The fish doctor is prone to being swallowed as well and you basically just slowly reel it in so you have contact with the bait the entire time. I've only fished it a few times and didn't have any fish swallow it, but I could see where one could easily do it IF they bit and swam towards you. I've fished the NED a lot in the winter and have had very few fish swallow it. With that said, I've had some other guys fishing with me on those days using and NED and they had several fish hooked deep with it. I think a lot of it comes down to being able to detect a bite in decent time.