Bream hooked in the eye!

CHUNQX · #1 03-05-2005, 02:59 AM

Do you find that when using hardbodies, the bream (especially the bigger specimens) will get hooked on the back treble in the mouth but in the course of the fight will get the middle treble in their eye? Taking out the treble will do some damage to its eye and having experienced that in the weekend, it just breaks my heart to know that I caused a prime kilo plus fish to go blind in one eye and hence reducing its chances for surviving in the wild..

I tried to be as careful when removing the treble from the eye and resorted to cutting the membrane a little instead of yanking the hook out but I wonder if it will recover enough to still have sight in that eye. In hidsight I should have flattened the barbs.

Do you guys get that often?

Richo · #2 03-05-2005, 03:33 AM

Quite common problem with 2 trebles I find, and one of the reasons 90% of the time I fish 1 treble, and if a second is on the middle then i`ll definitly debarb it,

I find the eye hook up happens when during a fight you change from winding on one side of the body to the other side of the body therefore moving the lure across the fishs head eg if hes get a run on and heading for cover normal practice would be to change sides of the body to gain more control...... thats when it happens for me if this makes any sense, debarbing is a good saviour.

cheers

Zac 87 · #3 03-05-2005, 03:38 AM

i debarb all my trebles
but i stilll sometimes get them in the eye and it still does damage.

swoffa · #4 03-05-2005, 04:45 AM

Unfortunately it's very common. It's the only way bream stay hooked with Owner Stingers a lot of the time.

Bear · #5 03-05-2005, 05:02 AM

'Unfortunately it's very common. It's the only way bream stay hooked with Owner Stingers a lot of the time.'

How do you figure that one. Of the hundred or so fish we caught between the 2 of us at Mega-Bucks the other weekend, most were double hooked and mainly in the side. The only losses we had were if the fish took a light hit on mainly the rear treble

madsurfe · #6 03-05-2005, 06:52 AM

lots of good points with Richo mentioning debarbing to reduce damage and how it happens with a change in direction during a fight. Techniques do differ and my experience is that I hook a good 2/3rd of my fish on the front treble. The rear treble generally snags in the gill plate just above or inline with the jaw. The few fish i've hooked in the eye have been when they've belted the lure and been hooked on the snout or the top of the head. The little Bream are a classic example.

Hi Swoffa

Quote:

Unfortunately it's very common. It's the only way bream stay hooked with Owner Stingers a lot of the time.

can you please explain cos' I use Owner stingers and I'm damned if I can figure out how one round bend treble would differ from another in the way it hooks the fish or stays put

gez · #7 03-05-2005, 07:07 AM

Chunqx, You could give these a go, - single hooks, and just 1 at the rear will do the job with lures under 50mm. Can't see them taking the tourny scene by storm, but....

Gerard

Conehead · #8 03-05-2005, 07:42 AM

Gez, what sort of hook's are those? Are they your standard dropshot hook's?

BTW, how's the PPbay been treating you?

Dave W · #9 03-05-2005, 05:09 PM

Just some anecdotal evidence - when I was over west recently I personally caught 73 Bream in 5 or so hours with the vast majority on hard bodies. None of them were hooked in the eye, and it was rare that the second set of trebles was in the fish.

Why? I was fishing a very hard drag, and pretty much sculling the fish in, therefore they didn't get much of an opportunity to headshake, direction change etc. and bury the second set of trebles.

All were caught using Owner ST-36BC trebles.

I do occasionally hook one in the eye, and it is much more prevelent fishing surface lures, but personally I haven't noticed it happening with hards any more than plastics, but again this could be hook choice - if you are using Owner needle points for your plastic fishing I guarantee you will pin more fish outside the mouth.

Hope this helps,

CHUNQX · #10 03-05-2005, 07:38 PM

Anyone with marine biological background out there who can say to some degree of certainty whether they will recover from the injury to the eye or they go blind henceforth?

swoffa · #11 03-05-2005, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bear
How do you figure that one. Of the hundred or so fish we caught between the 2 of us at Mega-Bucks the other weekend, most were double hooked and mainly in the side. The only losses we had were if the fish took a light hit on mainly the rear treble

That's what I mean Bear. The Owners are so sharp that it's very common to lightly lip hook the fish, in those cases you hope that the middle treble finds some part of the head to hook into so the fish can be landed without the hook pulling.

dan_WA · #12 03-05-2005, 09:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CHUNQX
Anyone with marine biological background out there who can say to some degree of certainty whether they will recover from the injury to the eye or they go blind henceforth?

I could offer a bit

(long time since Uni, with lots of beer in between !!
I seem to recall that fish have excellent eye-healing abilities. I remember reading about an experiment on goldfish (carp) where the eye was completely removed from its socket (optic nerve still attached), but within a week, the eye was remarkably almost back to normal (built in recoil mechanism !

). Scientists were doing research on them to help in Human eye research

I'll try to track down some info on it

Dan

swoffa · #13 03-05-2005, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dan_WA
I could offer a bit (long time since Uni, with lots of beer in between !!
I seem to recall that fish have excellent eye-healing abilities. I remember reading about an experiment on goldfish (carp) where the eye was completely removed from its socket (optic nerve still attached), but within a week, the eye was remarkably almost back to normal (built in recoil mechanism ! ). Scientists were doing research on them to help in Human eye research

I'll try to track down some info on it

Dan

I can't say that I ever removed any fish's eyes while doing my degree, but I've seen eyes heal and even grow back while working at an aquarium. Many of the territorial aquarium fish would fight to the point of damaging their opponents eyes, the injured fish would be back to health very quickly.

CHUNQX · #14 03-05-2005, 10:08 PM

So, lets say two of the three parts of the treble hooks gets inside the eye and the hook hasn't been de-barbed, trying to reverse the direction of the hook to dislodge it won't remove the hook because of the soft tissue getting caught in the membrane, how best to remove the treble to do minimum harm to the eye? I had to resort to cutting a very small part of the membrane to free the hook, much like if the hook get caught on your fleece jacket, trying to reverse it doesn't help and so you cut that little bit to free it; how much damage does that do and is there a better way that minimises harm to the eye?

swoffa · #15 03-05-2005, 10:40 PM

I think you did it the right way, well the best possible way anyway... It's a messy situation and will always result in some damage done to the fish.

I wonder if there's some sort of antiseptic available for injured fish... In the cases I referred to at the aquarium we'd put treatments in the tank to speed up the recovery, surely there'd be some sort of gel or powder on the market that could be used to treat a fish locally.