Just got back from A&E having pulled a #6 Sakuma into pad of middle finger finger tip whilst making up a mack trace for feathering.

The actual event was painless and I had a couple of attempts to push the hook back towards me as the barb was just 2 or 3mm into the flesh but it wasn't going to budge.

I'd seen a couple of vids on Youtube which show how to yank the hook out using a length of 30lb mono. Laptop was handy so I watched one which showed a guy taking 3 attempts to shift one from a mates hand.

At this point I passed out a couple of times whilst rigging up a loop of mono to give it a try. Inflicting pain on yourself isn't easy.
Wuss eh?

So, off to A&E for a 2hr wait whilst the finger started to throb a bit.

The 2 injections to base of my finger were possibly as painful as ripping the hook out but nursey really didn't commend the DIY approach due to the potential tissue/nerve damage.

The anaesthetic worked its way up to my finger tip and she cut the hook out rather than continue to push the point on and out again.

I earned brownie points though for having the forethought to take another identical hook with me so she could see the shape of the hook and position of the barb.

How is everyone for tetanus jabs?

Think we've all had moments like that. I was fishing on an Argyle trout loch when my boat partner's cast went wayward and hit me in the back of the neck. Getting hit full on with a fly line feels like getting whacked with a big stick. At this point I could now only feel the sting in the back of my neck, but I didn't realise the fly had pricked the skin. My mate stood up, stripped in some line and proceeded to cast again, this time driving the full hook deep into the back of my neck, right round to the shank. We could hardly get our fingers on the fly, never mind work out how to get it out. Needless to say we fished on after snipping the fly off. I stopped of at the Vale of Leven hospital on the way home. 2 painless injections and pushed right round through, and I never felt a thing.

Part way through a good day afloat at Arnfield on Saturday with forum member Stu Pengs, during which I was being handed a severe thrashing, I accidently strategically placed a size 10 Kate Mclaren behind his ear, the whole event was about the only 30 minute spell in which he didn't catch a fish all day.

Back at the fishing lodge, the hook was swiftly removed by the fishery manager using the mono loop method and we were soon back out fishing.

I've stuck hooks in finger twice, and on one occasion a size 10 l/s managed to get through the gap between hat brim and top of sunglasses and gouge a nice hole in my forehead. One each occasion I literally dragged them out before I had time to think about whether or not it was going to hurt. It did, but by that time the hooks were out.

The best though, was a size 6l/s just under my right shoulder blade. That one needed the less than tender mercies of A&E where it was cut out without the benefit of a local by a thoroughly inexperienced junior doctor. THAT did hurt!

Although it would not suit everyone,I tend to fish "barbless" these days and this would obviously pay dividends when faced with accidental hooking. Prior to this I had a size 10 snag my finger and after trying in vain to overcome the barb I chose to slide it round further to exit the barb which I then snipped off with some borrowed side-cutters (which I now carry as standard equipment). Wow ! - how easy it slid out without that tiny barb.

Several years ago my granpda got a size 10LS lure stuck in his nose which they couldn't get out. Being a dedicated chap he finished the day with his boat partner ("...don't stop for a piddling little think like that my boy") and toddled off to A&E at the end of the day.

Ended up sat next to a punk in the waiting room covered in piercings etc, who looked at him for a while before asking "...what are you in for mate?"

__________________
Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it

The *very* first time I ever went 'proper' fishing, from a boat, the kid I was with didn't look behind when casting a huge toby spinner. With the full force of his cast he drove it into my eyebrow.

His Dad calmly unclipped the treble from the body of the lure, asked if I could see alright, and said we'd deal with it when we got in. Fished the rest of the day with the treble dangling from my eyebrow (as an 8 year old, the Man points were worth more than any fish).

Got in that evening, hook pushed round and barb cut off with wire cutters. It wasn't til years afterwards that I suddenly found myself wondering what would have happened had it been an inch lower....

Sixty years an angler and never once a barbed hook in past the barb.

Until the year before last.

Packing up after a trip to catch thornbacks from the beach, I picked up a trace and at the same time trod on the line.

Result, a 4/0 into the finger.

I really didn't fancy waiting around in A&E for someone who had never seen a fish-hook before to attempt a removal, so I imagined the finger as a fish, pushed down and back and out it came

A month or so later it was a size 16 whilst trotting a centre-pin for roach, that hook really didn't want to come out and it was one last try when it slid out as good as gold.

Finally a size 8, legering for chub a few weeks later.

Funnily enough, it's not happened since.

Mind you, if I hadn't de-barbed an okey-dokey buzzer moments before I would have another to add to the list recently!

I am the world's laziest fisherman.

years ago while plugging for pike, i took a lure off, still attached tot he trace and stuffed it into my pocket. a little later i leant over to pick up a fish i'd just landed and the lure fell out of my pocket, hanging from the trace that was now tangled with all manner of other lures in my jacket pocket. when i stood up, bang, all three trebles went through my jeans and into my calf. problem was, i couldnt stand up because the line was taught from my pocket to the hooks, and i couldnt unravel the unholy mess in my pocket so i hobbled home like i was (bent double, a mile's walk across fields) each tiny movement ripped the huge trebles in further. by the time i got home, my jeans were soaked with blood, and my leg looked like something out of saving private ryan. i cut my jean leg off to ease the pressure and was able to remove the hooks fairly easily because they'd torn the flesh during the walk... still have some minor scars from that one....

I'm still a lazy ******.

Similarly to BobP, I once managed to drive an l/s 8 lure over the barb right between my own shoulder blades when fishing Farmoor 2...off to the medical centre in Eynsham.

That wasn't as good as the l/s 10 Appetizer deep in the palm of my hand when fishing Blagdon. The far from unattractive nurse at the West Harptree medical centre queried the fly pattern, and then commented "oh that's interesting - we usually get Grenadiers".

The long term lesson has been to avoid macho attempts at fly casting in a strong right to left wind.

__________________
"In wine there is wisdom. In beer there is strength. In water there is bacteria." - German proverb
JH based near Southampton