Fishing was great! I even caught a big dumb redneck!

[Spot77]

OUch. Tried for an hour to get it out. Had to go to one of the walk in places last night.



I'm giving up on barbed hooks.

[5th Tuition]

Wow; that does look like it will be sore today. Is that your hand or Mike's?

I keep saying I'm going to buy a big pair of dykes (is that still a word we can use?) and keep on the boat for such problems, but haven't done it.

Someone bought me a "Hook extractor kit" that I keep on the boat, but would have to take an hour reading the directions before attempting to do anything with it.

I hope it heals quickly. I gave myself a nice cut from a "razor" clam (now I know why they call them that) and it seems like it is finally healing.

Lou puts more blood in the bottom of my boat than blues. He is always cutting himself with gillplates, spine punctures, or stabbing himself with hooks. Yesterday, he said, I need a rag. I handed him some funky old rag I had in the boat. He said, no not that one, a nice one, I cut myself again. What do people mean, a nice one? If I had a nice one, it wouldn't be on the boat.
5th (Marty)

[Skip]

There is a neat trick that often works to remove a hook.

You use a loop of mono and sorta slide to towards the barb.

This pushes down on the shank and often allows the barb to be slid out when gently pushed by a finger.

I used this on a dog once - even with him fighting / twisting - got the #4 hook out.

You just know the doctors / nurses shake their heads when fishermen come in with a buried hook.

Hope it heals fast for you.

[drichitt]

Jumbo1 (Jamie) got me started fishing barbless last summer and I have not regreted it for one second. Especially those frickin treble hooks; which I snip-off one of the three hooks and the other two are barbless. I even use barbless hooks when I liveline now. Better for you and better for the fish.

[Spot77]

Yeah it was my hand. If I did that to Mike I'd have to be his bich for a decade to live it down.

We tried for an hour to remove it....tried all the tricks we could look up.

It was just too damn deep and right up on the bone. Maybe through the tendon too according to the doc.

After a bunch of shots to numb the area (Lidocaine shots, not the kind of shots I was really wanting ) The doc inserted what seemed like a thick hollow needle with a beveled edge into my hand right next to the hook. What this does is cover the barb so the hook and needle can come out at the same time with minimal damage. I watched him do it, and thankfully didn't feel a thing.

It sure does hurt like a sumbitch today though. Feels a little better now that 24 hours has passed, and I think it will be leaps and bounds better tomorrow.

It didn't stop me from fishing for a couple of hours today.

The Doc gave me an antibiotic to take to counter whatever ick the bay water is holding these days.

This year the fishing has been so great that I agree with Don; barbed hooks are probably on their way out the door for me.

[Spot77]

So here we are 5 days later and it still hurts like a sumbitch (although a few Motrin makes it better now) and it still looks like Fred Flintstone's thumb.

The swelling has gone down a little and I have some movement back in it now. I can actually fish decently again rather than throwing the jacked up casts I was on Thursday, and taking 15 minutes to tie on a new lure one handed......and retrieving with my middle and pointer fingers.....

I'm taking the antibiotics religiously. I noticed that the bottle said "Double dosage" on it, so perhaps the doc was really concerned about some funk in the water.

[Southerly]

when she was about 4,5, my daughter set her rod down on a pier. forgot about it, then scraped her foot on it while walking and put the hook in deep.

she was suddenly screaming bloody murder. at first, i didn't know what was going on and scooped her up. which snapped the line tight and the screaming got even worse. then i was a little jittery i guess and snagged on the line and snapped it tight again.

she's steady screaming horrible and i realize what's going on. i figured it would be an hour more of this if we hurried off to the walk-in. or,...

i held her ankle firm. pushed against the shank to unhook the barb, same as loosening from a piece of fabric etc, and removed it. mentally, not an easy thing for me to do. i did the best i could. but i could distinctly feel some tissue rip as i pulled it out.

since then, i've wondered if i would be able to perform that same service if i hooked myself. but i was sincerely disappointed when my neighbor let his wife play with a hook in his hand for two hours rather than just call me.

[Spot77]

Ugh! I can deal with my own pain, but I get squeamish as hell thinking about a kid getting hurt.

I've removed deep hooks from others by pushing them through and clipping off the barb, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't get it to come through my own hand. The doc didn't even want to try it that way.


This would be a great topic to cover at some of the club meetings, or at some of the fishing shows.

[Spot77]

A little over a month later and it still hurts to put a lot of pressure on it (like twisting off a beer bottle cap ) but for the most part it's finally all healed up.

FINALLY.......