Cermele: When It's In Past The Barb

May 28, 2009

By Joaquin Arocena

We've all done it. We'll all do it again. You fish long enough and you feel that sting and before ever looking at the injury you say to yourself, "damn, that one's in past the barb." If you're lucky it's shallow enough that you can poke the hook through and clip it off. I very much prefer this method to the string loop and backwards yank. There is also the old needle trick shown here, where you shove the needle in the same hole to depress the barb. It's been my experience that anytime you attempt to go backwards, no matter how confident you are in the method, there's lots more blood, and a little meat chunk left on the hook.

I've fished all day with flies buried in me, figuring I'll take care of it later. But one of my worst hooking incidents did not feature me as the victim, but my fiancee, which I guess made me a victim by default. I had asked her to please grab a rod out of my truck while I jumped in the shower. Next thing I know, there is much screaming and crying, and I bust out soaking wet to see her trying the get the rod through the door while keeping tension off the 3/0 baitholder hook in her arm. I had no choice with this one but to loop some fly line around the shank, push down the eye and do what I had to do. She knew it was coming, and was ready to throw up just thinking about me yanking back on that line. All went well, though I got the silent treament for a long time. Hey, it beat going to the emergency room.

Let's make it a bloody day. Tell us your worst.

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from woofbarkenarf wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

While I was learning to flyfish, I wore a nice peacock body nymph as an earring for a day...needless to say, the wife was mildly amused. It was all I could do to get her to contain her hilarity at my discomfort. I might have even taken her to the emergency room just to catch her breath!

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from buckhunter wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

My worst story involves a very pissed off beagle with multiple hooks in the ear and mouth. We were just kids but we held that dog down tight and it screamed with each pull of the pliers. We had never seen the dog before and never saw it again after taking the hooks out.

As for myself, I've had nothing more than a few flies stuck in my hands. A hunk of ice a deep breath and the method above takes care of it.

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from dighunter wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

The worst for me was bass fishing when the fish slipped out my hand and rammed a large treble hook between my thumb and first finger all the way to the point where the three hooks were connected. Hospital had to cut that one out. Another good one was the cat that decided to walk across the fishing pole rack in the garage. A hook caught it in the foot so it started flailing only get a few more hooks in the face and body as it fell off the rack. When we heard the commotion, the cat was hanging from the rack by the hooks. We had to use the leather welding gloves to hold the cat cause it was not happy. Cat lived, but never came in the garage again.

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from doekiller wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Was night fishing w/ my dad when he caught a 6" largemouth on a 5" rapala, anyway, the fish flopped and hooked him with one of the treble's...deep. Only problem he forgot the pliers in the truck...I had to run back while he squeezed the life out of that fish so it wouldn't wiggle. I got back with the pliers and he had to force the hook back through his thumb for a second opening, cut the barb and then back the remainder of the hook out the original hole. The bass survived to both our surprise.

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from Hunter Savage wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

the worst i have ever seen didn't happen to me . but one of my friends when we were kids , while fishing from shore one evening on the raquette river. fishing was a bust, so the three of us decided to have a casting contest for distance. well it didnt take long for my friend Jon , to sink two of the of the barbs of a red eye wobbler in the back of our other friend Kelly's neck . Jon thinking he had snagged some brush , gave a couple of stout yanks on the rod to free his lure , which prompted Kelly to howl loudly enough to get Jon to turn around to examine the situation. (like the first shriek wasn't loud enough ) . well it didnt take Kelly long to decide that my rusty pliers and pull like heck method wasn't worth a crap . he opted to ride his bike home and have his dad bring him to the emergency room. thankfully he was ok and i got a great story out of it . sadly Jon never did get his lure back , but hey its a small price to pay for memorie like that .

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from Jim in Mo wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Worst for me was with a brand new lure I was anxious to try. On my first cast I attempted a thirty yard cast under some tree limbs except I hooked the limbs high. I'll be damned if I was going to cut the line on a new lure so I yanked back hard and that lure zipped back at me like a bullet. Buried deep in my calf past the u of the hook. Only method left was a push through. I'm glad it was a sharp new hook, wasn't much pain really.

