Is this a good or bad idea?

[LouisianaFisherman]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

Those are the more desirable species. Of course, you'll also catch croaker, hardhead catfish, and gafftopsail catfish. There are a lot of gafftops as you go closer toward the jetties. If you fish live bait, you'll probably get the occasional oyster toadfish, stingray, and shark.

I'm a fan of the gafftopsail catfish.

Just looked at pictures of oyster toadfish, and those things are hideous. How would you even go about unhooking those things?

[MathGeek]

Originally Posted by LouisianaFisherman

Just looked at pictures of oyster toadfish, and those things are hideous. How would you even go about unhooking those things?

It's been a while since I've caught one, but I think we used to cut the line and retie a new hook, same as with stingrays. We prefer not to mess with stuff that can hurt you. Now I'm sure some folks will chime in and say, "No need to waste a good hook, all you do is ..." But why risk it? Cutting the line also gives most fish a bigger chance of survival than extended handling to remove a hook (not that I care too much about stingray and oyster fish survival).

[LouisianaFisherman]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

It's been a while since I've caught one, but I think we used to cut the line and retie a new hook, same as with stingrays. We prefer not to mess with stuff that can hurt you. Now I'm sure some folks will chime in and say, "No need to waste a good hook, all you do is ..." But why risk it? Cutting the line also gives most fish a bigger chance of survival than extended handling to remove a hook (not that I care too much about stingray and oyster fish survival).

I think that's what I'll do, too. Hopefully, I won't catch anything like that to begin with.