I have wore a few in my day........

One particular story comes to mind.......my friend and i were drifting a small river, creek actually (Hell creek in Michigan), and catching smallies and rock bass. Our mode of transportation was tubes which I have always enjoyed fishing out of. My pal was always lagging behind fishing various brush piles. Before I knew it he was right behind me and I deposited a white feathered Mepps spinner perfectly in his lower ear lobe. It was a quite an adornment and looked for all the world like an earring. We could not get it out and we continued the day with his new fashion statement.

Here is a vid on hook removal. All I can say is I would need some "compensation" to do what this guy is doing.
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Perhaps there is a difference between removing the octopus style hooks and straight "J" style hooks. I ended up with a 7/0 J in my palm thanks to some idiot who left them hanging from a light fixture on an offshore boat. The boat rocked, I reached out to steady myself and ended up with it in my palm. When I inquired as to "what idiot" hung the hooks no one would fess up (coward)........long story short one of the guys used the line trick and it worked like a charm. It was definitely NOT a hook we were going to be able to push through.

Pascanell wrote on May 22^nd, 2013 at 11:19pm:


Ha! Good one.

I like when folk ask me where I caught a fish.........the answer is always the same, I point to the corner of my mouth and say "Oh, it was right about there" 

I've become a big fan of pinching down all the barbs when I go on a trip. Just don't need to take that chance and also I figure it makes it more of a challenge to land a real fighter. The concentration has to be sharp to boat those high flying smallies.

Personally I think all hooks should be barbless in both parks. I think a lot of fish are killed each year by spending too much force and time getting barbed hooks out.

Jim makes a good point.........although with the depth finder running I am less apt to remove the front hook gang since I typically hang up fairly infrequently. If you troll without a depth finder I am a big proponent of removing the front hooks ( less hangups). I do beef up the rear trebles by one size larger though.

During my August Basswood trip I was a little rough on the fish losing 2 walleyes over 6lbs. One  unexpectedly just up and died for no apparent reason and another had engulfed a muskie inline spinner and had the hooks lodged in her gills.......blood city. Bum deal. I also lost a dandy laker after taking great lengths to try and revive it. Another major bummer. The warm water of August can be hard on the fish or so I am surmising.