I wonder who got hooked so far this year.

[ProTek 833]

I haven't heard of anybody getting hooked this year. Have y'all?

[rusty50576 2,322]

I caught an onion sack full of mud and rocks that took me forever to get to the surface. When I unhooked it, the recoil put one arm of a treble in my thumb. Luckily it was just in the very end and I just ripped it out with only minor damage, but it was all the way through and sticking out the other side 

[ProTek 833]

I'm glad you got it. I do 99% catch and release and pinched all of my barbs on every treble on all my lures. I pinch them with pliers until I can run my finger over it smoothly. I don't think I've ever lost a fish because of not having my barbs. Just keep the pressure on 'em.

 

Once in a while I'll keep something to bring home for a fish fry. I think I did around 10 years ago...lol. Put me on a bunch of crappie or something like that, and I'm bringin' 'em all home!

 

One of the other benefits of pinching your barbs is that if you hook yourself or somebody else, it should be a lot easier to yank it out.

 

If anybody knows a better way than I described above besides swapping out hooks, let me know. I have heard of people grinding them, but I don't want to mess up and weaken my hook. Maybe a file.

[TNKen 977]

Funny story.  I hooked something that was taking a ton of pressure to bring to the surface.  Not like a stick or something.  Told the wife it felt heavy, like a body.  When it finally came up it was a milk jug full of mud,  As the jug came to the top, it looked like a head with all the hair gone and kinda decayed.  Wife screamed and hilarity ensued.

[ProTek 833]

Wow. I bet it had you wondering for a split second too.

[Tubejig 181]

It's bikini season, officially starts this weekend, and I'm hooked on the scenery!!

[Loopy 72]

I've managed that feat 2 years in a row now for a total of 3 times in my fishing career. The first time was years ago at the Tellico River. My rooster tail had snagged a tree limb and after the initial retrieval jerk the rooster tail came back and sunk snap dab into the back of my hand. The removal method at that time came from an unremorseful camping buddy and a pair of pliers. It hurt more thinking about it than when it came out. The next time it happened was last year I was floating the clinch river and caught about a 10 inch rainbow on about a 6 inch suspending lure. Like the dummy I am I reached for the lure with my bare hand and yep, you guessed it, that rainbow went crazy and the next thing I know I've got a treble hook buried in my thumb all the way down to the center of the hook bend with the fish still on it a wallerin' and a yankin' and I couldn't get the fish off without intense pain so I had to kill it. I was by myself and didn't know what to do so I loaded up the boat and drove home with this 6 inch lure a danglin' from my thumb the whole way. When I got home I looked at some youtube videos to see what the proper course for removal would be. It was going to be up to my wife and some 20 lb test line I just happened to have. I told my wife to be brave and that I trusted her and she could do this so with confidence she tied the line around the hook and on a count of three she tight gripped that line and jerked that sucker right out of there. It hurt more thinking about it than when it came out. I had no feeling in my thumb for a couple of months afterwards but eventually got the feeling back. Lesson learned when you get a fish in the boat with a lure that has several treble hooks pin the fish down first and then take your pliers to remove the lure (dummy). When it happened again this past spring it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the first couple of times since it was a small jig hook and it went in sideways just under the skin of my finger and my brother was with me to pull it out with heavy gauge fishing line but even still and the motto of this story is "it hurt more thinking about it than when it came out."

[ProTek 833]

Pinch those barbs down.

[NukeFisher 36]

I took a point from a treble hook as deep as it could go recently.  The string method worked great for pulling it out. I think that pinching barbs down is a good idea to help both fisherman and fish.  I would think that grinding or filing down a barb could possibly cause damage.  A lot of my hooks have pinched barbs, unfortunately for me, the one that got me had barbs still.  Interestingly enough, not an hour before I took the hook, a large fish ran off with the lure peeling out line and managed to spit it out somehow.  I guess after that something needed to be hooked...