Hook Emergency

[geo g]

Over the last 40 years I have been stuck at least 6 times.  The ones in the fingers were easy.  With a good pair of plyers my friend pushed the barb out, then cut the barb off, and backed out the shank.  A must to have a good pair of cutters in the boat, always!  Then twice I buried a deep diving crankbait into my stomach all the way to the bend.  This wasn't so simple and I had to go to the emergency room to be cut out.  Nothing like walking inot the ER with a big crankbait hanging from your belly.  Both times I was snagged on weeds and when I tried to power the bait out.  Big mistake, it shot back like a heat seeking missile right into the biggest thing around, My Belly.  Thank God I have never been stuck with a fish still attached.  A big Peacock would be the worst, they never settle down when out of the water.

[NoShoes]

I truely despise trebles. I’ll use single hook anything if I can. 

[scaleface]

I fished for decades and never hooked myself , then three years in a row I did it . So I bought fish grippers . The last time i hooked myself there was a hook sticking out of a Plano and I grabbed it .

[Captain Phil]

Been hooked dozens of times.  It normally happens for two reasons, attempting to unhook a fish with your hands and pulling on a lure that has been snagged.   I use long nosed pliers to unhook fish these days and I never pull on a lure that is going to fly into my body.  My customers often hooked themselves or each other.   If the hook wasn't too deep or near their face, I could always remove the hook with the string method.  Always separate the hook from the lure before you attempt this.  I carry some cutters in my tackle box for this job.  You can remove hooks with a string from yourself if you are creative.  Some hooks are just too deep to be removed without surgery.  If the hook is into a tendon, you could do more damage by pulling on it.  I never tried to remove hooks from someone's face, I took them to a doctor.  The worst hookup I ever had was when fishing by myself.  I caught a 3 pound bass on a Devil's Horse and tried to unhook it with my hands.   The fish jumped and was hooked in the mouth, my chest and the palm of my hand all at the same time.  Luckily I had my hook cutters with me or I would have been in real trouble.

 

[moguy1973]

I've thankfully only had to do the string trick on myself twice.  Once I was able to do it myself as it was in my leg.  The 2nd I had to have my brother in law (doctor) help me since it was on the back of my hand and I couldn't press down on the shank of the hook to get the right angle to yank the hook out with the string.  He had never heard of the string trick and he was telling me I was going to have to go to the ER.  I told him just to yank the string as hard as he could when I pushed down on the shank of the hook.  He did and it popped right out.  He was amazed it worked like it did, and was even more amazed on how little blood actually came out afterwards.

 

I did have another where I was by myself out on a remote lake and got a LC Pointer hook in the back of my thumb right behind the thumbnail.  I couldn't get a good angle on the hook as it went through the nail under the cuticle for the string trick to work.  I eventually was able to wiggle it enough and it finally came out without catching the barb as it came out somehow.  It hurt a lot, and I ended up with a hole in my thumbnail as it grew out for the next several months.

[BassNJake]

I've had to use the string trick more times than I'd like to remember.

One time I was fishing alone and I couldn't press down and yank at the same time 

So I tied the line wrapped around the hook to the boat cleat, push down with one hand and jerk the other hand down and away. This has become my preferred method as there is nothing worse than when the person pulling the string doesn't yank it hard enough. The string trick is great unless it doesn't work than it hurts pretty good on each of the failed yanks.

 

The only time this did not work is when I buried a treble in the finger thru the nail like @moguy1973. Then I used the pliers+cussing+crying solution

[PressuredFishing]

Ouch well I will say that this have luckily never happened to me but, a guy at the local lake I fish had it happen the day after I took dikes out of my backpack. Talk about bad luck for him

[N Florida Mike]

Ive only been hooked three times . The easiest one was the little bream hook I stepped on in my house. Not sure how it was where it was but we have no shortage of hooks so it was bound to happen. It was in a pinky toe right against the nail. I spun it around and pushed the shank down and gently pulled- and it came out.

The second one was also in the house, after I had got my hooks tied for a surf fishing trip the next day. I walked by and the hook snagged a toe. It was a circle hook and the point was slightly through the skin coming out already  so I just pushed it on through.

The third one was the only one Ive ever got while fishing. A 5/0 hook in my right eye when I was 24 and night fishing . 5 hours of surgery but they saved the eye. ?

 

[HaydenS]

22 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

The third one was the only one Ive ever got while fishing. A 5/0 hook in my right eye when I was 24 and night fishing . 5 hours of surgery but they saved the eye. ?

Yikes.  

Lets hear the story!

[N Florida Mike]

It’s not easy to talk about , because it was by far the worst accident Ive had, and its kind of embarrassing. I was Fishing at night at a farm pond with a girlfriend. She had given me some new lures that I hadnt fished with much. I was only used to fishing T rigs . I tied on a spoon with a 5/0 hook and threw it a few times. As I was reeling in on the fateful cast, I felt a bump , and just reflexively set the hook, like I would for a T rig. Apparently it had bumped bottom close to the bank, because it was way closer than I thought.

The spoon hit my eye almost even with it. I felt the impact and sat down, reaching up to see where it was. When I felt where it was ( no pain yet ) , I gently tried to pull it out , but could actually feel my eyeball move. 

The girlfriend drove me to the hospital. 5 hour surgery. The eye lens was destroyed and I had a detached retina. I took the bandage off the third day and could  just see light and motion, but couldn’t focus. With the help of a strong ( expensive ) contact , I can see 20/30 with it.

I was told there was another guy there that night that DID lose his eye to a piece of metal. I was also told my doc was one of just a few in Florida that could have done the surgery, and he just happened to be in Jacksonville that night, which wasnt his normal area. I thank God I didnt have to go through life with a glass eye....

[HaydenS]

9 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

It’s not easy to talk about , because it was by far the worst accident Ive had, and its kind of embarrassing. I was Fishing at night at a farm pond with a girlfriend. She had given me some new lures that I hadnt fished with much. I was only used to fishing T rigs . I tied on a spoon with a 5/0 hook and threw it a few times. As I was reeling in on the fateful cast, I felt a bump , and just reflexively set the hook, like I would for a T rig. Apparently it had bumped bottom close to the bank, because it was way closer than I thought.

The spoon hit my eye almost even with it. I felt the impact and sat down, reaching up to see where it was. When I felt where it was ( no pain yet ) , I gently tried to pull it out , but could actually feel my eyeball move. 

The girlfriend drove me to the hospital. 5 hour surgery. The eye lens was destroyed and I had a detached retina. I took the bandage off the third day and could  just see light and motion, but couldn’t focus. With the help of a strong ( expensive ) contact , I can see 20/30 with it.

I was told there was another guy there that night that DID lose his eye to a piece of metal. I was also told my doc was one of just a few in Florida that could have done the surgery, and he just happened to be in Jacksonville that night, which wasnt his normal area. I thank God I didnt have to go through life with a glass eye....

Not fun, sounds like in the end you were pretty lucky though.  Glad to hear you ended up ok.

[MickD]

On 6/15/2021 at 12:54 PM, Crazyju said:

I have used the string trick twice on myself and 4 times on other people. The one below, I tried to talk the guy that was fishing with me (and the one who stuck me with his bait) to do the string trick, but he was turning white and about to faint. Key to the string trick is hard downward pressure on the hook shank. That is what gives the barb room to release.

 

 

In this case, or in similar ones, it is imperitive to cut off the OTHER HOOKS before doing any hook removal procedures.