tip for holding eels for unhooking

[Englishman.in.Sweden]

eel are a very strong fish and can take a lot of abuse but it aint good to deslime them.
a friend of mine over here never NEVER takes the hooks out.
i thought this was quit strange and asked him why he didnt think it would hurt the fish.
he showed me and i was very surprised.
an eel will regurgitate the hook on its own he claimed...i did not believe him so he put one of the nights catch in a bucket of water and heypresto the next morning the hook was at the bottom of the bucket and the eel was fine.
he had tried this many times and he claimed that the eel never failed the get rid of the hook.
so i just cut the line as close to the mouth as i can and let the eel go, you may lose a hook but better that then killing the eel.
hope this helps.