When handling lures with barbed treble hooks, an angler is always in peril of embedding a hook in flesh.
It happened to Mark Hedrick on Thursday when he buried a treble hook on a Zara Spook past the barb in his finger. A deft move with a length of braided line removed the hook painlessly with no tissue damage.
First, Hedrick used needle-nose pliers to open the split ring and separate the hook from the lure. Then, Matt Hedrick cut a length of braid and wrapped it double around the bend of the embedded portion of the treble.
"Braid is better than monofilament because it doesn't stretch," Mark said.
Mark pushed the hook shank down onto his skin. This opened up the wound channel and provides a clear path for the hook prong to travel backwards the same direction it entered.
On the count of three, Matt gave the braid a hard yank. The hook came out with an audible pop.
"No muss, no fuss," Mark said.
Sports on 07/12/2015