Went fishing a few days ago. First stop I make 5 casts, caught 3 bass, thinking its going to be an epic day. I grab the 3rd one, which weighed about 2 1/2 pounds by the bottom lip but he shook out of my hand and stuck a treble hook into my side just above my waist line. I now have this wiggling 2 plus pound bass stuck on the front hook and the other hook stuck in my side. I put a death grip on the bass so he would stop moving, remove the hook out of him and throw him back.
I then cut the split ring to remove the lure so I wont get stuck by the second hook. I tried pulling the hook out with pliers but that was not happening, then I tried the string trick, which worked the only other time I had a hook stuck in me past the barb when a hook was stuck in my hand but because of the awkward position that didn’t work either. I then asked a friend to grab it with the pliers and just yank it out. He tried but failed because the hook was stuck good.
So I hop into the truck and head to the ER in Lone Pine, which is about 40 miles away. Because the hook was stuck through my shirt, every time I moved even slightly it caused even more pain. I arrive and the nurse said I needed to remove my shirt. I pointed out that 1 hook was through y shirt and the other 2 were not so it was impossible for me to remove it. They had to cut my shirt up from the waist then around the hook. 5 shots of Lidocaine to numb the area later they had to push the barb through, creating another hole then snip off the hook below the barb and then remove the hook out the same way it went in. They then cleaned it up, put some antiseptic on it, covered it with a Band Aid on it and I went back fishing.
