it’s a first for me

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i’m 40 yeaqrs old and i have been hooked by fishing lures quite a few times BUT i have never been hooked to the point that i had to push the barb all the way through my skin and cut it off to remove the hook until today. the above photo is what my left thumb looked like after i had removed the hook (for some reason i didn’t think to take a photo of the hook still stuck in my finger). it was my own stupid fault too.

adam and i had been fishing a total of 20 minutes and had already caught six good fish. then we each hooked one at the same time. adam’s was hooked pretty deep so he asked me to see if i could unhook it for him. in order to do this i brought my fish in and laid it in the bottom of the boat. BIG MISTAKE. you never do that because then you have a two pound fish with a hook in its mouth that now has something to push against for a jump that can hook you. i knew this but i did it anyway. STUPID!

anyhow, if it ever happens to you here’s a link on how to remove the hook. basically push the hook’s bend until it punctures through your skin, cut the barb off, and remove the hook. it hurts a little but it’s really not that bad.

the worst part of the whole thing was that it took me 20 minutes to remove the hook and bandage my thumb. this ate up the little fishing time we had for the afternoon. by the time i was bandaged we only had 15 minutes left to paddle back to our spot and fish some more. adam and i both thought it was too much effort for too little reward and thus headed home. having started off with 8 decent smallmouth in 20 minutes (including the time it took to paddle to our spot) meant it was probably going to be a great day.

just thinking about the wasted fishing irks me.

4 Replies to “it’s a first for me”

  1. It hurts to miss that much fishing.

    This happened to me when I went fishing with a student except he got an ear…not a thumb.

    They still haven’t found his body. 🙂

    just kidding!!

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