How to unhook flatties..... PROPERLY!

I would also like to see what methods people have for unhooking ray,I always used my fingers as I found it to be the quickest way of unhooking them until I met martin from England and seen what damage a ray can do to a lads finge

Howdy Gerry get yourself a Gemini disgorger or a small T-Bar disgorger for Ray... I wouldn't advise anyone to put their finger in a Rays mouth they do crush their prey afterall...

P.S. Pete do one on unhooking ray please - no sense in anyone else getting the top ripped off their fingers

I would also like to see what methods people have for unhooking ray,

I have a larger set of forceps which I have modified by grinding about 20mm off the length of the jaws, this allows a firmer, stronger grip on the larger sizes of hooks. I use them if the hook is inside the mouth of rays, huss and conger or if I cannot get a good grip on a lip hooked fish.
If I can I lock the jaws onto the bend of the hook and either push down or curl the hook around until it comes out.

P.S. Pete do one on unhooking ray please - no sense in anyone else getting the top ripped off their fingers

I would also like to see what methods people have for unhooking ray,

I have a larger set of forceps which I have modified by grinding about 20mm off the length of the jaws, this allows a firmer, stronger grip on the larger sizes of hooks. I use them if the hook is inside the mouth of rays, huss and conger or if I cannot get a good grip on a lip hooked fish.
If I can I lock the jaws onto the bend of the hook and either push down or curl the hook around until it comes out.

For ray I use a grauvell pliers I bought off Veals (it really stands up to rust despite my abuse) but only to take the bait off the hooks of a deep hooked rays mouth to expose the hooks. I then use a Gemini Disgourger not a T-BAR as with a T-BAR you cannot push the hook deeper into the rays throat to free the barb. A T-Bar works best on mouth hooked fish. Once the Barb is free the hook is guided out of the throat. This is easy on a single hook by sliding the disgourger down the line until it meets the bare hook. On a penel I go directly to each hook to put the top of the discourger around it and do one at a time.

Great pictures!

Thanks very much for the guide it will come in very useful in the future!!!

http://www.sharnbrooktackle.com/acatalo ... 20Clip.mov

Check out this product, the voice and video may make you laugh but the hook removal tool looks like a good idea.

Ive found taking a little time saves a lot no matter what technique you use, we caught around 25 flounder in one afternoon and i removed bait and then moved beads and finally used normal pliers to push and pull out. the odd one may have taken longer so for match fishing might not have done the trick. I will however be trying the above technique as Im one for saving the fish I dont keep.
I tried to see how many do survive by simple removal by settin them just into the wash of the beach, most seem alrite but thats not to say the survive.
These pics well help in future as we normally lift a lot of flatties.
Cheers Pete

thanks petekd that advice helped me out good the outher night

thanks for the advice

Thanks for the tutorial , nice to know an easier way of unhooking flatties without causing them as much harm , they always seem to swallow the hooks no matter how small they are!

Great pics . I caught a few today and had trouble removing hooks , I even had one greedy fish take 2 hooks.

I'll be using this method from now on .

Thanks for the info. I always hated catching flatties due to the poor survival rate after they were hooked. Hopefully this makes a difference!

Great pics but still couldn't get the hang of it. Thankfully one of the lads at a comp showed me how to do it this way .
It's so simple now after seeing someone do it , and no more hassle anymore with gut hooked flats. Brilliant

Great photos, very simply explained. I only wish i had read this a while ago. Went fishing down ark low with fairly stiff wind blowing, using around 6oz weights (without the grip wires snapped in properly (I'm a beginner)) and reeled in to change bait. When leader came in I noticed a bit a weed or the like around my snood. It was a little dab. The poor thing had taken my 2 sized hook along with beed bait stop down its mouth. Not knowing how to get it out without causing too much pain, I had to plonk it on the head,

I always try to return my fish immediately without any undue stress. Thanks to these photos, more fish can be returned safely.

how do you get the hook out if its right down in their stomachs because you missed the bite or they just didnt bite??

sounds like dinner time to me! hehe

Great pic explanation!

Great post ........only had a couple of flatties but very good info offered there, nothing wrong with having an easier and more quarry respected methods in your armoury.

crush the barbs?? that would aid easier faster removal and rebaiting for comps and less damage to the fish. prob wouldnt catch any though when the bait slips off ..... although with those bait holder hoooks with the small barbs up the shank would they keep bait there if you wanted to crush the main barb

Great thread, its fantastic to see such a positive response, after all we must do our best for a fish that lets be honest if didn't exist would mean a lot more blanks. Thank god for flounder

Right, after another round of comps over the past couple of weeks, its amazing to see how many experienced anglers still cant carefully unhook flatfish to give them a fighting chance of survival when released. It is difficult if you dont know how, yet so quick and easy for you and the fish when done correctly. If you fish for flats you have a moral responsibility to learn how to unhook them properly. Reaching for T-Bars, Gemini disgorgers, hauling on hooks just isnt on, comp or no comp. So, here you are, this is as simple as I can put it. There are a multitude of other ways to carry this out with bits of bent wire and the like but for the uninitiated, just get a small pair of surgical forceps like in the pic, they are the best tool for the job.

Very good pictures with great detail I'm new to sea fishing and preservation of stocks is key to species survival

Cheers

Handy Post, Good easy steps.

Cheers