Fishing hooks and fish

Question
Dear sir,
 Please answer this for us,
If a fish swallows hook, and breaks the line,
Will it die, or does it have a way to absolve the hook ?

Answer
Steve, The answer to that is "it depends".  I know that isn't exactly what you wanted so I will try to give some examples.  First if the hook is regular steel that will rust and the fish is hooked in a place where it does not bleed heavily and the hook is not in a place that will keep him from swallowing.  I caught a pike one time that had the head of a four pounder but only was maybe half a pound. It would have died eventually. this was caused mostly by the second thing that I will mention and that is the size and heaviness of the hook. The pike that I spoke of was hooked in the gullet with a very heavy (thick wire)hook.  I carefully removed it and the fish swam away but I did not know if it survived but it had a better chance than it did  with the hook still embedded.  The next factor is the hooks made of metal that will not rust such as stainless steel. If a fish is gullet hooked with one of these it is likely doomed because the hook will be there until the fish dies and will not rust away.a  So It depends as I said at the beginning. Of course if the hook no matter what it is gets deep enough down the throat it is unlikely to rust before the fish dies.  This , to me is reason to not go after large fish with very light tackle unless you are  very good at handling such a rig.  Even then it is bound to happen now and then but there is little that can be done about that.  Fish get eaten by other fish so this one may just make an easy meal for another fish.

I hope this helps to give you a little insight into your question.  Thank you for calling on me to answer your question.

Jack  L. Gaither          (JackfromSeminole)
Lake Seminole, Georgia