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Tales of hooking oneself - tips & precautions?

Jon Whelan

Senior Member
Just a personal tale extended from the other hook thread...

On a lighter note - how many of you's have hooked yourself whilst making rigs, casting out, slipping etc?

An example for me was a closed season three years ago when I was making rigs to the early hours of one morning. I had made up a number of rigs & on tightening one it slipped burying a size 6 gardner mugga into the side of my index finger.

I just looked at it & though now that's going to hurt...

I tried to remove it 4 times, the latter feeling that I would nearly pass out. The problem was two fold. Firstly, to remove the hook on a better angle the barb/tip was touching a nerve which made the pain even more intense with every hack I tried. And secondly, I had consumed half a bottle of wine two hours earlier, then living by myself so could not drive to casualty.

Answer, cut the rig off at the eye & go to bed setting the alarm to drive to casualty at 8am. A few words of advice to the nurse to get the blighter out & job done... bug*ered the rig tho...
 
I have a dark spot on my right ear lobe that looks like I had it pierced and in a way I did. Had a 120g jerkbait come out of the fish I was playing and impail in my ear. Had to cut off the barb to remove it. Since then I always wear glasses when spinning, and carry wire cutters;)
 
I'm glad I've seen your post Andrew. I've only just started lure fishing and the advice about wearing glasses is definitely one I'll be taking!
 
i don't think i've had a fishing trip when i haven't hooked myself in the hand,fingers or clothes ,i've cut so many hooks out of one of my fishing jumpers it looks more like a string vest .

i have a nice little scar on the underside of my chin ,from a size 10 hook i was swinging in too hand too rebait when some busybody passerby stopped too ask if i'd caught anything ,just as i raised my hand too catch the hooklength ,i half turned me head too reply the line missed my open hand & rapped up on my thumb tip the hook swung up and i was cleanly hooked up just under my chin ,it was barbed and in good and proper ,i had too cut it out ,dame near ruined a good days chubbing .

i've several little nick marks on my hands from hooks pints going in ,but since going over too barbless for most of my fishing they come out relativly easily .
 
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ruined many a jumper with barbed hooks, mainly in the sleeve area.
now i use barbless, far safer!
 
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One of my old posting from the old site archive:

Some time about two and half years ago I managed to bury a size 8 barbed hook in my thumb. Like the big girl's blouse that I am I had to go to Bedford A&E, to have it removed. What followed was a few hours of friday night "entertainment", sitting with all the dregs - **** heads, winos, druggies, chavs and all the usual loosers that seem to congregate on most A&Es up and down the country on a friday night.

I learnt a few things that night, one of which was how much our NHS funding is being drained by alchohol and drugs, and secondly, not to use barbed hooks when learning to Wallace cast in a tight swim in the dark. If only I had seen this video first, I could have avoided being an NHS burden myself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7eYpwATKgc



Haydn


PS. I would add to this that if I ever do it again I'll be sure to do what Captain Joe does in that youtube clip. The pain from the injections(they call it a ring numbing — three injections round the second knuckle of my thumb) was far worse than simply getting some pliers and ripping the thing out. Not to mention two hours in the company of the above mentioned people.
 
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cut the barb off and put some savalon on it, unless i was dying. you wouldn't get me in A&E.

not a hook but a ear plug i pushed in to far last night, went to wexham park,20 minutes wait and a friendly nurse, how stupid!
what is it about A&E, full of drunks sleeping in there even on a sunday night at 1am...:p:(
 
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cut the barb off and put some savalon on it, unless i was dying. you wouldn't get me in A&E.

The Chairman on Monday

Quite, you might catch something awful from the Lower Orders or all the non-indig' nurses. A nice private nursing home is so much nicer, I have found, like the one at Midsomer Whiteout in a valley adjacent to our timeless Hamster. I have been told, however, that, for something really serious - a prang in the V12 Morris Minor, for example - I'd still have to go to the A&E in Grimstead; a prospect that scares me half to death, I can tell you.

As ever,

B.B.
 
I was once hand landing a pike of around 5lbs that had taken a rather large lure - a magnum bulldawg. Unfortunately I ended up with a 5/0 treble straight through my thumb and out the other side with the said pike still attached!

