Removing Hooks From Yourself

[EJHick]

This weekend while fishing a tournament I hooked into a good fish(I thought was a green back) on a crankbait. As fish came up it turned out to be a drum! Woo hoo! Anyway in the events of removing my crankbait from the fish, it decided to do a little dance and put that treble hook almost a half inch into my index finger. It tickled a bit, but finally with the help of my buddy getting the split ring off the hook I was free from the fish( I was floppin' everytime that fish flopped, it was a sight). So I have this trebl hook in my pad of the index finger, a couple tries with the pliers did not prove to work out. So my buddy shows me this trick by making a loop with fioshing line around the wrist and putting the loop around the shank of the hook. Then with a little tension, I pressed down in the eyelit to make it touch my finger(if you can picture). It is supposed to make the barb come out the hole it created....heh not at all. The first time I was a little timid but gave it a good tug...ouch. Next try I was bound and determined...YANK!...&#%$()@*#&^$. You talk about a nice little tickle...Yea so you have any ideas of a better way of removing a hook past the treble or any good stories to tell? The emergency room did a pretty good job, the shot hurt more than anything. Thats one drum I will never forget.

Eric J. Hickman Jr.
U of L Bass Club
Tournament Director
[email protected]

[BigB]

Here's one for you all to laugh about. I was 13 yrs old when this one happened. I am from greenup county and was at the dam hanging with the old man before baseball practice. We decided to take a walk down to the waters edge and see if anyone was catching any thing. There was a side walk that you could walk that was next to the river and people would hang over the rail and snag perch and what ever else that lucked into. I had walked behind a couple of guys that wasn't doing much good. As I walked behind the third guy "smack" right in the face the guy had busted me with his rod. Little to find out a few seconds later I had a very nice 4in top water bait hanging from my nose. Yah I know laugh it up. I can't say that I remember any pain because it happened so fast but the after affect of getting the darn thing out sucked. Ole dad though he could pull the thing out with no problem so mom wouldn't kill him. That didn't work, so off to the ER we went. 6.5 hours later I finally got the thing removed and to this day love fishing with my new lure.

Hope this one gives you a good laugh.

Brad
Lexington

[basshuntin]

I once removed a hook from Daves finger using the method he described,,gotta admit,,it didnt hurt a bit!

[Danny]

Guys, the lesson in all this is MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A FIRST AID KIT ON BOARD YOUR BOAT!!!!

Danny

[hartmacw]

Well, OK, so here we've discussed basically the two schools of thought, and I've tried both.

The line around the shank trick, pushing and yanking is extraordinarily painful. I'd rather stab myself with an ice pick, but in principal it does work. I bled like a stuck hog. Might as well just yank with pliers as far as I'm concerned.

The next time it happened I was in the middle of nowhere on Dale Hollow. It was raining and my hands were cold and I was tying on a new jig hook (which I do a lot at Dale) and when I pulled the knot tight the jig head slipped thru my fingers and the dang thing buried itself in my index finger all the way to the bend. This time I held my finger under ice in my cooler until I couldn't feel much any more (didn't take long). Then I just got after it and pushed it back up thru past the barb cut it off and pulled it back out. I know that sounds painful, and you do have two holes, but honestly it wasn't that bad with the cold fingers. I had some antiseptic and bandaids on the boat in a first aid kit and went back to fishing. Was sore for a day or two but I absolutely preferred that to the other method.

Worst part is that after it's all over you have to tie on another jig hook :) You'll also have your fishing partner lying about how much you were screaming and squirming - which will later be embellished to inculde peeing yourself (it was freakin' raining - I was wet already!) so be prepared for the "fisherman's" version of the story. It will be retold to a countless number of future generations.

As an aside, pushing a hook thru takes a LOT more force than you might imagine. I had to use pliers to do it and really get after it. You'd think a sharp hook would come right back thru but it won't. If you have to go to the ER, make sure if you're getting a tetanus (sp?) shot it's in your non-casting arm :) They hurt for days.

...BillH

[elnutsmalljaws]

I was skipping a fluke around and under the buck brush very early one Saturday morning at Ky Lake last spring when a horse decide to eat a bit. She wrapped me around a stump, branch, tree, whatever and I never could move her. Up comes the trolling motor, down with paddle (all one handed mind you for I was by myself). In after the big girl I go. She is still under water which is exactly where my left hand went searching the dark muddied up water for her. I find the mouth about the same time she decides she is done playing and spits the 3/0 Gamakatsu right into my thumb under the quick and back out the side. Now I am hooked, wrapped around the vegitation. My right hand goes under water and cuts the line to free my hand. For some reason the hook would not penetrate all the way thru to get the barb out the other side, or maybe I was just too big of a wuss to push hard enough, I don't know. Out comes the trusy Leatherman, and I start cutting away the edge of my thumb to get the barb exposed. After a few minutes of surgery, she popped right out. No bandaids, not that they would have done any good, so out comes the duct tape and paper towels to strap her down to help stop bleeding. Changed this "Bandage" several times over the next couple of hours. Ended up having one of my best days that day with several over 3lbs. Never did get stitches but it took forever for the surgical incision to mend. "When in doubt, cut it out"


Tight Lines

[Bandit1]

Here's a good one, kinda painful. I hooked a small spot at barren a while back on a crankbait. As I was swinging it into the boat, he decided it was retaliation time. He started flipping, as he was being swung, flipped just right, unhooked himself, and I got a set of trebles in my cheek. I just bit my teeth together real hard and yanked them out with pliers. I didn't realy want to go around the rest of the day with a 200 series Bandit hanging from my face.
After cussing for a bit, from the pain, and smoking a couple cigarettes, trying to calm myself so I didn't go Ike on my boat, or fishing gear.
I fished the rest of the tournamnet and finished second, which made things a little better. That is one I will never forget. This is why I wear my glasses all the time now.

[artcarney_agr]

Sorry to say this, but I am the guy that was with Eric. There was no way I was going to pop that hook out for him! It was hard enough getting him to stay still while removing the hook from the crankbait! Besides, I figured he would pass out eventually and then I could remove the hook! He's a little tougher than he looks, but still a wuss!!! Ha ha ha!!!

[EJHick]

Well atleast I had somewhat of a good reason I didn't boat any keepers. What was yours?! Oh and what do I see on the ABA CAST page, is it you and I tied for 13th, uh oh we'll see who has braggin' rights in the end. I beleive we'll be moving in the top ten after this past weeks performance...maybe. But tonite at meeting how about you let me hook you up with a 4lb drum dancing on the end of your finger and see how big of a wuss you are...sounds like a plan to me.

[Danny]

If you have ice with you, hold a piece of ice on the area. The cold will numb the skin a little, and will ease the pain, as well as help with the clotting.

Never an easy way out of that situation.

So far I have been lucky, at least personally, but when I was 15 my family was camping in the river bottoms and of course fishing. My dog was not as lucky as I have been, as he got a hook in his uhmmmmm, male sheath?? anyway, he wasn't very good at holding still as I had to remove the hook. He did sufvive, no bleeding, and he did not even bite me!! LOL

Danny

[thebassman30]

Danny...that is a strange story...why dude? You are not right.

[90skeeter]

yeah i had something kinda the same thing happen but not a drum a rock spit it out and threw it back at me.it hit my ankle and i felt like a bee sting of a feeling and wasnt paying no attention but when i looked down one of the treble hooks was in my ankle and it was twitching.as much as i couldnt believe but was happy it didnt hurt one bit .i went too the campbellsville er and they unhooked me and i went back out and had more fun but was alot more careful.