What happens after a hook impales an angler’s thumb? Here are two horror stories

Getting stuck by a hook with a thrashing fish on the other end is sort of like what it must be like catching a rattlesnake: You don’t want to get too close until the right moment or you’re going to get “bit.” It’s further complicated when you have multiple treble hooks being tossed around in all directions.

It’s a risk/reward gambit each time you unhook a fish.

I have two instances where my fishing partner got badly stuck.

My dad is in the back of the boat casting a big minnow lure with three 1/O trebles for stripers when he hooks one about 10 pounds. He plays it to the boat and tells me he’s going to bring it in the boat. I notice he doesn’t have a net ... but alright. I see him reach over the boat, and then in very slow measured tones he says, “Rog, I think I need some help.” I get back to him, and I can see that one treble hook barb is completely buried in his right thumb. The flailing fish is driving it in deeper. I grab the striper to try to hold it still.

Dad says to go to the front and get the net while he tries to control the fish and stop the hook from going in further. I get the net and come back to find a nightmare. Dad grabbed the fish with his free hand, but the fish reacted, driving the treble hook barb on the other end of the lure into the thumb of his heretofore free hand!

Dad is literally handcuffed with the 1/O stainless trebles on each end of the lure stuck in each thumb. What can you do? What if you were alone? I was able to get one hook out of his right thumb ... and I’ll just say we finally got the other one out, too. It wasn’t pretty. We got out some electrical tape, bandaged him up and continued fishing. I would have been on the deck in pain.

Another hooked angler: My buddy John was casting lures from the bank. He told me he had a nice striper on and I walked the 50 yards to him to help. He had waded out a few feet holding the striper in the water as it thrashed about. I was behind him and I noticed a bunch of blood on the fish. “Hey, you must have hit the gills.” John says, “Nope, that’s me, Rog! I’ve got a hook completely in my right thumb, it’s buried!“ We get the fish off the lure and go to the boat. I try for a half-hour to remove the lure from John’s thumb before I begin to feel ill. We head for the hospital two hours away where the doctor says fixing John’s accident was one of the hardest extractions he had ever done. A board on the wall was filled with hooks from prior accidents!

You have to take some calculated risks, but I hate being the barb of the joke!

Never give up!

This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 8:06 AM.