Fishing Hook Snagging Your Finger: How to Remove it With Less Pain as Possible
Fish hooks are great for catching fish as this would keep the fish in your line as you they fight to be let free. The downside is that they are also prone to get stuck in your hand if you aren’t careful. It’s happened to almost every fisherman at some point. Nothing ruins a relaxing day of fishing on your Yellowfin boat like catching yourself on your fish hook. Those fishhooks are extremely sharp, and when they get stuck in your skin, you’re going to feel the pain immensely.
The first thing you need to do is to assess how bad is the hook injury. Know how deep is the hook lodged inside your hand or your finger? Has a barb made its way under the skin and hooked onto your flesh? Have you been hooked anywhere on the face or near/in the eye?
It also helps to know if a hook is barbed or not.
By trying to figure out the extent of the hook lodged into your body part, you can determine if you can remove the hook yourself or if you should seek immediate medical attention.
If you get hooked on sensitive, crucial areas like your eyes or face, seek medical attention immediately. If you or someone else gets hooked in the hand, arm or leg, cut the line to keep the hook from getting further embedded. If only the point of the hook enters the skin and the barb has not taken hold, you can safely remove the hook by backing it out. If the barb becomes embedded, it’s best to let a physician remove it. However, if medical help is not available right away (such as you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean and won’t be back to dock on land right away or you’re fishing in a remote river and it could take hours to get to the nearest bustling town), you can remove the hook from your body but you need to do it carefully to further avoid injuring yourself even further.
How to Remove A Hook From Yourself
Fishing Line Method
Carefully and thoroughly cleanse hands and the area around the wound. Loop a piece of fishing line around the bend in the fishhook. Press the shank of the hook against the skin with an index finger. Wrap the other end of the fishing line several times around another index finger, and use your thumb to hold the string tightly. Move the index finger close to the hook to allow for slack in the line. Brace yourself as you will jerk the string swiftly and immediately, in line with the hook, to remove it. This process can be extremely painful so take rest for a while to calm yourself down before you proceed to clean the affected area thoroughly and apply a bandage to cover the wound.
Pliers or Forceps Removal
If you are using small hooks, smaller than 4/0, (hook sizes) you can use a pair of long-nose pliers, or forceps to remove the hook. Here is how you do the process:
The first thing to do is to push down on the eye of the hook. Grab the hook at the top of the bend, with the forceps at right angles to the hook shaft, and then quickly and firmly rotate your wrist, and the forceps, towards the eye of the hook.
If the hook has gone in and then out through the skin, and you have the necessary tools, you can cut off, or crush down the barb, and pull the hook back out the way it went in. Any delay will only make the operation more painful than it needs to be. But this is somewhat painful, and really only an option for small hooks. If you think you can’t do it, it’s best to not pressure yourself in trying to nail this and instead seek immediate medical help.
Don’t wait for any injuries or accidents to happen to supply your boat with a first aid kit. You can buy one in pharmacies or marine boat stores.
