This is what you do not normally want to happen, but can be happened sometimes as long as you go fishing.
And of course, I got this kind of situation before, from really light one to heavier one that I needed to rush into a hospital.
So now, we are introducing what to do when you or somebody near you get hooked. Please remember it is the best option to keep safety in mind, and so is first aid knowledge.
1. Check your wound condition
This is very first step when you get hooked, of course. By looking at it you’ll need to check:
- Where is the hook?
Check where it is and if the part you get hooked is very serious or sensitive like face, head etc, go straight to see doctor. - How deep is that?
Check how deep you get hooked. Even in your finger if it’s too deep, you may not be able to take it out by yourself because it may touch your nerves or too painful to proceed.
In either steps, if your wound is serious or too painful, do not hesitate and go straight to see doctor or to a hospital.
2. Get the hook through your skin, ONLY if your wound is not too serious
ONLY if your wound is not too serious, not deep or not painful, proceed with this step.
As you know, the hooks have barbs on each ends unless you use barbless, so that it won’t get off fish easily while fighting. But because of this the hook won’t be off straight away from your body. And if you force to remove it straight away, your wound would be messed and the hole would be widened and get worse… Ouch!
Instead, you will need to get it through your skin completely first to get rid of those barbs.
Again if you feel too painful, numb, or too deep to get it through GO STRAIGHT to the hospital.
Especially when you feel numbed it might be a sign the hook touches your nerves.
3. Squash the barb or cut it off
Once you get the hook through at the step 2, you will see the barb through your body.
Now you can squash or cut off the barbs by your plier, therefore the hook won’t be stuck in your body anymore.
The fishing plier is very convenient for lots of cases when you fish, but this can also be handy for these conditions as well. It’d be better to have one from first aid point of view as well.
Now, you can take it off from your body!
4. Take the hook off from your body and finish
Now there’s no more stuck parts on your hook, so take the hook off from your body. Keep steady and do it nicely, not rough. Do it slowly if needed, so that your wound would not get worse.
After you take the hook off from your body please be sure to clean your wound up by clean fresh water, use antiseptics and give pressure until stop bleeding.
*IMPORTANT: rush into the hospital or see doctor if bleeding is not stopped.
Tetanus injection is essential if you have not got one yet.
Conclusion
The biggest point how to take the hook off from your body, is to remove the barb so you can remove it easily without a mess.
And actually, it is very important to know how to remove them, even if you need to go to see doctor or to hospitals, because surprisingly, doctors might not know these things…
This was actually happened to me in these days. Just excuse me to talk about my case here…
One day, I had lure hook in one of my finger very deeply which touched my nerves when I tried to move. So I saw doctor straight away.
After had some anaesthetic injection doctor then started to remove it… to straight backwards!
Of course it did not work, because the Japanese lure has very tough barbs… he tried in several ways, but all backwards without cutting off the barbs, so I felt the wound was getting bigger and rougher.
After 30min he gave up and transferred me to the hospital, and surprised… The hospital doctor did it the same! Ouch.
In my case I had to teach doctor the hook has a barb and that’s stuck in my finger, so the hook need to be through first forward. He then followed my instruction and finally the hook was gone off from my finger…
So I would say to you, please be sure and have good knowledge of fishing safety, and be aware of first aids. You will never be too prepared!
And have safe, fun fishing ever 🙂
This article is not supposed to recommend to treat by yourself in these case. You can only proceed with those treatments by your own risks with your own responsibility, or please go to see a doctor otherwise.
Thank you for a very well done and informative tips. I feel that I learned a lot from your post . Definitely I am going to try your advice.
Thank you Jason. Hope this will help.