It takes a crankbait and breaks your line? Does the fish eventually starve off and die? Or will the crank bait hooks get either kicked off by the fish or break up in the water?

Fishing with some older line I guess, had one close to shore, decent sized but nothing I hadn't caught already, and the line just snapped. Don't know if one of the hooks actually caught on the line and cut it or if the line snapped, but it wasn't a bad knot, was clean break.

Just don't like to think that nice fish is gonna die.

circle of life

MOST fish throw the bait after it breaks off, but not all. Never is an all or nothing situation. When the line goes slack, you can see the bass and feel the bass shake the hooks out, so, do not worry about it. And, as said above, Circle of life if they do not shake it free. Ralph Manns says only 1 fish out of 100 make it past the first year, so nothing really serious, unless you start seeing a bunch of floaters with CBs in their mouth. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

never caught a bass with a crankbait in their mouth but have caught 2 with spoons in their mouth....hooked a 2 1/2lb bass on a jig n pig in a Hydrasport tourny on lanier probaly in 15 ft of water...got him half way to the boat and could feel him on there but felt like he was hung on something and wouldn't come any closer..got over top of him with trolling motor and pulled him to the top....he had an old rusty spoon in his mouth and a lenght of line stretching off into the depths...I unhooked him,put him in live well and started pulling on the line thinking maybe there was a rod and reel down there but line was hung on something and I ended up breaking it....the hooks on that spoon were almost rusted through and it wouldn't have long before the fish would have got rid of it....always figured that fish was like a dog on a chain and would eat anything that he could reach....and yes I did weigh the fish in....
several years later was fishing on lake champlain and caught another 2lb fish with what appeared to be one of those brightly painted spoons they use up there trolling for lake trout.........this one has a long lenght of real light line attached to it but fish could still swim freely....

I have caught literally thousands of fish in my life and none came in with a crank bait in it's mouth.

I have worked the live release boat for 15 years and many come in with hooks down their throats. Some are in trouble while other are not.

The bad ones are the smaller ones that get all 3 barbs in the mouth holding it closed.

Think about other things than that. Bass are OUR resource. You pay alot for License, Boat Registration, and trailer fees to afford a broke off fish.

Caught this one day after I had broke it off a few hours earlier.

Found this catfish floating in 40 feet of water on RR this weekend. It had all six hooks keeping its mouth shut. Took the hooks out and he swam away just fine

I have caught several fish with crank baits and rattle traps still in their mouth and they obviously still eat as long as it does not keep their mouth closed and eventually the hooks will rust and fall out.

Mentioned this before...

Usually the entry point(s) where the hook(s) embed into flesh or bone will fester up, rot away and let the hook(s) fall right out long before the hooks rust away. Then the area heals up. However, this is not always the case and sometimes the lure can remain in a fish until the fish' demise.