By Lawrence Taylor
A sharp hook is a good thing as long as it’s in a fish’s lips. Unfortunately for me, they’re just as likely to be in my upholstery, jeans, cat or even my own flesh. Outdoor writer Darrell Taylor sent me some of his columns a while back and one was a humorous description of catching a pickerel, which in turn caught him back and sent him to the hospital to get the hooks removed.
Personally I’ve lost count of the number of hooks I’ve stuck in myself. Locations include the always-popular hand, but I’ve also had them removed from my feet, arm, leg and back of the head. Yes, back of the head. Somehow I let the reel slip a little on the back cast and caught myself in the back of the head with a spoon while sitting on a pond bank way back in the day. I clipped the line and left it dangling while I finished my fishing day with a big chrome spoon hanging from the back of my head like a misplaced earring. I was ahead of my time in piercing fashion.
I’ve also removed hooks from others. Once while striper fishing with a big Cordell Red-Fin my friend, Todd, walked quietly up behind me and I caught his forearm on the cast. Luckily the line snapped before he became airborne. Two of the three big trebles were in past the barb, but we just pushed them on through and clipped off the barbs and continued to catch fish.
I interviewed a doctor once who had removed his share of hooks from luckless anglers. I asked him about his worst case. The doctor’s office was near a popular snagging area, where anglers use big strong hooks and heavy weights to lob into the current and rip, rip, rip back to the bank in the hopes of snagging a big catfish. Evidentially, the doctor said, someone walked up behind a snagger and caught the hook right between the legs on the cast. I didn’t push the doctor for any further details. I just limped gingerly out.
His story did remind me of an event that ranked as one of the funniest things I ever saw, and, of course, it involves a hook.
I was young and fishing with a somewhat dense acquaintance on the bank of a local pond. I suggested a plastic worm; he selected a 1-ounce spoon, which immediately snagged on a stump. He wrapped the line around the reel a couple times, and holding the rod about waist level started walking backward. My eyes widened a little. I hoped the line held and that no one was seriously injured. It held.
When the spoon shot out of the water with the sound and velocity of a quality .30-06 round my acquaintance had no time to react. I still remember the watery “zip.” His posterior snapped backward as the spoon hit him square in the crotch and he fell to the pasture grass and rolled around in the cow patties and chiggers. It continues to be one of those memories that make me laugh even these 30 years later.
There is a painless technique for removing a hook from skin as long as it is just in flesh and not an area with lots of tendons or veins, or in a finger joint or spot like that. For removing hooks from strictly “fleshy” areas, take a length of line and run it between the hook shank and skin in the hook bend. While another person pushes downward on the hook eye so that it pushes the barb downward, jerk the line to pull out the hook. It’s amazingly painless but should never be done if there’s any question as to the location of the hook bard in relation to any tendons or other important body thingies.
If there’s any question about the location of the hook, seek professional medical help. They’ve seen it all.
Got a funny “hooked!” story? Send it to me at ltaylor@lurenet.com and I’ll compile them into a future lurenet.com story.