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from 2Poppa wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Three people fishin' out of a john boat. I'm sittin' in the middle, when my buddy Randy, crosses the eyes of a largemouth bass,that decided to take a leave of absence.

He was fishin' a three, treble hooked, creek chub darter. It came straight back and hooked my knee, "past the barb!" It hurt so bad I couldn't look at it.

I said take me back to the dock. Randy's dad, George, said he had something in his tackle box that would take care of it,and to keep my head turned. Before I knew it,he grabbed a pair of pliers and jerked the treble hook out.

The worst one I had ever witnessed was my step-dad, Bob. He was fishin' with several friends and my mom. One friend had never been fishing, but had came along to sun herself in the boat.

After several hours and many more brewski's,they got her to fish.On her first cast she had a Zebco 33, and a Mepp's # 3 Fury,ready to cast. As she tossed the lure, it became imbedded in Bob's upper lip,"past the barb!"

Not only that, the line broke 10-inches from the Mepp's lure. There is Bob, with a Mepp's lure hanging from his mouth still fishing. My mom wanted to take him to the hospital 45-minutes away ...the laughs and jokes were endless,even the doctors and nurses,in the emergency room at the hospital, had the loudest and last laughs!

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from fresh_sars wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

When we were kids my younger brother was messing around with a rod he had in the garage and caught the family cat. We struggled to catch the cat and try to remove the hook before my dad found out. Needless to say we sat in the back of the family "detention" wagon with the cat screeching away and meowing in the travel box on the way to the vet. It was a nightmare. Poor cat never came near us again.

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from Alex Pernice th... wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Never been hooked past the barb, (Luck) but sure don't want too either...

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from Joe_Cermele wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Keep fishing Alex...it'll happen. By the way, you need not be fishing. I stepped on a few crankbaits barefoot in the garage.

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from chuckles wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

The only time it happened to me (so far) was with a tiny nymph. I just yanked it out with my forceps. I have had a lot of near misses.
Yet another compelling argument for pinching 'em down.

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from Alex Pernice th... wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Cermele, Too late, went fishing for catfish (With Flies, pretty fun) today, and hooked into a Flathead with a 5\0 tarpon fly I spun up. When I landed the little jerk I put my hand in his mouth and he decided to shake, so I ended up with a fish still on that hook with the hook going all the way through my hand ( Between my thumb and pointer finger,) quite a painful experience...

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from jeb1340 wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

The worst one that ever happened to me: 20 years ago I went Pike fishing in the 1000 Islands for the first time. We caught quite a few and half way through the trip some one in the boat hooks a 1-2 lber. I net the fish and get it in the boat. I reach for the pike and it gives a good head shake and hooks the base of my middle finger with the rear treble hook of a Bomber. My first reaction was to pull my hand away. Unfortunately, the pike was still attached to the other treble. After what felt like an eternity, 15-20 seconds, we finally get the pike of the lure but I still had the treble hook in my finger. Fortunately, with all of the shaking it ripped so much skin that it was easy to back the hook right out. 20 years later and I still have the scar.

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from Alex Pernice th... wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Make it two times, for got this story, Fishing for Muskie in Canada, middle of no where camp on a lake, we are riding in a boat. We get lazy and just end up throwing lures on top of our boxes (Muskie lures,Pounders, cowgirls ect.) well, with my luck, we hit a submerged log in our boat going about 30, and guess where I fall. Yep, Right on to all of those lures, hooked 36 times, 2 just caught in the coat, the rest in my back and forearms, and we then spent the rest of the day pulling 4x hooks out of my back, man, I was so sore at the end of that week, and right as we get back to the good old U.S.A. we get to go and make sure my tetanus shots are updated.

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from jbird wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Man Alex, I can't top that. After reading above posts, I feel really lucky. All my episodes have been easy extractions, albeit w/ alot of harsh language.

