Just a little rod room story I thought I'd share.

Not being one to waste material, over the past several months, I having been using leftover guide wrap epoxy to coat fishing lures, spinnerbait head, crankbaits, etc. After putting a coat on some rod decals, I went to another room, took out a box of crank style baits and proceeded to drop the box all over the floor. Picked up the lures I wanted to coat and put the rest back in the box and the box onto its appropriate place on the shelf.

Back to the rod room to make sure I used up every last drop of epoxy. As a shifted chair position and crossed my legs I felt a sharp pain in my left ankle which in turn elicited a very loud "@#$%&" and a corresponding echo from the hinterlands of the upstairs living room "Did you hurt yourself honey?", saeth the better half. My response was the immediate macho, "No, I'm fine".

After closer inspection, the logistical nightmare of the situation revealed itself. Upon dropping the afore mentioned lure box, a small rattle trap's front trebles had lodge in the laces of my right sneaker and a tine from the back treble into the sock of my left foot with perhaps a piece of my skin. Not having x-ray vision, I could not tell just how the hook was impaled through my sock into the skin. Not be able to uncross my legs to get out of the chair into a position for better inspection left me with no alternate but to call for "assistance" from my non-fishing spouse. "Oh honey, could you spare a moment for a little help?"

Ms. Nightingale's immediate response was some reference to 911. No, no, I decried, I can work this out, just don't touch me. After what seemed an hour of maneuvering and colorful words of wisdom, from both sides, the right sneaker laces were cut and the shoe removed. More cutting got the left sock off and the cause of the sharp pain was fully revealed, one of the trebles was neatly imbedded just above the anklebone. Having read all the articles on hook removal, but never once in fourteen years of fishing having to practice any techniques, the macho man reared its ugly head again. "I can handle it" he smugly remarked.

Couldn't get the wire cutters in place so out came the Dremel tool with a cutoff disc. Ouch, metal gets hot quick!

The perseverance of being a fisherman finally prevailed and the hook was cut, now the only thing to do was to remove the remaining hook piece with the barb. Easy, just push the hook point through the skin and pull the rest out. Florence, not being the skilled surgeon that the situation demanded, old macho man came to the rescue again. Ha, needle nose pliers will do the trick! "Ouch, damn, ouch, damn"!
OK, macho man, you have failed as a medical operative.

In the meantime, Ms. Nightingale did earn her keep with a phone call to our local gendarmes who recommended a walk in emergency health facility about six miles away rather than the custom three hour wait at one of the local, full service, hospital emergency rooms. Forty-five minutes later and lighter in the wallet I was back home in the rod room fast at work…………. looking for more wayward treble dressed crankbaits.

Lesson to be learned? I'll be darned if I know.

Reminds me of a certain fishing trip with my son that ended with a crankbait securely fastened to my chin. I won't go into detail, but use your imagination.

hay Ray See what happens when you try too be Cheap That story should go into Toms mag. It's a good one

And I thought I was having a rough evening! That's a classic Ray, thanks!

LOL... That is classic... great story. I'm just laughing at the thought of you sitting with your legs crossed with a lure pinned to each shoe and still not willing to admit you need help. Darn that Mr. Macho Man... he'll get you every time!




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2005 07:46PM by Erik Kunz.

Ray , I have used the mentioned extraction procedure for hooks 4 times in my days , once was on myself on the bank of the Farmington river. Durring a heavy sulpher hatch while franticly false casting to "hook another one" , I burried a #14 Tiemco hook in my cheek. Remembering the procedure , I walked to the truck , adjusted the side mirror , stripped of a length of the heaviest tippet I had , and yanked it out .
I have used the procedure on a dog while water training to remove a trebbile hook from the back of my shorthair pointer, he must have snagged himself on the lure that had washed up next to shore . Not for the faint of heart to do this to your self or anyone else, and I can immagine that you hook was more painfull than mine was . I'm just glad I could stay and fish for the rest of the hatch , then the spinner fall .
John


Got Fish ?

Ray, Are you up to date on your Tetanus shot? Or this story may have more legs! Ed

Part of the procedure from the efficient medical staff at the walk in, I'm now a card carrier. Thanks for asking

Question is: What did you do with the left over epoxy upon returning home? Was it still workable?

LOL! Great story. You predicament's descriptions were easily painfully visualized! If the story has me squirming in my seat, its gotta be a good one.

I had the pleasure of removing a Gamakatzu (sp?) size 12 spawn bag hook from a fellow nightfishing steelhead seaking noodle roder one evening. Seems he may have ventured too close to the back of a dam fisherman's back cast! OUCH! Lucky for him it was in his cheek and not his eye!

Have you ever seen the picture of why you should wear polarized glasses when fly fishing? Great little picture of a fly implanted into a guy's cornea.

Don't for a minute think our sport is any less dangerous than skydiving and bullfighting!

Domenic

After securing the remainder of the hook to my ankle with a bandaid, I cleaned up my mixing container (shot glass) and proceeded to the medical center. Probably should have refilled my mixing container with a medicinal libation upon returning home!

Have always protected my eyes when fishing with prescription sunglasses, currently very nice pair of Bolle's with interchangeable colored lenses with clear prescription under frames.

LOL!!!

Once on a 11 mile float trip and only 15 minutes into the 14 hour totally remote wilderness day, I rared back on a REALLY nice Smallmouth with my crankbait that held #4 Excaliber hooks. The SM jumped, spit the lure and it came back at me around mach3, in such a flash I didn't have time to even move. It barreled into the top of my leg to the left of somewhere I was REAL glad it didn't hit and lodged, right through pants and all.

I couldn''t even see the hook points and BOTH front and rear treble with those nasty rotating hooks were hanging tight. Nothing to do here but jerk them out I thought to myself. I'll just unhook ME like I do the fish. First try at that pulled the skin UP from my leg about a FOOT and nothing budged-yikes, the sweat started to bead on my forehead.......

On the 2nd try I made my mind up that THIS time I'd pull faster and much harder. I yanked out the 1st set of trebles, took a few hand fulls of river water in the face to stay focused, and awake....then the 2nd set as the red fluid ran down my leg for the next few minutes until it finally ceased.

I believe I can say "been there!" :-)

Good story Ray!

DR

Oh yeah, I've been there too. I was upgrading the trebles on some of my ultralight lures, so had an assortment of little Rapalas, Rebels and size 12 and 14 trebles neatly set up to do the work. Knocked over the packet of size 14 trebles, and in the process a Teeny Crawdad found its way onto the chair, and promptly stuck in the upholstery. After managing to keep all the trebles in the packet from flying away, I sat down and hooked the family jewels to my shorts and the chair.

Gee guys all of this blood and guts - I can't reed any more. I need a shot and a beer ??^%$#@!
I am going to mash down all my barbs
That story about that hook in the eye ?? Lord have mercy !!!!

Went fishing one night, it was dark and this was going to be the last cast. On the backcast a Size 8 4x weighted conehead bugger lodged in a tree about 15 feet high. I yanked the line hoping to break the tippet and go home. 4x tippet holds up well, and that conehead rocket lodged in my forearm. Drove home bleeding all the way. (to cheap to pay the deductble for the ER).

I used the string method published in Outdoor Life. Wrap a string twice around the hook bend, push down on the eye of the hook, and give the string a quick and hard jerk. The bend of the hook pulls through the skin and the barb follows the path with out any resistance (provided you pull straight back.

Did not want to invlove the wife so I tied the string to the banister.

It worked, no pain