What do you all think is the possibility a bass will survive after breaking a line and swimming off with the lure in its mouth? In sixty years of fishing, I've seen such break-offs three times, one time being my stupid mistake that let a big bass get around a pier post. I have conducted funerals for many bass that died from swallowing somebody's wormy hook or, once, that had obviously ripped loose from a hook in its gills. I've also caught many bass mutilated by being wrapped in a line, missing an eye, big bites out of its fins and so on. So obviously they are pretty tough. But I have never found a dead bass with a lure in its mouth, either in weedy lakes where they presumably could get entangled or in rock & sand bottom lakes where they couldn't. This query is sort of an informal research project. I always feel I need to comfort people in my boat who let the fish get under the keel.
