A Barb Past The Skin - Who's done it?

[WolfPack1]

Size W9 (only been in the water a couple times before it went into my thumb, cut the hooks off for safety when we were removing it, ohh well, lil expensive!) jigging rap right into the crook of the backside of my knuckle. Unhooking a catfish and it rolled and got me. Squirming Fish on one end and me on the other. I tell ya, couldn’t move my thumb till we got back home at all, because it scraped the hook point around in the joint.... owwww. No possible way of getting it out other than cutting it out to the barb, or giving it a yank. Ended up cutting it out with sterilized razor blades at home instead of paying for the doc to do it. Ice bath, make a cut, then Ice bath again and so on. Definitely don’t recommend getting a hook into that spot that’s for sure!! That thumb seems a little less mobile now, but it could just be my mind playing tricks on me, who knows!

[river_scum]

several, hands, ears, and an eyelid. lol  the fishing line trick for me. 

he is pulling up on the video.  you need to pull down. the helper also need to push in a lot harder.  it does work though.

 

[esox_xtm]

Size W9 (only been in the water a couple times before it went into my thumb, cut the hooks off for safety when we were removing it, ohh well, lil expensive!) jigging rap right into the crook of the backside of my knuckle. Unhooking a catfish and it rolled and got me. Squirming Fish on one end and me on the other. I tell ya, couldn’t move my thumb till we got back home at all, because it scraped the hook point around in the joint.... owwww. No possible way of getting it out other than cutting it out to the barb, or giving it a yank. Ended up cutting it out with sterilized razor blades at home instead of paying for the doc to do it. Ice bath, make a cut, then Ice bath again and so on. Definitely don’t recommend getting a hook into that spot that’s for sure!! That thumb seems a little less mobile now, but it could just be my mind playing tricks on me, who knows!

No disrespect intended WolfPack1 but this a good example of what NOT to do. Not all wrong, removing hooks that are not embedded IS a good practice. I've seen people monkeying only to embed additional hooks while working on the primary one.

What I've learned is to always leave enough on the embedded hook to work with. More is usually better than less. If you leave it too short you can't push it thru or loop a line on it. In the top pic above there's hardly any hook left to work with after cutting the lure away. I'd have removed the treble (it should just pop off the spring hook thingy or cut the treble (easily replaceable), covered the front hook (like stick a cork or pencil eraser on it) and leave that rear hook attached to the lure.

This would allow a couple of options: 1.) Use the the lure as the extended hook shank to press down on and pop out with the fishing line trick OR 2.) Use the lure as leverage to pop the hook point and barb all the way through, pinch the barb or cut the hook and back it out. In order to work effectively you have to leave something to grip and use. That and you still keep enough of the lure to be usable  .

I'm sure in the heat of the moment it seemed like the right thing to do, especially if it's a first time. S'funny how each successive event gets (much) less "frantic" and easier to remedy. At least it has for me.

If you wind up getting wired somehow first thing to do is sit back, take a deep breath and settle down. Thousands of people walk around every day with all kinds of metal stuff stuck through their skin in various places. Only difference is those piercings were intentional and you new one was not. Assess the problem, select the best plan and implement.

Don't forget that hands are full of easily damaged nerves and tendons so brute force or crude field surgery is not recommended. Lots of good techniques here, stock a couple of useful items in a small 1st aid kit and you'll be back fishing in a few minutes with minimal discomfort. Be prepared because it can happen to anyone and it is usually unexpected.

Recommended treatment (other than having your tetanus current):

1.) To finish the day - band-aid and Neosporin. Hit it with a styptic pencil or powder if bleeding won't stop. Don't worry, you won't bleed out over this. DO NOT USE SUPERGLUE! You can trap something bad inside and make yourself a dangerous infection.

2.) Soak at least once (better twice or more) a day in warm water and Epsom salts. This keeps the puncture open on the outside allowing things to heal from the inside out as well as providing potential infectious material an easy way out.

3.) Keep it covered if you're going to be doing "dirty work". Three days you'll barely know you had a hook in you.

[CMS]

[esox_xtm]

This... makes a great case for barbless. Yikes!

[bowmandan]

I think that is the winner

[walleyeslayer]

ive been to the emergency room twice for hooks in my finger..all they do is finish pushing it through, ive seen videos with the string, its like magic, dont ever pull it out

[RyanW]

Yup.... LiveTarget Perch.

Luckily for me, that lure only seen 2 casts worth of water (previous trip) before I stuck myself. I was sitting directly next to a smaller dam. I was tying on the lure when it slipped from my grip. Instinct told me to grab it before I lost it down the dam (I’m not losing a brand new LiveTarget to a dam lol). I very quickly grabbed the lure. Well, as I went to grab it, the back hook anchored itself in the crotchal region of my shorts (my steak and potatoes were very thankfully unharmed!!) and the front hooked buried itself in my palm. My pliers were in my back right pocket so I had to use my left hand to get them (struggle). I un-snagged my pants, snipped my line, and tried to push it through. Didn’t work. There was too much palm and not enough hook bend to push it through to where I needed it. Drove to the E.R. Where they proceeded to get their “hook removal kit” (it was literally labeled that way and consisted of a pair of hemos and bone snips). Their bone snips couldn’t cut a size 2 Daiichi treble, only the split rings. The treble actually left an indent the size of the hook wire in the blades of the bone snips. They ended up using a hypodermic needle, capping the barb, and pulling the hook out. Afterwords, I went to my local bait shop, bought new split rings, and put the hook back on my lure. It’s still on there lol.

If anything, this situation made me appreciate Daiichi’s quality and now that’s all I use for my flies.

[Spoondangler]

Size W9 (only been in the water a couple times before it went into my thumb, cut the hooks off for safety when we were removing it, ohh well, lil expensive!) jigging rap right into the crook of the backside of my knuckle. Unhooking a catfish and it rolled and got me. Squirming Fish on one end and me on the other. I tell ya, couldn’t move my thumb till we got back home at all, because it scraped the hook point around in the joint.... owwww. No possible way of getting it out other than cutting it out to the barb, or giving it a yank. Ended up cutting it out with sterilized razor blades at home instead of paying for the doc to do it. Ice bath, make a cut, then Ice bath again and so on. Definitely don’t recommend getting a hook into that spot that’s for sure!! That thumb seems a little less mobile now, but it could just be my mind playing tricks on me, who knows!

Hate to tell you but thats one the string trick would have worked on well. 

[Mr.Seaguar]

This thread reminded me of when I was a kid and my dad and I were fishing in a boat while his buddy was in another with his wife and son. The son hooked the wife in the forehead with all three hooks of a crawler harness. Way past the barb. So she had a nightcrawler stapled to her face. We could hear her screaming. She was not a nice lady, there was not much sympathy but there was some laughter.  They left and went to the ER.

[grababrewski]

This looks a little crazy!

[fish_finder]

Ive done it twice. Once i was lucky as it was a single barbless hook. Came out as easy as it went in..the other was horrific. Buddy i was fishing with wasnt watching where i was and ripped a rapala husky jerk into thr back of my leg when he went to cast. Burried it pretty good. 2 points past the barb 2 not. Being young n stupid n a little intoxicated i took thr needle nose pliers  and popped the buried points out then cut em . Luckily i had a tetnus shot a week before that from stepping on a nail so no hospital trip although it prbly shoulda been