I've been fishing on a school of mid teen to low twenties size fish for about two weeks now, these fish have obviously had a rough life as of late... most are beat up with multiple hooks in them, one had a 7/0 treble in it's mouth that narrowly missed my thumb when I lipped the fish, the hook was in the side of it's jaw, witht he imbedded part fairly rusted out... it swallowed a 6" Danny as if it were the last supper.... surprisingly, they fight like warriors, leading you to believe they are bigger than they are... here are a few pictures of two of sorriest ones..

Fish 1 had about 30' of braid trailing it, the hook was out iof site but the braid had cut through the jaw hinge and halfway down the gill plate, the jaw hinge has healed over but the "cut was still fresh and bleeding where the line protruded, I was able to cut the braid inside the fishes mouth and slide the rest out the wound... the next fish looks to have a leigon on it... as far as I could see there were no scales on the "sore" .... the fish smased an eel that was half as long as she was and fought like Muhaid Ali....

Wow. I always wonder about a fish when it breaks away...hoping it can get rid of the lure or whatever quickly. I bet the one that had the line will heal just fine. I've caught a bunch of trout with snelled hooks. One even had the hook in it's mouth and had passed the snelled end, loop and all, out it's butt. In Florida I once caught and released a 5 lb. largemouth but kept the nice rapala that was on the outside of its jaw.

that leigon doesn't look good

I caught one this year that was missing the entire left side of its jaw to the center tip of the Mouth. Looked like the Coach from Family Guy. It was Fat and Healthy though.

I really hate catching fish that are in such bad shape because of anglers. On the upside at least it shows that there are people out there who still catch and release.

and that they survive a rough encounter!!!

That leison is freakin nasty.... gut hooked and line cut?

That leison is freakin nasty.... gut hooked and line cut?

Nope two differant fish