Embedded Fish Hook Removal

By Lenny Rudow at Boat US

Just in case you accidentally hook you or your loved ones here is what you need to do to get it out.

If the hook is near an eye, vital organs, or (yikes!) private parts, don’t try to remove it, leave it in place and seek medical attention on land. If you’re dealing with a treble hook, cap the points that aren’t already embedded in you with pieces of cork or a cut-up pool noodle to prevent a second and possibly even a third hook in your skin.

Show me an fisherman, and I’ll show you an inadvertent pincushion. I’ve personally been hooked in three fingers and a thumb, one earlobe, and a leg. That is, of course, only counting incidents in which the hook penetrated past the barb. Unfortunately, once the barb is sunk, there’s no backing out — literally. Fishhooks are designed not to pull out, and they do a pretty darn good job of saying in. If a hook has entered your epidermis (epidermis is composed of the outermost layers of cells in the skin), follow these steps, and make sure your tetanus shots are up to date.

Cut the hook free from the fishing line, so you don’t inadvertently yank it.

Cut the hook free from the fishing line. Otherwise, you might give it an unintentional yank and cause additional pain. If the hook is attached to a lure, remove it so the lure’s body doesn’t get in your way or swing around and jerk the hook. Usually you can do this by slipping the hook’s eye through a split-ring, but sometimes it requires cutting the eye off with snippers or cutting pliers.

When you’ve pushed the barb through the skin (ouch!), snap it off with cutting pliers.

Now you’re going to have to cause some additional pain on purpose. Rotate the hook point up as you push it forward, so it pops back out through the surface of your skin — OUCH! It should now form a U with the point and shank exposed, and the bottom of the U under the skin. You can dull the pain by icing the area down first, but you’ll probably still yell “Mommy!” Do this in a quick, fluid motion. Try to be gentle and you’ll discover it actually takes quite a bit of force to pop through. The longer you take, the more it hurts.

With the barb removed, back the hook out through both perforations in the skin.

Clip the barb off the hook with a pair of snippers or a similar tool. This may be easy or tough, depending on what type of tools you have at hand and how thick the hook is. If you have only pliers or de-hookers and no cutting tools aboard, use them to mash the barb of the hook completely flat against the shank.

With the barb disabled, back the hook out through both of the holes in your skin. Disinfect the area, and protect it with a bandage.

If there is any question of infection, see a doctor immediately.

Lenny Rudow is BoatUS Magazine’s electronics editor and Boats.com senior editor. He has written five books on fishing and won multiple Boating Writers International awards. If he’s not chained to his desk, hard at work, he’s hooked up to a stripper on the Chesapeake Bay.