After a short trip on the river this morning wuth about 7 pike landed, I was making my way back to the launch and found this guy floating belly up, down the river. A nice 28" pickerel that I took out of the water to look at.
After taking a look inside the mouth, I found this inside his mouth, pretty far in. It looks like there was thin braid that was still attached to the lure, and it looked like it was cut ! I know $hit happens and every fish we handle out of the water has a chance of not making it, but I just wonder if the fisherman that caught this even had pliers long enough to even try to remove the lure.
It took me a few seconds to remove the lure (I know...easy when the fish is already dead) but I just wanted to be sure that whatever eats this fish, doesn't have to worry about the hooks.
I will stick to single hook spinner baits !
Danny V