Cermele: When It's In Past The Barb

We've all done it. We'll all do it again. You fish long enough and you feel that sting and before ever looking at the injury you say to yourself, "damn, that one's in past the barb." If you're lucky it's shallow enough that you can poke the hook through and clip it off. I very much prefer this method to the string loop and backwards yank. There is also the old needle trick shown here, where you shove the needle in the same hole to depress the barb. It's been my experience that anytime you attempt to go backwards, no matter how confident you are in the method, there's lots more blood, and a little meat chunk left on the hook.

I've fished all day with flies buried in me, figuring I'll take care of it later. But one of my worst hooking incidents did not feature me as the victim, but my fiancee, which I guess made me a victim by default. I had asked her to please grab a rod out of my truck while I jumped in the shower. Next thing I know, there is much screaming and crying, and I bust out soaking wet to see her trying the get the rod through the door while keeping tension off the 3/0 baitholder hook in her arm. I had no choice with this one but to loop some fly line around the shank, push down the eye and do what I had to do. She knew it was coming, and was ready to throw up just thinking about me yanking back on that line. All went well, though I got the silent treament for a long time. Hey, it beat going to the emergency room.

Let's make it a bloody day. Tell us your worst.