Ice Fishing: Unhooking a Fish

Video Transcript

"Alright, let's talk now about how to unhook a fish. I just caught this little black crappy, and now, when you hook a fish, the hook can be anywhere depending on the orientation of the hook when the fish bit. It could be in the lower jaw, the side, the upper jaw, back in the throat a little bit, sometimes it's more, some areas are more difficult to take the hook out than others. If you have a treble hook that makes it even more difficult. What you want to make sure, first of all, is that, with fish that have spines such as your pan fish, your perch, your bass, the spines are typically on the anal fin, the dorsal fin, sometimes in the ventral fins and often at the edge of the operculum there will be a small spine. So you want to stay away from those areas as best you can. Try to smooth the fins down before you grab them. Make sure that you have a firm grasp on that fish at all times. And that will keep you from getting spined and it will be better for the fish. And then you simply reach in, try to take the back side of the hook if you can, and you pop it right out. If you use barbless hooks, it's a lot easier. One thing that I find helpful is to often have a pair of pliers. Much better for taking the hooks out, much easier on your fingers, much easier on the fish."