I managed to get things under control and we unhooked the pike and then cut the point of the hook with the bolt croppers which I carry when using large lures and threaded the hook out backwards. I would have had a great photo to show you but my pansy of a boat partner couldn't find the strength to press the trigger on the camera cause he was feeling too faint and sick looking at my hand!!!

Wimp.
 
A few nicks here and there on me, jumpers and nets , however when I was a teenager went lure fishing with my brother and managed to attach a rappala to his ear, I thought it suited him but he was not impressed in fact he still mentions it to this day.
 
I managed to hook myself in the eye brow when waggler fishing, had to bite the line and use my rear veiw mirror to get the hook out....:eek:
 
Being a ham fisted so and so, i always have a mini first aid kit in the bag and a big one in the car. The worst two experiences i had were as follows;

In second place was a surprisingly small size 16 which went in, but kept going in further instead of having the point combe back out. Much wrenching and pulling with a pair of forceps was required, but several minutes, a lot of blood loss and one faint budddy later it was removed.
The 'best' was similar to a previous post. A pike I was unhooking shook it's head, attaching a hook to my hand whilst still having one in its jaw. Luckily I unhooked that one pretty easily. The one in my hand was more troublesome. I initially tried to cut it out with a pair of scissors, but I got fairly deep until I kept touch a nerve, tendon or something that was simply too painful to cut through. So instead I resorted to ripping it out, which caused cursing, bleeding, pain etc. But at least I carried on fishing. That was the one, plus equally gruesome tales from mates, that persuaded me of the benefit of using a 1st aid kit. Just remember to replace the plasters when you use them!!
 
Was putting a made up rod in the car, when i hooked my thumb with a size 10 barbed raptor, had to chew through the braid, when back indoors the wife said wait i`ll get some tweezers, had to bite my tongue!! I was starting to sweat with my thermals on etc. as i made my way done the garden to get some wire cutters, came back stripped off and managed to get the hook pushed through and cut the barb at the fourth attempt, bit of savlon and a plaster got dressed and went fishing, not a pleasant experience!!
 
A boat trip off Guernsey had me unhooking a small pollack for a friend. The fish flipped as they do and a size 2/0 was firmly embedded in my right thumb. Many attempts to remove it failed so when we landed ashore a friend took me to the local A & E. As I waited my mate was talking to the nurse and came over to see me, laughing to himself. It transpired that the UK no longer had any medical agreements with Guernsey and the removal of the hook would cost £90! I had no choice other than to leave the hook in until I came home a week later, a non starter for sure.

Further amusment for my mate came when the nurse assured me that the needle to administer anaesthetic would hurt just as much as removing the hook without it. I went with it on the basis of wanting something for my £90..
 
When I was a keen pike angler, many moons ago, I used to have a creek chub pikie lure hanging from my rear view mirror in my car. Now I know you all know where I`m going with this but I`ll press on. I was on holiday in the west country with the wife and parents,I was driving and we were on our way back from a day out when I stuck out my left hand out to point at something and managed to put the top treble straight through my middle finger knuckle joint. I somehow steered the car to the verge and my father drove to Axminster hospital. There I had to wait for the doctor who was at home gardening apparently, when he arrived he was wielding a huge pair of rusty pliers that he`d got from his shed. "These are much more suited to hook removal than the flimsy instruments we have here" he said and in a trice (after the obligatory painkilling injections) he whipped the offending hook out.
Nothing but a clanger hanging from my rear view mirror now.

DC
 
Early morning, first few casts with a fast sinking flyline, heavy fly on a size 6 double hook, managed to get the hook embedded , both points as far as they could go in the ball of my right thumb, Pain was unreal, and being very right handed, made the extraction rather tricky, loop of line tied to the towbar on the car, over the hook, press down on the shank and yank, took two goes, the loop snapped on the first attempt, but not before raising the pain level 10 fold, 2nd attempt worked but bought tears to my eyes. The day after salmon on a rather costly beat wasn,t going to be cut short, by a moment of carelessness, still remember the pain though!!!!!
peter
 
I've not managed to hook myself past the barb yet but many years ago when fly fishing in Wales I did get my old Labrador in the ear with a cats whisker on the back cast. I thought it suited him in a sort of punk rock way.
It came out easy enough after I flattened the barb with my forceps.
 
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