Properly caring for fish: Proper catch and release

I dont want to insult anyones intelligence about handling bass. Most know how or watch the TV shows, so we know how to lip land, we know to keep our filthy hands off their body as much as possible.

However it seems we dont seem to know how to care for fish, that we catch, that need handled a little different based on the situation.

One issue that comes to mind is when a largemouth bass is so hungry it swallows a hook. Now this doesn't happen to me much as I do not use live bait, and it typically happens for those that use live worms especially.

When a largemouth swalows a hook, the majority of the time the best thing to do is to cut the line as close to the eye of the hook as possible. One time I was really honked off during an outing with my odest son. We caught Skeletor the largemouth bass and he still had fishing line and lead weight hanging out of his mouth.

The odds are against these fish, but we can help them out and just maybe they can survive to make the next spawn and pass on those good genes to their offspring.

Better yet, if a fish is hooked like skeletor was in the throat, wouldn't it be best to take it home for a nice meal since it is unlikely to make it?