The big one that got away....on someone else?

thats the only way to catch them . I cant throw my hands that far to catch them .

How do you think a cheap bastage like me ever wound up with so many plugs?

Over the years I have found hooks in the Mouth, throat, stomach and had one that had a single hook sticking out its bung hole.
Poor fish allmost passed it out through but it got caught with the eye sticking out and the barb stuck inside. Poor fish must have suffered some but it bit on an eel skin rig and fought well. It didn't appear as skinny or sick. It was one of those super zee nickel never rust Mustad hooks back in the early 70's.
When the live baiters and chunkers invaded the Elizabeths in the late seventies we had hooks every where in fish that we would catch and clean.
Some had spark plugs in their stomachs from the Yo-Yo Fishermen and even once one of the Guides found a weird shaped metal rig that I guess held a Pogie. It was made of several pieces of metal and the metal was in the Basses stomach.

My neighbor caught a bass with MY rig in it's mouth! He watched me break it off the day before! Same fish same spot.:eek:

Caught and released a nice 36 inch bass with this in its back, someone had foul hooked it. Thing musta fought like a bastid:eek:

Caught a 24" bass one time with about 3" of leader sticking out its butt. Tugged lightly on the leader and it was obvious that it was attached to a hook that was still imbedded somewhere in its GI tract. Could not see a hook anywhere down its throat.

Must have broken off or been released by an angler. Fish must have continued feeding and swallowed the leader. Over time the free end of the leader worked its way through stomach, intestines, etc., but hook was still in place.

Fish seemed healthy enough. Hard to determine how long it had been there. Must have been at least a few weeks. However, this incident pokes holes in the theory that hooks will rot out in a few days from a gut-hooked fish. I never gave that theory much credence anyway.

i caught a striper in the loop of a leader. thought that was different.
i also had a bluefish break me off only to have the guy i was fishing with hook another bluefish with my lure attached to it, about 5 mins later.