OK everyone, I never claimed to be the brightest bulb in the pack.... LOL

I've been thinking about the above subject line, it has been discussed here very often, and the latest thread about being hooked yourself, and how to remove the hook. I think I had an epipheny, not sure.

When ever I had a deep hooked fish, one where the hook is in the gullet, I have had to either cut the hook off, and leav it, or I had to cut the hook in half, and remove it in two pieces, or the the only other thing I ever did was to kill the fish trying to remove it... basically pulling the gullet out.

Now on TV we always hear them say they have to perform surgery, but they never show it. Now after our last discussion on self hookups I wonder if what they do is this;

Take a very sharp knife, maybe even something like a beltknife (you know with the razor blade) and maybe cut the gullet slightly to remove the hook.

Would this be less harmful to the fish than leaving the hook in that basically sews the gullet shut? I know we all tell ourselves the hooks rust out, but I wonder. Think about all the line we pull out of the water that has been in there for years and it still has hooks on it. Of course it doesn't have the fish's stomach acid... or so we tell ourselves.

I still think the best thing is if I can cut the point off, then back the hook back out, but if I can't do that, would using a sharp knife to excise the hook surgically be the next best thing?

Opinions?

Danny