deeply hooked fish

[macd]

any info on the survival of a deeply hooked fish e.g. cutting the cast and leaving the hook in.

is there an accepted practice where this occurs.

kill the fish and hand it over to the ghillie or cut the line and let it go?

macd

[macd]

cheers graham,

what about a hook that is right down the throat- out of sight. I know you cant see inside the fish or predict mortality, but would you think that as a general rule of thumb that the hook would rust away and cause little harm?

[pondolive]

But what about the longer piece of leader left on the hook in the case of a deeply hooked fish? Can they pass it?

[macd]

thanks graham- comprehensive answer as usual.

[kercock]

One article I read about the subject by a usa dept of fisheries said that with a gut hooked fish, leaving the hook in and cutting the line 20 inches from the hook,they figures that 85%plus would survive,however the did add that it would advise anglers NOT to use silver hooks because they either rusted very slowly ,or not at all.

[davewallbridge]

I suppose the real answer is to avoid deep hooking and a possible way might be to use circle hooks for single hook flies.
I have been trying these on flies for trout and also bait fishing for sea species and the results, particularly when used for sea fish have been impressive. Deep hooking was completely eliminated (even with Dogfish !) and there did not appear to be any problem with hooking fish provided I remembered not to strike.
If anything I would say that the hooking properties are better than the usual 'j' hooks, at least I seemed to miss far fewer trout on the dry fly.
I have also tied some seatrout/salmon flies but, due to a poor recovery from an operation on my foot, was not able to give them a try last season. I aim to give them a good trial this year.

Anyone else had any experience with these ?

Dave.