People. Take a small pair of pliers and squash the barb down. Have fished like this all my life. Its better for you and the fish. And no hooks caught up in the landing net.
Well give him a pass this time regarding the Xtra small package because im sure the hook pain, wind and videography led to that Shrinkage, riiiight??? 😂
I had this happen with the 3/0 worm hook and unfortunately, I didn’t know this trick. I had to drive myself to town to a mechanics shop and borrow a pair of Dykes. I cut the eye off, drove back to the lake and ran the hook all the way through, wrapped it in some toilet paper and fished the rest of the day. This would’ve been so much easier and probably a lot less painful.😢
I was taught by some pretty old school superstitious people that destroying/bursting a fish eye in any way for any reason is actually VERY bad luck…The people that told me that are the type that tries to use everything they can from an animal as to not disrespect the animal…just gonna leave this here for anyone that cares :).
I've done this technique multiple times, thanks to hammer handle northerns, with just myself in the boat. The only difficulty I've ever had is when the fish was still on the lure and boy did that little pike taste good (although I normally hate the taste of northerns.)
We were fishing the Salmon River in New York state years ago, and a guy was fighting a king salmon with a lure that had double trebles. The lure flew out of the fish and stuck him in both.....his neck and his cheek. Went directly to the ER.
