With all the CnR discussion - thought I'd pose a related question - what is your best/favorite hook remover? I carry a pair of stainless steel needle nose pliers and one of these:


This one is $20-27 at Cabela's depending on size (9" or 15") I carry the longer (mostly for salmon).


Any other good ones out there?

For salmon and bigger fish I use SS pliers, but on smaller fish like trout and panfish I use small Hemostats

~MATT

Honest to God, when fishing salmon in the salt I have found the best hook remover to be a gaff. Slide the gaff down the leader and reverse the position of the hook and the gaff. The hook pops right out and you don't have to struggle trying to reach down with a pair of pliers or hook remover. This way I am able to release a fish when it is a lot hotter. The key is to use heavy enough leader so you do not pop it.

Shaker stick is what I use, similar to the gaff method listed above only I use the big end of a pool cue with about a 14/0 stainless hook attached to the end, works great for releasing the little ones and bonkin/gaffing the big ones.

Drifter, I couldn't agree with you more. When i worked on a salmon trolling boat this summer we used the Gaff as a hook remover for the sake of ease and speed, its really quick and easy to just slide the gaff down to the hook and turn it over, and it saves the fish any extra stress of coming in and out of the water and/or thrashing around in the water for a long tine.



~MATT