So, It Wont Happen To Me You Say

[wayne b]

ouch I have had my wife hook the back of my neck once luckily she is a nurse and got it pulled out. That would have been a costly fishing trip. No insurance at the time

[Old plug]

I do not know what the rope trick is and and the hook i had was buried in there was one of those big 05 hooks they put on the old bass buster single spins and it was in there to the bend. In any event we got it out.

Al went and looked at a demonstration on U tube. I still wonder how easy it would have been with a 3/4 oz lead head on there, a thick single spin wire, a large colorado blade and a rubber skirt. I was just real lucky on the angle it hit. Lot of small bones etc in that area.

[Al Agnew]

What continually amazes me is that doctors apparently don't know the trick or refuse to use it. It's pretty barbaric, when you think about it, to push it on through or cut it out. I have a friend who's brother is a doctor, and we've both told him numerous times about the trick because he lives out here in Montana and is always having to extract hooks, but he refuses to believe that it works or is medically safe.

Old Plug, what I would have done is cut the spinnerbait wire right at the head, removing all the wire and blades and leaving just the hook and head...you said you couldn't cut the hook, but the wire would have been a lot easier to cut, I'd think. I know that the wrist is a dangerous place to have a hook in, but the beauty of the rope trick is that the hook comes out through the same hole it came in. It doesn't matter how big the hook is. I've removed big hooks and little ones that way. I wouldn't do it if the hook shaft appeared to be right up against a bone or tendon, though. The tissue has to be soft enough that you can push the hook away from the barb and clear the path for the barb to come out. Skin and muscle is soft enough, but if it's sunk into tendon or cartilage there's no way I'd mess with it.

As far as I'm concerned, every angler should wear eye protection whenever somebody is nearby with a fishing rod in their hands. I've had some close calls, too. And another thing that scares me is heavy lead weights, and the new tungsten is even worse. I had a worm weight hit me right in the middle of the forehead a couple years ago, hard enough to make me see stars and enough to put a nice, perfect half moon shape cut in my forehead where the hollow end of it hit. If the pointed end had hit, or if it had hit my glasses, that could have been really nasty.

[Old plug]

i agree with Al about the protective eye glasses. I am pretty good at ducking though Al. If you read that short story i posted called What will St peter say to me you will see i have a bit of experience at both ducking and removing hooks. Next time i get stuck ( hopefully never) I will try that. But it does seem like it is going to be awkward as I fish alone much of my time.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, fishing alone, it can be tough to impossible depending upon where the hook is. You almost need two hands to do it, so if the hook is in a hand or arm, you have to be creative. I got one out of my own arm one time by getting myself into the position to press the eye of the hook against the gunwale of the canoe, then loop the string around it with my free hand and yank it out. I got another one, a small fly hook, out of my thumb because I could just barely reach the eye of the hook with my index finger and press on it in the right direction. But I've taken them out of my own calf and big toe, and out of other people's arms, very easily.