I was told today that fish hooks are designed to quickly dissolve if left in the fish–so you just cut the line rather than pulling the hook out when you let them go.
I think this is probably not true. Googling turns up only anecdotal stuff (roughly in favor of it not being true) but I’d love some cite that just completely shuts this claim down authoritatively if one exists.
I mean–they’re just pieces of metal, metal doesn’t “dissolve quickly,” but this person is having none of that. He says it’s part of the “official synopsis” in British Columbia, whatever that means exactly.
Fish hooks are made of metal, and metal does not dissolve quickly in water, so why would someone think that fish hooks would? Ask them to show you proof and to stop spreading disinformation. Someone may be gullible enough to believe it.
I haven’t gone fishing in about 30 years, but my recollection is that the hooks are usually metal, which does not dissolve in water easily, nor in the fish’s lip.
BUT maybe there are newfangled hooks, made of some sort of modern material, designed exactly as described: Keep them dry, but if it gets wet, it will dissolve in a few hours or days. Maybe the OP simply mis-heard a report about these new ones, and thought it was about all fish hooks.
Hereis an article about a study that was done on stripers that says hooks do not dissolve but about 25% of the hooks in a deep hooked fish will fall out.
Probably similar to the lie catch-and-release fishermen tell themselves about “fish not feeling pain”–they are trying to convince themselves that they aren’t really torturing animals for fun.
BC has a ton of different zones, species, and specific fishing regulations. The govt puts out a synopsis which tries to explain or summarize them, but it’s still a lot of info to read. I scanned through the most recent for 2015-2017 and it didn’t mention hooks dissolving… just to cut a hook off if its embedded too deep.
"Use barbless hooks, and be prepared to cut your
leader if the hook has been swallowed too deeply. The hook will dissolve over time."
And this matches what others have said, yes a metal hook will rust/dissolve over time, but it’s definitely not quickly. One might mistakenly think a hook dissolved over a day or two if they cut a hook off and caught the same fish a day or two later and the previous hook was gone. But that would simply be a case of the hook becoming dislodged, which can happen with barbless hooks.
Generally speaking, if you can easily remove the hook from the fish’s lip/mouth/wherever without excessive handling and/or causing any undue damage, it is better to remove the hook. But if the fish has completely swallowed the hook or is otherwise deeply hooked and the hook removal will cause further harm, it is best to cut the line and leave the hook in the fish. Fish can survive having a foreign body imbedded much better than having various and sundry body parts torn and damaged trying to remove a deeply swallowed hook.
If they dissolved at any significant speed in fish flesh, they’d dissolve at the same pace in animal based bait, they’d dissolve even faster in salt water, and only slightly slower in fresh water. It’s utter nonsense.
Non-commercial fishhooks are almost invariably high-carbon or other corrosion-resistant steel. It rusts slowly, even in saltwater, and even a rusty hook will take years to “dissolve.” Try leaving any steel object in water and you can test this yourself. The claim that they will dissolve is utter rubbish (though it’s likely that the hook will fall out eventually).
I was just recently snorkeling and there was a turtle with a 2+" hook inbedded in its front flipper and about 6 feet of line running behind it. If I had either a pliers or some way to keep the turtle’s head away, I would have attempted removal. I was easily within two feet of the guy. But the wound was healed in that the scales/skin were flush and clean against the hook and the hook showed no rust whatsoever. This is all to say that salt water rusting certainly isn’t fast either.
I’m a catch and release fly fisher and I fish a lot. Like lots of C&R fly fishers, I use barbless hooks. I was taught that if you can’t easily get a hook out, like for instance it is way down the fish’s throat, just cut the line at the eye of the hook and release the fish and that often the hook will work it’s way out. It’s probably not ideal, but it does increase the fish’s chance of surviving. In my early days, I did kill a fish trying to get a hook out once and I’ll never do that again.
I have caught fish with a hook in them once or twice, it’s not common, buy it does happen.
Came back to add that fish hooks can rust pretty quickly. If I put a wet fly back in my box with other flies, it can rust out all the flies over the course of the season.