1Ontario,
At least up until recently, ( a couple of years ago), best practice was said to be - use wet hands if you need to handle fish to remove hook . Best to try to shake them loose, use hemostats or pliers to remove hook without lifting fish from water if you can.
We used to use wet cheap cotton gloves for spawning fish, allowed for some grip without removing too much slime. Mostly just used wet hands. Avoid squeezing!!! It's a natural reaction if you're handling one and it starts to slip or wriggle away.
Some researchers even try to avoid holding the fish vertically when it's out of the water, their innards aren't designed that way.
Any time the fishes slime is removed/compromised there is a chance of infection. Look at it this way, they are basically swimming in a bacterial broth (as WC Fields used to say "fish function in it) , their friends and enemies are constantly sloughing off slime and skin along with whatever "bugs" they happen to have (the reason for the slime in the first place), and parasites are always looking for a place to attach.
Some states (WA/OR/CA ?) even have regulations about not removing from the water fish that can't be taken. Wardens have been known to watch with binocs to see if folks are lifting coho out of the water at the boat. Could be the same for sturgeon now too.
If you're not going to keep the fish, probably best to try to leave it in the water. Lifting a largemouth by the lips might not be too problematic if the hooks are stuck good, try to keep the fish as horizontal as possible and get it back in the water as quickly as possible.
Good luck fishing (and releasing)
Geno
