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To answer that hook-throwing question. Once a hook is set beyond the barb, contrary to popular belief, the fish cannot throw it. He just doesn't have such hook-throwing muscles in his head! (Besides, haven't you hooked up on your clothes often enough to know how exasperating it is to get the hook out? For that matter, I once caught a hook through my lip, and no amount of facial contortions could have thrown it.) The hook will come out of the fish's face, sure enough, but only when the fish can exert enough pressure against your rod to tear it out or at least to tear a hole big enough so that the barb will no longer hold. What actually happens is that the angler's tight line usually jerks the hook out through the tiny filament by which it is held. As mentioned before, most fish are lightly hooked. In the water, a 5.pound fish weighs about 4 ounces! When he leaps and gets his full length out of the water he automatically becomes 20 times as heavy! The same goes for a 150.pound man. When he gets into a swimming pool he weighs only 7 pounds and can support his weight by merely pressing against the bottom of the tank with his little finger. In salt water, he weighs even less. In leaping, the big fish usually makes tremendous contortions, swinging his broad tail from side to side, almost slapping his brains out. At such times, with pressure applied by the angler, certainly the hook can be pulled out, but not with the slack line.
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