Fish hooked on Lost Gear?

[codhw]

Out fishing last night for a couple of hours. Lots of Macky's around, my mate was landing his quota when he got his gear wrapped around the prop and lost the lot. As luck would have it on my next lift I brought up his lost gear with a macky hooked up. This got me to thinking about what would have happened to that fish If I hadnt lifted my mates lost gear with the fish on it. would the fish have simply been hooked unable to escape and eventually just hung there until either taken by another fish or died a slow death? or perhaps been extremely lucky and unhooked itself. Is there any divers on-line that may have come across fish hooked up on lost gear? should the rest of us consider using barbless hooks? appreciate that this may mean the loss of a PB and perhaps more fish than we would like but it also would add to the expertise of landing. Just interested on members opinions/thoughts on fish hooked up on lost gear. A mate of mine says the hooks rot within days does anyone know if this is right?

[codseeker]

a wouldnt think a few days a hook wud rust and rot a wud say a few weeks or 2 ,a have pulled in old traces and the hooks seem to be only partial rusted and i can tell the trace has been in the water for quite a while as you can see by the state of the lead worn and washed out

[kela66]

we were out on a boat last month and the skipper was telling us that he had been talking to some divers that had been down on a popular wreck, they said there was loads of terminal tackle all caught up & traces with dead fish hooked on them .

[codseeker]

did he not cut them away and made it less snaggy for the lads LOL

[kela66]

dont know but he had loads of 2nd hand leads for sale

[mickyd]

some of the new hooks now been make will rust away in 2 days, something to think about buying for the safe return of fish when they are deeply hooks, better to cut the line and let the hook rust away over 2days then trying to get it out and no harm to the fish

[darren]

from experance makril die if there not moving around thay need a large and constant flow ov oxegen in the water not sure about other fish though

[codseeker]

some of the new hooks now been make will rust away in 2 days, something to think about buying for the safe return of fish when they are deeply hooks, better to cut the line and let the hook rust away over 2days then trying to get it out and no harm to the fish

i dont think even if you hoyed a few hooks into bucket of sea water with filteration in for a few days they wud take a lot longer to rot

[ScottyJim]

Only instance I've seen was many years ago fishing for haddock out of Isle of Skye. Had a really good catch and we decided to go back the following weekend to do the same again. The fish were at a localised area. My mate had lost a few rigs the week before on a rocky outcrop at the end of the drift. As we got to the area he picked up a length of tangled nylon. We always use hand tied rigs, so we knew it was one of his that he had lost the week before. On the end was an LSD of about a pound and a half. The hook was rusted about half way through. So based on that, and that the fish hooked itselg a week ago, I reckon it would take two to three weeks to rust all the way through. Of course that would change depending on hook wire thickness, and the hook finish.