I was cleaning a few walleye for dinner in the fishing cleaning house during my recent trip to Lake of the Woods, when all of a suddent I heard an eleven year old boy screaming that he was hooked! The boy was sitting in his dad's boat some 100 feet down the pier. My wife yelled at me to get down there! By the time that I got there his mother was on the scene, and his father came running up behind me yelling at his son. The boy had a treble hook (one entire hook) totally embedded in the calf of his leg. I mean literally the shaft of the hook was flush with his leg with the remainder in his leg. His dad really helped the situation by screaming at his son about how he had told him a million times not to move around in the boat, like that was going to make a difference at that point. I suggested that yelling at the boy wasn't going to help, and we needed to get the rest of the lure away from the boy as there was another treble hook dangling from the bait just waiting to join the other. The guy didn't have any equipment so I went my boat to get my mini-bolt cutters so we could cut the split ring holding the hook to the bait. His dad was in the boat and wanted the bolt cutters. I suggested that it would be better to get the boy on a steady pier rather than in a rocking boat, so his dad got him on the pier. Somehow in the process I was elected to take care of the boy. I believe that the job fell to me as I have removed hooks before and after I told another guy that we didn't want to push the hook completely around and back through, and cut the barb. The other guy says, "Never mind, never mind, you can do it.", as he walked away. I asked the father if he had some high test fishing line, but the best he had was 8 pound test. So once again I went back to my boat to get some 50 pound test. We could have used several loops of the 8 pound test (as is shown below), but I would rather use the 50.
I told the boy that I wasn't going to lie to him, it was going to hurt for a split second. It should be noted that the pain of this procedure can be eased greatly by applying ice for a few minutes prior to doing it. To be honest, I didn't think of it at the time, but ice does numb the area. I had tied the 50 pound test in a loop, and ran the line under the shaft to the bend in the hook. I put pressure on the eye of the hook, pushing it against the boys leg, thereby raising the hook in the leg slightly. Once done, after aligning the line on the hook, a quick jerk on the line popped the hook completely out. Obviously, the boy was upset and was crying, but it was out. I never saw where the hook went, but his dad said he threw it in the lake after it came out. My wife came down with an alcohol wipe, some anticeptic cream, and a small bandaid. An hour later, you would have never known the boy was hurt. Here is a picture of the procedure and it definitely works.
Awhile later, my son and I were getting ready to go back out fishing and we passed the boat below. After the events with the boy in his boat, I happened to see this one. I told my son to grab a couple of pictures of this interior of this boat for the website. The term "accident" definitely covers a lot of ground. If a person plays "Russian Roulette" (especially with an automatic), is it an accident if he gets shot? The boat below had to have 50 fishing lures laying around on everything that was flat. They were all over the floor, seats, every where! I can honestly say that I don't know how anybody even got into this boat without stepping on a lure. The practice of leaving fishing lures out all over the boat is just asking for a major problem. The slightest slip, bounce, or awkward movement could mean getting one or several treble hooks embedded in somebody. The hooks in this boat were pike/musky hooks, fortunately for the boy his was a smaller variety used for walleye. These hooks can really cause some major damage, and can really ruin a fishing trip. There isn't one good reason why a person can't take a few seconds to to put a fishing lure away in a tacklebox, much less letting 50 or more accumulate.
I just got done reading the chatboard on Tim's comment about the Smallmouth, and then read my article over again. It occurred to me that many people believe a mini-bolt cutter or a high leverage cutter is only used by fisherman to cut hooks out of Muskies. Well, that is definitely one use for them, but I would suggest that a 2 - 5 pound smallmouth bouncing around on a hook while the other one is embedded in your favorite person (you), would bring a new meaning to the word ouch! It is sometimes darn tough to get a hook out of a fish under normal circumstances, much less when you are in extreme pain. The mini-bolt cutter or high leverage cutter can quickly separate you from the fish. I would totally recommend putting one of these tools somewhere in the boat that is easily and quickly accessable by everyone.
Click the mailbox to e-mail. Last updated on ... September 16, 2002