I live on a river right next to a bridge that draws fish all night long. I use only lures and no matter what you do, when you catch a large number of fish, odds are that at one point, you end up with one fish hooked deep, in the eye, or somewhere in the gill plates. You do the best you can to quickly remove the hook, or leave the hook where it is after doing the best you can to remove it. Here in Maine, you can keep a 20" fish... not the best thing to do, but, if the fish is bleeding bad and you can tell that all you are doing is feeding the seagulls, better you eat than a flying rat. If the fish is under the legal size to keep, you throw it back and hope for the best. Is it worth getting nailed with an undersized fish???
Ways to improve chances of fish living include removing treble hooks off of lures and relpacing them with single hooks. Also, flatten the barb down. Yes, your hookup rate will drop off some, and you will lose more fish after hooking them, but in the end, the fish is where you were putting him anyway. Just a little sooner than you had thought it would be.
