I need help catching one of my fish with a hook and bait

[GregOyeah]

I have a Flame Hawkfish that I'm desperately trying to get out of my tank.

I cant remove rock bc its covered in sps coral.

Ive tried fish traps, and the soda bottle tricked worked, I caught him, but the trap came apart as I was pulling it out of the water and got free. Its been a week, and he still wont go anywhere near the trap. I kick myself every day about that dang trap.

So that leaves me with catching him with a bait and hook, which Ive read many people have had success with. Ive got him taking bait off my barbless hook but I think my hook may be too big. He flocks to the hook as soon as I put it in the water but hes constantly stealing the bait and not getting hooked, he can just yank it right off the steel. Im using tiny chunks small grocery store raw shrimp as bait.

Any suggestions? Tips? Tricks? Im desperate and frustrated. Whats the smallest hook that I can buy? The one Im using now is roughly a 1/2" in total length. Ive attached a picture of it

 

[Deiblerj]

They make tons of different sized hooks. You can go really small (size 24-26) those are tiny. They go all the way down to 32 which for those I say good luck to you with trying a line on to that

 

[Deiblerj]

However, not sure if the hook and bait is the best idea here...I would be concerned with hurting the fish (pulling the hook to hard, fish swallows hook, snag fish while trying to set hook, etc)

 

[Jvesche20]

Have you tried to get him at night? If the fish isn’t hiding deep in the rocks you can shine a flashlight to stun him in the middle of the night then quickly net the fish and get it out. I have the best success catching fish at night otherwise I’ll spend 3 hours chasing it from one end to the other

 

[GregOyeah]

I’m a bit weary of it myself but it seems as though lots of people have successfully done this using barbless hooks

 

[William Mumford]

Feed live food he should come out to eat and hopefully you can scoop him up. That is way too big of a hook. He will eat it off the hook and you will miss him try putting the food on the hook and as he is eats scoop him from behind with a net.Make sure you put the net in first have it ready. You can try a very small mosquito hook. I would still imagine it being very hard to hook its mouth.

 

[GregOyeah]

I haven’t tried netting him at night, I’m not particularly hopeful of it though, he’s usually hanging out in a crack between two rocks at night

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Barbless hooks generally used for brook trout or catching bait fish work well. They are very small and sometimes called roe hooks or fly hooks. #20 should work in a fly hook for that fish.

 

[Fin]

I once used a small straight pin and some small needle-nosed pliers to make my own hook. Baited it with a good sized mysis shrimp to remove a Blue Sided Wrasse that had jumped into my mega-flow overflow. He took the bait immediately and slid easily off the hook when returned to the display. It was all over in about a minute. It was fine and eating at the next feeding.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I once used a small straight pin and some small needle-nosed pliers to make my own hook. Baited it with a good sized mysis shrimp to remove a Blue Sided Wrasse that had jumped into my mega-flow overflow. He took the bait immediately and slid easily off the hook when returned to the display. It was all over in about a minute. It was fine and eating at the next feeding.

Now that is MacGyvering it there. I like that.

 

[lapin]

If you cant hook em try a slurp gun

 

[Peace River]

A word to describe what you are trying to do is "microfishing" which should give you a word to search on the internet. A great source for microfishing gear and information is TenkaraBum. They carry hooks as small as #30 (the smallest that I have is #26), one pound test line, and any other gear you might need. If you still have questions about microfishing after you look at the website, then you can reach out to Chris at TenkaraBum and I have always found him to be very helpful. Good luck!

 

[GregOyeah]

Great info! Thank you.

what the heck is a slurp gun???

 

[jordan10]

If ur tank is small enough u can drain it. I had to drain my 65gallon 3 weeks ago to get a flame angel out. Worked great. So guess all on size ur tank. Corals and everything was fine

 

[MTBake]

I used a number 24 hook in the past. Worked surprisingly well actually. Fish was caught and transferred quickly. Eating that same evening. That was 8 years ago and my friend still has the maroon clown.

 

[Terry Mattson]

I have a fish trap that you put food in. Eventually, fish will go in. May take week but after you see fish going in then set it.