So, theres a couple leaders comming out of this ones mouth, with some 20 pound test "running line" looks more frayed than cut, nice size too. How many have you caught like that ? Ever wonder whom might have "lost" it and where ?

On many occassions, can't say they were the biggest, but the one that stands out the most ... and not sure if it's actually an issue of the one that got away, but rather one that was caught at least two times before ...

... in Western LIS, I was live lining a pogie or bunker ... pulled up a schoolie bass, not huge but a little better than 15 pounds, she had three lines coming out of her mouth ... the first one, which was mono, was mine ... the other two were wire leaders cut at the mono, with large bait hooks attached down her gullet ... she looked a bit like a catfish ... but, as she was able to eat my bait fish with the two hooks coming out of her mouth, I tried to cut the leaders down more but didn't want to try to wrestle the hooks out, for concern of causing more damage ... she swam away strong and hope she was able to recover ...

Can,t count how many times // even caught a few that still had plugs hooked on them // :wiggle:

One time out on a backside beach me and my dad had a couple rods out with Sand eels on them. My rod doubled over, and I was fighting it in when I got nailed by a seal that snapped the line off almost immediatly. But we had good fishing for most of the tide after that.

Well, we stayed and fished through the night expecting the school to be back by on the next tide at sunrise. Well, just after the grey period my rod doubled over again and I land the fish. Small maybe a ten-fifteen pounder, at best, which was odd because it felt heavier on the fight. I look closer and theres a strand of mono on the hook going into the sea. I released the fish I just took off my hook and then we try to pull the line in to get it out of the water to throw away so it's not out there to hurt the animals.

Well, we pull in the mono and there's something at the end fighting back. wWe eventually get it in with another schoolie bass attached...which had a few light seal scrathes on one side, but otherwise healthy! And in its mouth was our sand eel setup.

So the lucky and talented fish out foxed the seal and got away. So I did "Catch the one that got away" and I was glad I was able to get it back to get the line off of it and release it. Hopefully, it will grow into a cow!

My next door neighbor caught a fish that I'd lost the day before. Still had my rig in it's mouth. Weird thing is he'd been talking to me when I snapped it off, went back the next day to the same spot.

2 seasons ago we were jigging wire on Billingsgate and got a decent fish that had tangled with another broken wire. Put our fish in the boat, and then handlined up about 200 ft of wire - there was a lively 34" fish still there. Figuered it was good luck, so I released the fish, took the wire home in the trash can, and got a nice jig that caught plenty more fish.

I've caught a few over the years that had an old chunking rig in the gullet. The most memorable was a nice 25 pound fish I took on a 4 1/2 inch redfin. The bass struck the redfin and I set the hook. When I landed the bass my plug was nowhere near the mouth of the bass. One of the hook points on the redfin's back treble had gone right into a barrell swivel connected to a leader and chunk hook that was hanging out the bass's mouth. Sometime's its good to be lucky.

DZ

DZ, I have felt for some time that I'd much rather be lucky than good.

I have caught a few fish with leaders coming out of their mouths. I understand what Fin is saying about not causing any further damage; however, I have found that those hooks in the gut have weakened (or more likely, caused an infection to) the area of penetration and usually come out easily. Especially if you can see a hook eye it's worth the effort to see if you can remove it. I'll be the fish has a better chance at long term survival without the hook than with it.

About four years ago in mid June during a stormy night I caught a 46" 35+lb striper on an eel on the Connecticut shoreline. The fish had a 6/0 bait hook in the roof of the mouth with 2' of at least 80lb test frayed leader coming out through a hole in the side of the jaw. Not what I would consider a fish of a lifetime but I'm sure someone was miserable losing that fish. I removed the old hook, the eel hook and sent her on her way...................Only fish I caught that night.

i was fishing the jetty in waquiot and i snagged wat i thought was this other guys line across the jetty. i reeled it in and then threw the line back in. next cast, i caught the line again and decided t ofollow it. after about a hundred yard, i came to a big boulder and looked down to see this 20# bass just chillin with a darter in its mouth. i got to keep the darter but let the fish go. not my catch if u know what i mean.

That was my fish, Dammit!!!

Give me back my lure- LOL

on a fluke boat back in the day i lost a five lber boatside, damn commercial knot pulled:realmad:, anyway that musta hit my friends rig on the way down because not 5 minutes later he caught a five pound fish with my rig in its mouth....:rotfl: how do i know?....the spiner and beads were still on it despite n o knot!!!:bl:

Back in the late 70's My Dad was fishing in CC bay, Jigging wire when he caught some one else's wire.He hand over handed the wire to find a dead 30#er on one end and a nice Pen 113 and Shakespeare rod at the other. Moral of the story, Put a leach on your trolling rods.