I throw away a lot of hooks...
I throw away a lot of hooks...
So, I mostly only fish for trout. In PA we can keep 5 per day. I'd say 75% of the time I'm hooking them deep inside through the tongue. If it's one I'm going to keep I just cut the line and put the fish on a stringer. If I'm going to throw it back I also cut the line because there's no way to get that out without seriously harming the fish.
So, my question is this: I have no problem butterflying or filleting fish. But I find it gross to stick pliers in and twist out a hook from it's tongue. So I just chop the head off and throw it in the garbage before cleaning the fish. I feel like I'm wasting a lot of hooks, but I also feel like that's unnecessary gruesome just to retrieve a hook that costs like .20 cents. Am I just being a pansy?