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from dwaynez wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

The worst experience I have been involved in was having to help a friend remove a hook, there were 3 of us in a john boat and we were fishing topwater pop-r's. The guy in the middle decided he was going without a shirt, because it was a hot texas day, well he would soon pay for that.

The angler in the front of the boat was caught up in a weed bed and decided to yank the bait free, the next thing I hear my bud jay in the middle of the boat is screaming like a little girl with all the treble hooks burried deep in his back.

We tried pulling them gently and it just made it worse, so we decided to get the pliars out and go to work, there was a lot of blood and lots of screaming and cussing, we finally got the hooks out,

The fishing day was over as jay had lots of holes and lots of blood all over the place, it's a day we will never forget.

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from ranger2 wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

We had a kids fishing program for a day camp a few years back. One little fella was fishing with a #1 blue fox- trying to catch the planted steelhead in the kids pond. He was having a hard time casting because he was bent on tiping the rod back all the way over his head and catching a swath of grass and weeds...well it did not take long before he hooked himself in the back side, right under his left butt cheek. I was really glad his dad was there... the last thing I want to do is dig a hook out of some kids rear end. You should have seen him hollering and dancing around, dragging the pole around the shore... I tried hard not to laugh until the little guy was gone.

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from nathan.grell wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

My wife, my step son and i went fishing after work one day. We were going to see if we could catch a mess of bluegill or some redear. My wife got a little bored so she started throwing an X-rap, next thing i know she caught a channel on it. She was trying to unhook it when the fish jumped punching the treble through her finger, all i heard was screaming so i went to the back of the boat to see what was going on. Sure enough the hook went through her finger. I told her i was going to have to shove the hook the rest of the way through her finger to clip the barb, so i did that then couldnt get the barb clipped, so i went to my next option which was to cut the skin and pull it straight out or crimp the barb down as much as i could and yank it back out, which is what i ended up having to do. After that she wanted to keep fishing so she was a trooper.

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from nathan.grell wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Another way i have heard to get a hook out is to feed it all the way through and cut the eye, im guessing it would work as good as cutting off the barb.

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from Koldkut wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Fishing on my lunch break one evening at a golf course pond, I was throwing dries to the fish out in the middle and got a windless pause and started to double haul, went to cast the line and the wind came up suddenly as I went for the forward cast and I started to duck and still ended up getting a #16 in the back of the neck. Hook went all the way through, it was just a small cork bodied fly, co-workers got a good laugh and I had them just crush the cork and cut the eye off the hook and pull it through. I didn't think much of it, but they sure were impressed that I was casual about it.

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from Joe_Cermele wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Ranger2 wins so far...great story

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from jeffo52284 wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

A few years ago I was fishing with my little sister for her first time she caught a nice rainbow and immediately started screaming at me and asking what she should do. when she got the fish on the bank I started removing the hook by hand because I didn't have any pliers on me when the fish jumped and set the hook into the base of my index finger. It didn't go past the barb but it didn't feel too good getting it ripped out.

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from riverrunner wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

I have been fortunate enough to only have one hook in me. It was a big trailer hook on a spinnerbait that needed to be cut out od my hand at the emergency room.

However, there was one incident that was worse. I was fishing with a nightcrawler on a single hook with a two foot leader and a swivel connecting to my main line. I tried to pitch the whole deal to some slack water tight to shore. But i caught the hook on a branch next to shore. The swivel was out of the water and the mainline and the leader were both 12 lb. test. I decided to break the line and pulled. I heard a snap and next thing i knew my arm was bleeding. There was also a hole in my t-shirt. Long story short, two weeks later we pulled the swivel out of my arm.

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from MaxPower wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

All great stories, but the cat stories take the cake.

We were fishing for Rainbows in Wyoming's back-country when somehow my cousins half-witted dog got caught in her line and in its attempt to get away pulled the treble right into her thumb. It was in way past the barb and at an angle which prevented us from pushing it through. She was too squeamish to let us dig it out, so instead she spent the night with it in before hiking two hours back to the trail head and driving two more hours to town.

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from countitandone wrote 2 years 51 weeks ago

Cermele...great stories, one and all...thankfully we've all moved on to quality waters, zero limit and BARBLESS HOOKS...

