Gwizdz's Gadgets and Gear: Jaw spreaders

If you fish for pike — or even if you don’t, but you occasionally catch one — you know how hard it can often be to get the hook out of their toothy maws. Pike are fully capable of inhaling a small bait well down their gullets and if you fish for them with tip-ups, it’s more likely than not that a pike will have the hook halfway down its throat.

Jaw spreaders are sort of reverse pliers —they’re typically open, but when you compress the handle, they close — so you can insert them, and use them to keep a fish’s mouth open while you reach into its throat with your needle nose or hemostat to free the hook. They are inexpensive; you can find them for less than $5 but they are often also sold as part of a hook-remover kit. They’re worth the cost as they can often save you from a bloody confrontation with a mouthful of sharp teeth and can help keep you from damaging a fish you intend to release.

— Bob Gwizdz