Problem with catching goldeye

[zit]

Recently my son and myself were fishing and were catching goldeye or moony.
We were having trouble with the fish getting the hook through the eye.

We went with a smaller hook to minimize the chances of this, however we were still were getting the occasional one through the eye.

We are catch releaseing the fish so we feel bad about this.

Does anyone have a solution so that we can stilll catch and release however do less harm to the fish.

Thank you in advance.

 

[JustMrWill]

Re: Problem with catching goldeye

You can try filing off the barbs...you may lose more fish...but if they do go through the eye...it won't shred em up when you remove it.

-JMW

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Problem with catching goldeye

Use circle hook, they'll get hook at the corner of the mouth everytime. You don't set the hook with circle hook like you do with other hook. The fish will hook themselve.