Very simple method of creating leverage on the hook. I made something very much like that to open locked doors in the Halbouty Geology building on the Texas A&M campus when I was a grad student there. Ahem... a fellow grad student had locked herself out of her office one evening. But I think they changed the locksets sometime after that.
for the past 15 or so years ive used a wooden dowel, about the size of a pencil with a screw eye in both ends of the dowel. one end is hooked to a zinger on my vest, the other end I open up the screw eye to form a hook. when I catch a fish, I grasp the line, hook the screw eye hook on the bend fish hook, pick the fish up by the crew eye/dowel, and pull downward on the line. this inverts the hook and the fish falls off the hook and into the water. you need to be using barbless hooks for this to work and if the fish is deeply hooked I have to use forceps. cheap, and it works well for me.
John,
That's a good description of the basic process we both use with our respective gizmo.
I'm sure there are many ways to skin a fish -er- I mean cat.
"People tend to get the politicians and the fishing tackle they deserve" -
John Gierach, Fishing Bamboo
http://www.tenkaraflyfish.blogspot.com/
If you want to play with designs, look up "dehooker" on Bing or Google and you will get ton of designs primarily aimed a catfish. Just make one smaller and voila.
"So many people are out there doing things they call environmentalism, but only because it's politically correct or has a lot of cache."
I have had one similar to that for a few years, I will have to look up where I saw the design. It is a little simpler - a cup hook in the end of a short (6") length of dowel. I guess if you were fancier you could use deer antler. Because the dowel is hardwood, I pre-drilled the hole and then applied epoxy before threading the hook into the dowel. I put a small screw-eye in the other end of the dowel to attach a zinger easily.
The process of releasing the fish is simple, even if it is in the water - keep tension on the fish and with the cup hook facing up, slide it down the tippet into the bend of the hook - lift up the fish hook (and fish) by the bend and the fish falls off the point.
This is the same lift shown in pszy's comment.
Guides Choice
The [FONT='Bookman Old Style', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif]Guides Choice [/FONT]is not a new design and Is a great tool just like the Ketchum . They both work great for barb-less hooks, but for either swallowed or barbed hooks I like the brass tube with a notch cut in it. you pull tight in the line as you slide it down and pull and pus the hook pops out. another good tool is a brass rod with a flattened end that's notched pops the hook right out
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