The water’s still 48 or 50 degrees,” Reardon said. “It’s a nice warm day in April or May and you’re out on the ocean or a lake. And it can prove dangerous even on a pleasant day. That can present a hazard that many simply fail to think about, said veteran angler Jeff Reardon.
One thing is a constant, though: Early in the spring, the water will be cold. Here in Maine, the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute. “Your waders begin to fill with water and you are at the mercy of the river, flailing about desperately trying to find a foothold.” Beware the cold “In deeper water you would be going for the swim of your life,” Legere said. But if you’re waist-deep when you fall, the outcome can be far worse. The worst case in that scenario: You break your fly rod and cry a bit. We’ve always said if you don’t wade over your knees, when you slip and fall in the river, you are on all fours, able to regain your composure and get back on your feet.” “The most dangerous thing you’ll ever face when fishing moving water is accidental drowning. “We have always preached to waders ‘Never over your knees,'” Legere said. One misstep and you might be swimming, and that can end very badly. Simply standing in moving water - wading - comes with its own hazards. Of course, getting a hook in your snout isn’t the only thing you’ve got to worry about while fishing. Now I’ll say ‘On the count of three’ I’m going to give the mono a quick yank so the barb will exit the same way it went in.’ On the count of two I pop the hook out and my client says ‘I didn’t feel a thing.'”Īnd that’s all there is to it. “Then I’ll put my thumb on the eye of the embedded hook and push it downward. “I’ll cut off a 2-foot piece of the heaviest I have on board … fold it in half and fish it through the bend of the embedded hook,” Legere explains.
Fishing hook how to#
Don’t MacGyver your way into an even worse situation.īut if you’re out in the boonies and all you’ve got is a “flesh wound,” here’s how to remove the hook quickly and more or less painlessly. A disclaimer: If the hook is in or near a delicate part of the body, seek medical help. Hook’s out!Īll of the experts the BDN consulted mentioned this not-so-secret method of hook removal. Most choose Option 3, and let Legere remove the hook. 3) Or I can remove the hook, put a and Neosporin on the tiny wound, have a couple of laughs and carry on.” 2) I’ll cut the leader at the fly, tape the fly down with medical tape and we’ll keep fishing then on to the professionals later.
1) We can end the day and head to the nearest hospital and let the professionals handle it. “If the hook is embedded beyond the barb I offer three options. “When that happens, we need to suspend all fishing and have an up-close inspection,” Legere said. Mostly with treble hooked on artificial lures, and often in me when I am trying to get hooks out of a fish.”ĭan Legere, a guide and longtime owner of Maine Guide Fly Shop in Greenville, said he follows a set routine after hooking incidents. “I think the most common injury is to angler’s pride when they lose a big fish!” McEvoy joked. Jeff McEvoy, a guide who owns Weatherby’s outdoor resort in Grand Lake Stream, jokes that those kinds of injuries are the second-most common that he sees every year. Not every avid angler or guide ends up getting hooked 70 to 100 times, like Kleiner has. “‘Not enough for that,’ one of them said, staring closely at the fly in my neck.” “You got any whiskey,” Dauphinee said he asked them, trying to break the ice.