I was downriver in my johnboat, fly-casting a riffle, when Chuck Edghill called from 100 yards upstream.
“Boyd, I?ve got a hook in me. Can you come and help?”
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A smallmouth he was unhooking flopped around and got off while simultaneously hooking Chuck. I quickly motored up-current and anchored where Chuck was standing waist deep in the Susquehanna River. Chuck had the tail hook of a Tiny Torpedo top-water lure in his index finger. The Tiny Torpedo is a great lure ? usually better for smallmouth than for Edghills.
Holding the tail hook to prevent more pain, we untwisted the rest of the lure from the hook screw eye. Minutes later, we had the hook out.
Recently, I have met many anglers who are still using the ancient hook removal method of pushing the hook point out through the muscle and skin, clipping the point with side-cutting pliers (assuming you have them) and backing the hook out. Had I tried this with Chuck, I would have gotten as many jumps from him on that Tiny Torpedo as I would from smallmouth bass. It is an old and tortuous method of removing hooks.
Getting hooks out of clothing this way is easy by running the hook through, then bending down the barb to back the hook out. But clothing won?t holler the way people do.
There is a simple field method of removing a hook using nothing more than a two-foot length of string. First, remove any other hooks, or remove the lure body from the penetrating hook. Loop the cord around the bend of the hook, and push down on the hook?s shank. Pushing down creates a “tunnel” for the barb to back out as you pull the cord.
Tell the hookee that you are going to pull the cord on three. Naturally, pull hard as you say “two”. It is so easy and quick that youngsters don?t even have time to cry.
Add antiseptic if you have it and make surethat the hookee later gets to a doctor for a tetanus shot. Also, avoid doing this around the face, front of the neck, back of the hands of anywhere that you might have surface arteries, veins, nerves or tendons.
There is another way to avoid all this. Use barbless hooks in all your fishing, or bend down barbs with pliers before you cast a bait or lure.
Lacking that, Chuck says the above method is almost painless. After checking his finger, Chuck reassembled his Tiny Torpedo. Then we went back to fishing.
C. Boyd Pfeiffer is an internationally known sportsman and award-winning writer on hunting, fishing and the outdoors, and he has more than 20 books to his credit. He can be reached at [email protected].
