Have you ever??

[Olgrey]

I fished Barren River Lake on Thursday and caught several small large mouth bass. One of the bass was about 12 inches long and had a ball jig head sticking out of its rectum. There is no question about what it was because I saw the line tie. Has anyone else seen anything like that?

[aman555]

WOW!!! That's pretty incredible... you'd think that with the hook and shape of it that the bait wouldn't make it through the fish like that without killing it... I've never heard of anything like that... Did you happen to take a picture???

[crappiepappy]

Yes .... I've encountered several fish species with hooks protruding from the anal canal. Some were just the hook, and some still had a plastic worm attached.
I even caught a fish that had a imprint of a hook, on it's belly skin. Looked like the fish had laid on a rusty hook, long enough for the skin/scales to take on the imprint. Not sure if it had been hooked there, & the hook rusted off (eventually) ... or if the hook had been swallowed, then passed thru the side of the fish, rather than being passed thru the anus.

I doubt all fish survive having a hook pass thru their system, but it would appear that some do/can .... so, IMHO, cutting a swallowed hook off, on a fish that one does not want to keep (or can't keep), is still a viable option for giving the fish a chance at survival.

... pappy

[Olgrey]

I did not have a camera to take a photo with, sorry. I looked the fish over, touched the jig head and found that the shank and barb of the hook was still inside the fish, then wished it a lot of luck and released it.

[Tim_T]

Heard of it, but never had it happen to me, but I was in a boat with my ousing night fishing Dale hollow when he caught about a 4 pound smallie on a spinnerbait that threw up a crawfish while he was releasing it.

[the_donger]

I caught a real big bluegill once that had a big crawdad claw coming out.

[sglass]

My brother caught a bass over 2 once at Wilgreen during a tournament. When I was putting it in the well I noticed it had line sticking out of its mouth. I pulled on it out of curiosity and a smallie beaver still on the hook slid right out as if it was never hooked in the fish. I looked and the hook had rusted out. Good thing because we won big fish with it that night. I have also had them throw up bluegill in my livewell around 5 inches long and one yacked a craw up as long as my hand and I have some pretty big hands!! Wish they would keep em in long enough to weigh in I lost by .04 one night.