Long Nose Fishing Pliers
Reach, so your fingers stay out of the mouth.
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Pike have a mouth full of backward-facing teeth and sharp gill rakers. Bluefish are worse. And a treble hook still under tension in a thrashing fish is the most common way anglers end a trip in an emergency room. Long jaws are not a convenience feature, they are the thing standing between your hand and all of that.
Why the Long Nose Fishing Pliers stands out
Jaw length is the safety specification
Enough reach to turn a hook out from outside the mouth is what keeps fingers away from teeth and away from the second treble. For pike, muskie and bluefish this is not optional equipment.
Cutters must handle braid
Braid is engineered to resist cutting and it rounds off soft cutting edges quickly. Hardened or replaceable cutters are what to look for, and being able to cut hook wire matters on the day a hook ends up somewhere it should not.
Rinse them, and put them on a lanyard
Pliers are the tool most often put away wet and the tool most often dropped over the side. A freshwater rinse and a coiled lanyard between them solve the two ways you lose a pair.
At a glance
| Jaws | Long nose |
|---|---|
| Cutters | Braid capable |
| Use | Hook removal, split rings, cutting line |
| Best for | Pike, bluefish, any toothy fish |
The verdict
Carry them where you can reach them one-handed, not in the bottom of a bag. The moment you need pliers is never the moment you have a spare hand to search.
ChronicAnglers is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.