Be careful about how you store your hooks!

WARNING:  This post has some pics that may be pretty tough to look at if you don't do well with blood or injuries.  If you don't do well with that stuff, just take my word for it and be careful about how you store your hooks so you don't end up sticking one in your hand.

Keep scrolling if you want to continue.
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First of all, let me say that I've never claimed to be brilliant.  To put it simply:



I was rummaging through my garage looking for packing materials so I could ship some stuff and I was moving a little too fast.  I had a treble hook and leader hung up so that it would dry after being rinsed but I ended up just leaving it there because I wasn't sure how I would deal with it at first.  I wasn't sure if I was going to scrap it for parts or try and use it again but it ended up just hanging there for quite a while.  It was in a spot that was sort of out of the way, but not enough out of the way.  The really idiotic part is that I had come close to getting hooked by a similar rig in the same place once before and didn't change the way I was doing things.  I moved my hand a little too quickly and buried one point of the Owner 1/0 cutting point treble into the back side of my left index finger like so:



Sorry for the blur, I wasn't going to stop and make sure I got a good pic.    And yes, the reddish color on the hook is rust.   

Since the point was buried well past the barb, I knew from previous discussions here and other sources on the web what had to be done.  I thought that I would eventually have to deal with this, but imagined it would have been while I was on the water.    I guess I'm lucky it happened while I was at home because of the first aid resources I had at my disposal. 

So I grabbed my crimping tool, which has the best cutting mechanism I could think of, and headed to the bathroom.  But as many of you know me, I thought, "Never miss a teaching moment".  So I grabbed my camera too so I could snap some pictures during the process.  My wife, by the way, was at work when this happened (Thank God!).  I doused the wound with alcohol and proceeded to push the point back out through a new hole in my finger.  I knew this would be tough to do, but I was surprised by just how much force I needed to apply to get that point to come through.  This hook had been used a few times and had a lot of rust on other parts of the hook, but the point was still very sharp and, luckily and miraculously, there wasn't any rust on the part of the hook that made it into my finger.  Needless to say, it was pretty painful. 

After a couple of tries, I finally got it through.



That was easily the hardest part.  Once it was through, I used my crimping tool to cut the point off below the barb.  I thought it would be really tough to get enough force to cut the wire of the hook and also not jostle the hook around to the point where it caused a lot of pain, but it was not as tough as I thought. 

Once I cut the point off, the hook slid right out with ease. 



I know, pretty damn rusty, eh?  After washing off my finger really well and icing it for a while as I was talking to a nurse on my nurse hotline, it actually looked pretty good.



Tetanus shot: Check!

You guys with kids probably learned this a long time ago but be organized!  Not only does it help you cut back on time spent getting on/off the water or storing and finding gear, but it keeps things like this from happening.  Don't mess around with how you store your hooks!

Yikes!

I'm impressed that you were cool and calm enough to stop and take pictures.

Nice job Jeff!

That hurts just lookin at the pics.   

Yikes!

I'm impressed that you were cool and calm enough to stop and take pictures.

Nice job Jeff!

Ouch! Guess there wasn't enough time to strap the Go Pro on your head and narrate.

 I have a hook stabbing buddy! glad to see it went ...ok? for u, that looks like it hurt worse than mine. just  2 weekends ago cleaning my fishing shelfs in garage had u-20 hanging...grabbed something in shelf when I brought stuff out my right index finger met one of the trebles. I could not push that puppy thru ...it was on the fingerprint side , was awkward with my left hand(am right handed) dam near stabbed myself with the other treble trying. after awhile I gave up and went to e-room. not fun. two days later a friend went fishing and got stabbed in the back of his neck with two barbs! one reason they say fishing is one of the most dangerous sports I guess. dam barbs!

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

I buried two hooks of a treble in my palm when I was about 12. Fortunately, I was with my Dad, who is both a fisherman and (was) an emergency room physician, so he calmly (while almost hiding a smile) turned both hooks up and out and cut the barbs, while I was dancing around trying not to scream. (It looked a lot worse than it felt though.)

I salute your calm and thank you for giving us a lesson I hope none of ever need to use.

ouchee!!

Yeeouch!!  My day is coming I'm sure... Way to stay cool


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

That looks like it hurt! Its always nice to learn by someone elses example, so thank you for the pics.

Holy hell that looks gnarly.  I've had plenty of nasty injuries including 13 broken bones over the years, but pushing a rusty hook through your own finger takes some nerve. 

  Experience is the best teacher.

  Having been there --done that I'd have to say

  "Hope you learned something"

Ouch!

No, that's definitely not the way you should store your hooks. 

(You left two barbs exposed)

I hooked the tops of two fingers with two hooks of the treble hook. If you have a buddy to help, cut off any exposed hook or hooks before they catch on anything else with some stout diagonal cutters. When I tried to push the hooks through so I could cut off the barb and back the hook out, the points of the hook came up under my finger nails By now I was in the emergency room and they told I told we'd have to wait  five hours for the hand surgeon to come in. Since my fishing partner partner was with me, we talked them into separating the two hooks and using the old mono loop through curve of the hook trick to line up the barb with entry wound,  because we still had enough hook shank left to push it down on top of of each finger. It worked and we didn't have to wait for the surgeon.

I made a series of drawings they could use to teach their emergency room colleagues how to remove fish hooks without having to push them through and doing further damage to the hands.

I hate treble hooks. My take home lesson from my experience was that is very important to carry some strong diagonal  cutters with you  to prevent any exposed hooks from catching on something else and trapping you in your boat. Also, always fish with a partner. This is mega-important.
Carl