ouch! Trebles hurt...

what a day...ordered two superstrike darters thinking hey..you never know--they use em in Montauk, why not try them out in Jersey.

Opened up the package as soon as I got home from work and decided to swap out the kinda wimpy looking hooks for some Owner trebles. Pried three hooks off (they were cut so wasn't that hard) and then kaboom--while getting the last treble off..pliers slipped...and in the blink of an eye found myself with a now not-so-wimpy-looking treble embedded in my thumb. Tried to pull em off with the pliers--no go--in deep and of course the barb... the barb. Remembered I'd got some kinda hook removal thingy and dug that up but couldn't get it to work by myself. Needed help with that so went wandering out cradling the plug with my other hand--and by now the darn thing was hurtin like hell. Found a lady from a neighboring condo but she took one look at me and ran off saying she couldn't help. Wandering around some more feeeling like an ass and---by now realized I wasn't going to be able to get this off myself--found a handyman working next door and had him call 911.

Yup--went all the way to the ER where that 'wimpy" hook gave them quite a time. Finally they sawed it off wiith a bone drill.

Made me think tho--what if this had been late night on some godforsaken beach. But short of lugging around a pair of bolt cutters....

Any solutions? I'n not sure if there are pliers that'll go thru Owner 46 trebles, which tho labeled 2X are considerably stronger than VMC 4x trebles.

Kept the darter--has been baptized with blood--lets see if it can catch fish rather than...me.

ouch......
got any pics lol...... hey next time put hook point covers on the hooks....

as far as cutters i have a old pair of dikes i use to cut my hooks with very fat head on them not wimpy like the channel lock brand..

hope your pain is not to bad now....

That happened to my brother on my boat. Thought I was going to have to head in and told me to just wait. He slammed 3 heinekens and pulled it out. It was a 3oz Krockodile and the hook was past the barb :affraid: He then duct taped it and went back to fishing Moral of the story is forget the pliers and bring beer :..............

Smitty wrote

---Got any pics?
Nah--had my hands full--lol--hooked thru top of thumb and other hand was trying to hold up the darn plug.

---next time put hook point covers on the hooks....
now why didn't I think of that?! The simple yet elegant solution. Thanks bro.

Easiest to push the hook out and clip it, as painful as it may be. When I put a snag hook through the side of my face last september I just ripped it out, bled like hell but ah well. What can you do.... happens I guess.

haha you would

OUCH,Glad you are back to semi-normal! Did you try fishing'em yet,, in the rip is the place for sure.
I've been lucky thus far w/o severely hurting myself while fishing or working on stuff.
So my buddy Joefishingproblem,Rebel and I were working the surf this morn,, I'm standing next to Joe and he goes to cast and I hear,, that nasty zing ping snap as Joe goes to cast,,He yells, "I cut my finger off"! I naturally look quickly at the sand t o see if it is wiggling there,,nope. He still has it on,, but damn he was lucky for being unlucky braid cut into one side of finger across nail to cut into other side of nail,, w/o the nail being there I may have found his finger wiggling in the sand, I would've used as a teaser rig.
As a general rule when you really screw yourself up try to take pics so we all can "gasp" at your pain. :affraid:
AKScuba---you are so badass if you left it in your face people would've thot you were starting a new fad.

i don't really have an issue with the hooks the super strike uses so i don't think i would have changed them out. if i do it's only for VMC's and that's the end of that. poor joe. lost has wallet a little later after that finger issue as well. luckily brielle bait and tackle was holding it for him. i said if i worked there i would have frozen it in a bag of spearing or put it in with the fiddlers/greens and had him go blind looking.

It's very simple.

Take the plug out of the package and... CRUSH YOUR BARBS.

Chris

Yup,

I agree with jbt114, crush the barbs ASAP & even do it to the new hooks.
Could really help you & releasing fish unharmed.