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from steve182 wrote 2 years 50 weeks ago

A plywood splinter under my thumbnail, past the cuticle, removed with needle nose pliers. OUCH!... Oh, you meant fishing related?

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from MB915 wrote 2 years 50 weeks ago

Worst incident I had was when I was about 14. Read an article in BASS about adding a rattle to a crankbait. Being the stupid kid I was, I got the powerdrill from the work bench in the basement. So in my left hand I am holding the crankbait(two trebles hooks still attached to it), and in my right hand the drill. I press the drigger on the drill and press it down on the crankbait that is in my left hand. Next thing I know, the crankbait is rotating very fast in a circle pulling of chunks of flesh from my left hand. Was going so fast it was never able to get lodged, but would just tear through my hand. Needless to say, that I have some nice scars on my left hand.

Also learned that its easier to buy crankbaits with rattles all ready in them.

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from hawg daddy wrote 2 years 50 weeks ago

ive never done any of those tricks i always cut the end off the hook and send it through.

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from Copperheadjohn wrote 2 years 48 weeks ago

I always bend down my barbs but was I was at St. Marks Wildlife Refuge near Tallahassee using an old style brim popper which had a substantial barb even after I bent it down. Fishing in tall grass in the boonies, I went to make my first backcast so I put a lot of power in it - unfortunately the popper was sitting on the very top of the grass nbear my hand and I buried the popper deep and completely into the meat of my left thumb. There was no way I could get it out by the line trick so I had to hike out and drive all the way back to Tallahassee to the emergency room having to stop and pump gas on the way. Then I had to wait while in extreme pain in the ER for two hours before they got to me(gave me a cup of ice while I was waiting which hurt even worse) whereupon the doc grabbed some pliers from the closet, clipped the hook and pushed it through the thumb and out the other side after giving me a shot in the thumb. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Adding to my pain was the little kid who looked at me and nudged his mom saying "Hey, that man has a lure in his thumb" and another kid who threw up near me. So beware, that trick does not always work!

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from ace1480 wrote 2 years 25 weeks ago

My best hook incident actually happened to my fiancee, two years in a row! We went fishing in Wyoming's Snowy Mountains in August '08, just hitting a bunch of sidestreams. We were comin up to one we'd never been to and she was getting ready to head up a hill after me, her foot slipped a little bit and she slid her hand down to save her fancy rod/reel, and forgot about the treble hook in the hook keeper! It went right thru the meat of her right ring finger and almost to the bone! Bein' the trooper that she is she whipped her pocket knife out and asked for my fishing pliers. She cut and pulled for almost 2 hours, because it was late on a Sunday and we didn't want to go to the dr. office. She finally gave in ( but not after making me stop to watch a moose on the way out)...Fast forward 363 days....I was ready to propose, parents had been notified, and a trip had been planned to go fishing in a new place. She argued that it didn't make much sense to go west to go fishing, when we would be heading east for a week the next day; I told her it'd be fine. We headed out under protest with the pretense that I wanted to go fishing in this mountain stream before the snow hit. We got up there and she was really excited because we hadn't been fishing in awhile. Being the enthusiasts that we are we rigged up our poles and set out so that we could just throw our lines in the first water we came to. We started out down the hill and I asked if she needed to move her hook up out of the keeper and she told me no, that she was used to it. Not even 5 minutes later, I heard, "Ummm, I did it again." I looked at her with the kind of look that you give a little kid when they do something totally bad but really entertaining. She proceeded to sit on a log and start at it with the same two tools as before! This time it was a little easier because it was in the side of her left pinky....the hand that I needed to get my plan carried out! After a little bit of work it came out (which I didn't see because I was preoccupied with how I was going to manage to pop the question before we left, I WASN'T about to do it anywhere else) and we had a guest to celebrate. She got out her camera to take a picture of the chipmunk that had climbed up on the log about six inches from her. When she turned to show me the photo I asked if she would marry me. Needless to say I got a yes, and we got a priceless story to tell.

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