Jacob -
Some of the best hooking mortality informtion comes from wild brood stock collections. Probably the best information comes from Vacouver Island where under the direction of Bob Hooten the survival of fish caught for brood stock purposes was track through spawning. As I recall (don't have the info in front of me) over a number of years they monitored the survival 3,300 fish with mortalities varied from about 3 to 7% depending on the year, river and whether summers or winters. Other brood stock captures while not as large in terms of the number of fish handled have found similar mortalities. Bottom line there is mortality associated with catching the fish. Most of the mortality occurred within 24 hours of capture though some deaths occurred later (typically wihtin 72 hours)

What has been learned is that most mortality is associated with the fish is hooked in what has been determined to be "critical" areas. These are areas where substantial bleeding occurs. Those areas include the gills, eye, back of the tongue and the esophagus. When comparing various fishing methods (bait verus non-bait) the differences in the per cent of fish hooked in a critical area will give you a rough idea of the relative diffrences in potnetial mortalities.

If you wish more detailed information do a search on this site as there has been a number of discuusion that have covered this topic in depth.

You should be thankful that you haven't had to experience the agony of watch a release native from your catching it. Beleive me it leaves a sinking feeling.

Tight lines
Smalma