What is the ethical thing to do if you hook up to an 18" redfish and it swallows the hook down down into its gut? The fight all but killed the fish.

Dead red! single choice
	Cut the line and let the fish float away
	Cut the line and keep the fish
	Pull the hook out of the gut
Votes accepted starting: 03/06/10 12:46 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

I voted to cut the line and let the fish float away. I would be tempted to keep it but would not know how I would explain it to a game warden if stopped.

I believe you're not supposed to keep it no matter what the case may be. I could be wrong but that's what I've always done.

Last fall I caught a nice plump 24" Red when I went to fillet it out I checked the gut to see what it had been eating. Inside the gut I found a hook that had ingested some time. It was strange It seems that the hooked had a fiberous coating around it. near as I can figure the chemicals in the fish gut had adhered to the hook. I always cut my line on a deep hooked undersized fish.

Cut the line, revive, and release, in all likelyhood the fish will survive.

I would also cut the line and maybe he would live. Not worth the ticket the warden would give me if I kept it.

Depends if I think im going to run into a game warden then I'll throw it back. But if I think I can get away with it then im not going to waste the fish so I'll keep it.

I voted cut the line and keep it if I absolutely knew it was going to die. Wasting a fish worrying about a game warden is not fishing. If a game warden askes me to look at the fish I would show him or her and the hooked fish and why I kept it. The game wardens are not tyrants.

and they would still issue you the ticket

Sorry Bill - your gonna get a ticket.As a game warden once told me ..how does he know that you didnt do the hook set up yourself in order to keep the fish ??
I look at it as a waste..The irony of it is when you read in "the book" wanton waste is illegal- yet catch a crappie in 30 foot of water and let him be 9 inch..you have to release the fish -even though you know the fish is gonna die.Its a waste !! same as catching a 14 inch Spec,caught deep down in the throat-its gonna die.

something as simple as a circle hook, or barbless hook
would completely derail this discussion.
..just sayin.....

I gut hooked an undersized trout once. It was obviously not going to survive. I removed the hook and tossed the fish back. It began floating away when a big brown pelican swooped down and swallowed it hole. Glad I removed the hardware or I would have killed the pelican too.

I second circle hooks. Don't use anything else now.

I am in the process of switching even top waters out to circle hooks. Now - if I can keep from setting the hook. I wonder if they make long shank circle hooks that I could use in my jig molds to make circle hook jigs??

Yessir they do, I've seen them somewhere or other and had the same thought.

Dont have that problem in LA. 16 inch min length. But if it was a 15, I wont take a chance on a ticket. It'll end being food for another fish.