03-28-2006, 03:20 AM
well, lets just say, that a belly hooked fish is a dead fish no matter how you look at it unless it is a large fish.
as Dryrod stated the compisition of the hook determines the lenth of the stay in a fishes belly, Arberdeen hooks go fairly fast, "a few weeks" stainless and worst yet teflon coated hooks will stay there untill something dislodges it. "another swallowed fish"
what happens is that the hook depending on the size of the fish will block and yet do more internal damage as food passes by catching on the hook. some times a fish the right size can catch it and push it though but the hook will act like a hair ball trap.
fishing an area for long periods of time day after day I have seen the damage swallowed hooks do to fish even if you cut the line. I have actualy found fish with the line going out the back side of the fish, (the fish was dead of corse) I tend to pick up dead fish in the water to see what they died of and wonder yet why something else hadnt eaten it.
to give you an idea of how fast, the human body can desolve a copper penny in about a week. a zink penny even faster. It requires a lot of acid, this is why I said the size of the fish has a lot to do with it as well. larger fish have higher amounts of acid
there is still the third down side to a belly hooked fish and that is the infection that a hook left in the belly will also kill the fish.
on avrage a belly hooked fish will die with in a week. smaller one faster to the vary large that can pass food haveing the higher rate of survival. I have seen the smaller ones float back up with in minutes after being released
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as Dryrod stated the compisition of the hook determines the lenth of the stay in a fishes belly, Arberdeen hooks go fairly fast, "a few weeks" stainless and worst yet teflon coated hooks will stay there untill something dislodges it. "another swallowed fish"
what happens is that the hook depending on the size of the fish will block and yet do more internal damage as food passes by catching on the hook. some times a fish the right size can catch it and push it though but the hook will act like a hair ball trap.
fishing an area for long periods of time day after day I have seen the damage swallowed hooks do to fish even if you cut the line. I have actualy found fish with the line going out the back side of the fish, (the fish was dead of corse) I tend to pick up dead fish in the water to see what they died of and wonder yet why something else hadnt eaten it.
to give you an idea of how fast, the human body can desolve a copper penny in about a week. a zink penny even faster. It requires a lot of acid, this is why I said the size of the fish has a lot to do with it as well. larger fish have higher amounts of acid
there is still the third down side to a belly hooked fish and that is the infection that a hook left in the belly will also kill the fish.
on avrage a belly hooked fish will die with in a week. smaller one faster to the vary large that can pass food haveing the higher rate of survival. I have seen the smaller ones float back up with in minutes after being released
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