For many fishermen, particularly those new to the game, getting a hook inside a fish's mouth in the first place and having it to stay there until it is inside the boat is the major concern in their fishing lives. But once it's in there, you then have to get it back out again, which creates a whole new set of problems for beginners and experienced anglers alike. Fish like sharks and rays with their tough skin and fleshy mouths simply refuse to release a hook easily. Then there are powerful jaws, sharp teeth and body spines which need to be avoided. Others fish such as breams and bass have sharp spines on their gill covers and fins. Small mouths and swallowed baits are two further problems. On top of all of this, fish never seem willing to cooperate in the operation, even when you are trying to retrieve the hook as painlessly as possible in order that they can be put back. Is it any wonder then that anglers get frustrated. What is required is a quick, easy, and safe way of retrieving hooks, preferably without ever having to touch the fish in the process.

Over the years, many ingenious ideas have been tried, though it has to be said, with varying degrees of success. For small lightly hooked fish without spines or teeth, fingers are as good a method as any. Unfortunately, simple situations such as that are the exception to the rule. For a long time, pliers were commonly used. Some tackle companies even marketed them for the job. Pliers are fine up to a point. One of the big problems I find, and this goes for anything with moving parts used at sea, is that bits of old bait and sea water cause them to seize up. Regular maintenance is a must. From a practical point of view, pliers can also cause problems. They can be clumsy and can damage either the hook or the fish or both. Long nosed pliers are able to probe a little deeper than standard pliers. Its when there is a need to work the hook at different angles to free its grip that problems can arise. If a fish has a big mouth there should be enough room to angle the pliers without damaging it. For fish with small mouths it is a very different story.

Freshwater anglers don't seem to have the same range of problems as sea anglers, on top of which most try whenever possible to cause minimal harm to the fish they catch in terms of physical damage and stress in order that they can be released. It might be useful therefore to take a closer look at the way they free their hooks. Two in particular spring immediately to mind. The first is the plastic or aluminium 'stick' with the hollow head that has a slot in the side. The line is threaded in through the slot and the head pushed down the shank of the hook until it hits the bend. Further pressure then frees the hook. These appear to work particularly well on the match fishing scene where small hooks with spade ends are whipped into the line allowing the disgorger head onto the hook shank easily. The idea does not work as well with bigger eyed hooks. Sea Angler magazine once gave away a large plastic version of this disgorger. The fact that it never became available in the shops probably tells its own story. The other disgorger freshwater fishermen use, particularly fly fishermen, is forceps. These are fine for small barbless hooks and lightly hooked fish, but the jaws twist out of shape when it comes to the heavier side of sea fishing.

As far back in time as I can remember (which is a frighteningly long time), T-bar disgorgers have been the dominant force on the boat angling scene. The fact that they have been going strong for the 30 or more years I have been sea fishing speaks volumes about their effectiveness. The first time I encountered them was on shark fishing and offshore wreck fishing trips. With the sharks, avoiding the teeth and rough skin was the main objective. For wrecking, speed and efficiency were the two priorities. In the early days of offshore wrecking, with 10 anglers on board a boat over a wreck stuffed with fish, it could take a skipper and his crewman working flat out gaffing and disgorging to keep the anglers in business. There were teeth to contend with too. Ling, and to a lesser extent conger eels need to be kept well away from fingers. On top of which, as has been said before, fish have a tendency not to cooperate. A big conger can be a difficult customer to deal with. Impossible either to hold or control, a quick, efficient, no nonsense approach is essential.

For those who don't already know, a T-bar disgorger comprises a handle welded at right angles to a bar with a disgorger head at the working end. It looks like a letter 'T', hence the name. The gauge of the metal used and how long the bar should be depends on the job at hand. For big, weighty, troublesome fish, it needs to be a substantial job. For fish with teeth, the bar needs to be quite long to keep fingers and mouth well separated. But for smaller fish, the dimensions can be scaled right down. Stainless steel is the best metal to choose for obvious reasons. As for technique, I like to wrap the trace around my gloved hand half a metre away from the fish. The weight of the fish is then taken lifting it either partially or fully off the deck. The 'U' shaped head of the disgorger is then placed under the shank of the hook. If you then push the hand with the trace down towards the floor and lift the fish using the disgorger, the head of the disgorger will work its way along the bend of the hook. Either a quick shake of the fish or its own body weight should pull the hook free.

T-bar disgorgers are a simple concept. This said, they do become easier to use with practise. They are particularly good for bigger fish. In part this is down to the fact that with bigger fish a bigger 'U' bend at the disgorger head can be used which helps prevent the hook from jumping free. Also the weight of a bigger fish favours the man on the T-bar. Scaled down versions for smaller fish, particularly those with smaller mouths have not worked as well as the bigger versions. That was until the people at Gemini tackle came on to the scene. Their designers took another look at the concept of the T-bar disgorger and re-designed the head to the point where it can be used in virtually any situation with a 100% guarantee that the hook cannot jump free, and that it will usually be satisfactorily removed with a minimum of effort, virtually regardless of the size or weight of the fish.

The big break through here came with the innovative design of the Gemini disgorger head. Instead of a hook on the end of the T-bar which can present problems with deeply hooked and/or un-cooperative fish, the Gemini version has a full loop with an entry point rather like a split ring for the line. Instead of feeling for the hook shank and hoping the hook does not jump free, with the Gemini, the loop in put onto the trace itself well clear of the fish's mouth and cannot jump free because it is a full loop. With the weight of the fish taken up on the trace in the normal way, simply put the trace into the loop via the slot, and push the disgorger head down into the fish's mouth until it can go no further which should be the bend of the hook. You can then be as vigorous as you want trying to free the fish because you know this disgorgers grip around the hook is going to hold.

While the concept was obviously very good, I have to admit that when I first received a Gemini disgorger to try, I was a bit apprehensive about its long term prospects. The plastic handle, disgorger head wire thickness, and worries about the metal being pulled out of the plastic that were my main concerns. Now several years down the line, I no longer have any worries at all. Though looking a bit battle scarred from numerous encounters with tope and the rest, it continues to work as well as it ever did, and better than any disgorger that has gone before. It quite simply never fails. And due to the small size of the loop, even quite modest fish like average sized cod and whiting can be handled with ease. Deep hooked fish are no problem either. But where it really comes into its own so far as I am concerned is with sharks and rays. Without the Gemini, it can be difficult to free a hook from the tough skin of these fish, even with the barb flattened down. With the Gemini you can shake the fish as hard as is needed to complete the job. Having said all of this, I still have one axe to going. When are they going to bring a bigger version out to cope with 10/0 hooks, 200 pounds bs mono traces, and the bigger fish such kit is designed to catch.