thing to pull it out pretty effortlessly. I'm also running barbless hooks, and the combo seems to be great.

The worst one I had was hooking a bass through it's tongue and the bottom of the gill plate and through the top of its mouth and on top of that it was a spinnerbait and I didn't have any room to work it out and it didn't make it

I’ve caught 100s of fish. I only had one bass inhale a paddle tail once and it didn’t make it. It sucked but it is unfortunately part of fishing. DNR says the seagulls gotta eat too haha

Dude thanks for this frfr

That’s what’s good about eating fish you don’t make the fish suffer in the wild if you gut hook it and you get the hook back

thank you for sharing this dude

This happened on a pickeral with a trebble spoon

I gut hooked my PB bass which is 5.08lb and my friend found her the next day and I gut hooked her on a PB&J Ned rig

I have an easier method. With small pliers go through the gills. Keep pliers closed to not catching anything on way in or out. Then simple reverse out the hook. Going in through gills changes your point of leverages and hook comes out easy everytime. Regardless or hook type. Even works on weighted Ned rigs. Good luck out there everyone

This is the exact reason I don't like fishing by myself. Hate killing a fish cuz I don't know what I'm doing 😓

Can’t get it out ? Guess it’s going in the ice box

Just hard when you do it to a pike

Damn you really just made me feel so dumb to never think of this

Just rip it out fish die everyday I don’t have the time to tie on another hook

Cut the line as close to the shank as possible and don't touch the hook. Attempting to remove it isn't advised. You can read most Fish and Wildlifes Catch-And-Release best practices if you need confirmation.

I stopped hunting when I wounded a deer instead of a more instant death. I felt awful, we got him eventually and I went home and started practicing my aim immediately so it wouldn't happen again. But I never could get myself to pull the trigger after that, now I just throw down some corn and watch them play from my tree stand lmao. Call me a pussy or whatever, but I just can't do it.

more wisdom for the people absolutely great video

Where I’m from, if you gut hook a fish, that means you’re required to clean it and eat it. Meatloaf can wait another night

First ever time using a circle hook i caught my first ever snook, he got gut hooked and he died.

Circle hooks Problem solved

cut line, cut fish open, dig hook out, fry fish.

Or have a barb less hook

When you scraped the hook I shuddered

I gut hooked once, had no idea I even had a fish on the line. Felt horrible about it. Was a very spiritual meal for us that night cooking late in the night under the stars.

My problem is the fish never sits that still for me to get the hook out. But what do you do if fishing with lures that have the treble hooks?

Morale of the story, fish barbless.

Wth ain’t no way that fish will wait until I’m done

I once a fish in it's eye. I...I don't even know how I managed that... Felt so bad :c

Used circle hooks for abit. Killed loads of fish. Stoped. Suddenly none dead. Like ik hes not lyin to me but results say.

Barbed hooks are illegal for that reason in most European lakes

At some point with catch and release Don’t the fish die when they have bitten 10 hooks? Are they really fine? Still have to understand catch and release

I don’t give a single fuck if I gut hook a fish. If I kill it I freeze it and use it for catfish bait. It’s a win win situation. If the fish survives, great, if not, I get bait.

RIP all the fish that he practiced on

With a circle hook it’s sort of hard to get carp with as if it hooks on the carps lips then say good by to the carp and it’s lips

Another reason why i use barbless hooks or de-barb my hooks if possible. I may lose a few fish because of this but im fishing for the sport, not for my dinner. Deep hooking is a lot easier to deal with without the barbs. I mainly deal with perch and pike/muskie so ive always got two different sizes of forceps and some long nosed/long reach side cutters on me. Never had to use the side cutters and I hope i will never have to but they are always there.