When there are wild/hatchery regulations in effect,whats best for releasing wild fish?

Is it easier on the fish to cut the line close the their mouth,leaving the hook in place?

Or is it easier on them to try and mess with getting the hooks out?

Easier on them not to use bait. I caught all the fish I could handle up in the Straits so far this year with a Coyote and a single barbless hook, had one large king bleeder and one small fish that hit the wall and floated away belly up even though he fell off at the side of the boat, but the rest of the uncounted hordes of fish I released took off with no problems - they just don't seem to want to swallow that chunk of metal the way they do a herring, so they never seem to be hooked very bad. I just won't use bait anymore when I expect to have to release a lot of fish.

I think its best to get the hook out If you can do so without tearing the fish up to bad. the old hooks may have rusted pretty fast but I doubt the hooks of today do. If the fish is a river spawner It would probably be ok to leave it in because they dont eat in the river anyways and they die after they spawn (well salmon anyways).

Spawnout...a few days ago you said you never had a bleeder because you don't use bait. Now it sounds like you are on the same pace as me who mooched cut plug.