09/02/2026
This is every fisherman’s worst nightmare. You finally get a fish on the line, you play it all the way into the boat and before you take a picture of the big fish you remove the hook…
It happens so fast. You were holding part of the lure and trying to remove it when suddenly the fish flopped. Not shuddered, but went absolutely bonkers. The pain is instant. And very intense. The best case scenario is the fish shook itself loose just as the hook embedded itself in your hand. Worst case scenario? The fish is on the other treble hook. Still shaking. Pulling that barb deeper into your hand. Either way, you are in pain. And you are done fishing. So what do you do? After getting the fish off the other hook?
Each summer 2 or 3 guests come in with a hook in them. 95% of them got hooked while removing the fish from their hook. The other 5%? Someone in their boat hit them with their hook while casting. (Choose your boat/fishing partners wisely!)
Usually the hooked guest ends up with me(Adam) asking what can be done. This is what I tell them. If the hook is in your head, you are going to the hospital in Cook. The Cook emergency room removes hooks all the time. Probably more than once a day(they service Vermillion, Pelican and Crane Lakes). If the hook is not in the head I will look at it and tell you if I can remove it.
On average, I remove about 2 hooks a year. For like the last 15 years plus. Including one out of my own hand(trust me, a hook in the thumb is very painful!) There are two ways to remove a hook, depending on how it is buried. The traditional way is to push it thru, clip the barb, and then back it out. For years, this is how I did every hook removal. Then, about 7 years ago I got a hook in my thumb. It was in the bone. I couldn’t push it thru. I was by myself and couldn’t leave the resort to run to the ER. So, of course, I look at YouTube to see if there was another way to take out a hook. There is! It is called the sn**ch. I made my neighbor watch the video and together we removed the hook out of my thumb. When I tell someone it will hurt, and the hook will come out and you can go right back to fishing or work, I say this because I’ve experienced it.
Hopefully you never need to have a hook removed. But if you do there are a few things you can do to help the process go better. First, get the fish off the hook. The worst part is the fish flopping around moving the hook and burying it deeper. Second, you need to remove the lure. Cut the split ring. You don’t want anything vibrating or wiggling around. DO NOT CUT THE HOOK!!! No matter which style you use, you need to be able to grab the hook with pliers or to tie a string to it. If you clip the hook you will end up at the ER and they may have to cut it out!
For those of you who might end up visiting me in the future and ask me to remove it, if I say I can’t do it, please believe me. I’ve done this enough to know some hooks are more difficult than others and I might tell you to go to the ER. If I think it is likely that I can get it out I will tell you. Hopefully we never have this conversation!
Just curious, how many of you have either had a hook in you or had someone in your group get hooked?
