Have You Stuck a Fly in You or Others?

[karstopo]

Maybe you've been there like me when some good fish is showing and it's make the shot now or never, but the particulars of the shot will almost certainly send the fly, maybe it's a kinda big saltwater pattern or articulated streamer, whizzing dangerously close to some portion of your body or a boat mate. Do you make the shot? Have you stuck a fly in you or others? How bad was it?

I've stuck a big treble hook in my thumb past the barb and that was pretty bad mostly because a thrashing 4# fish was still attached to the plug. But fly hooks don't seem as menacing as all that. I've pounded a few flies into my shirt or jacket and maybe pricked myself with a couple. What's your experience? How bad can it get?

 

[Rip Tide]

On one very windy day, I "hooked" myself right in the corner of my mouth with a 2/0 Clouser
Just the spot where you'd want to hook a fish.

Fortunately, the 2/0 hook gape fit perfectly over my lip and it never broke the skin

Not exactly life altering but memorable none the less

 

[el jefe]

I said it was no big deal in the poll, but it kind of was, though it did not rise to the category of "life altering experience." It was a midge, and here's the story:

I was changing my rigging while standing in the water at the San Juan. I decided to change both flies. I had cut off both, and tied the first one one, and added tippet to that fly. I was holding the fly gently between my lips on the left side of my mouth, with the rod grip trapped between the upper right arm and the chest, as I rummaged through my fly box, looking for the next fly. As I looked through my fly box, I apparently quit paying attention to my rod, which slipped from my arm. As it did so and I went to try to clamp down with my arm again, it pulled that fly out of my lips, and right into the tip of my tongue, which was right by my lips. The hook point buried in my tongue, and I had not yet crimped down the barb. I yanked that thing out as quick as it went in, knowing that it was my best chance to minimize the pain and shorten the embarrassment, like ripping off a band-aid. There was a piece of skin on the hook, and I was spitting blood for a bit. Couldn't eat green chile for a week!!

 

[yellowbird2]

getting hooked in the mouth that has to give you some empathy

 

[ia_trouter]

First few days with a spey rod were pretty exciting. No serious damage done but I've hit myself several times.

 

[Bigfly]

I have no idea how many times I've been impaled....but many....
Casting big streamers in the wind....thwack!
A #2 streamer will turn your ear numb guaranteed.

Had a dog run through a dangling leader......that will set the hook....

A piggy deciding to leave at warp speed and leaving a dropper embedded is a treat....

But I think I've been hooked more by clients though......
Always be careful what you ask for.......and crimp that barb!

Jim

 

[smcnearn]

So.... a lady angler friend of mine was fairly new to fishing from a drift boat, and also fairly new to streamers.... that up river wind hit while she was fishing from the front of the boat and blew a size 1/0 b10s with an xl cone head right into her arm. She was drunk by the time the hook came out 20 minutes later. She's unphased and still jumps on the boat to huck meat with us, and it's a story none of us will forget.

Personal, I have thumped myself 2-3 times with a streamer on windy days. Thankfully Iv not been poked though... mostly the product of trying to make too long of a cast in windy conditions, I'm stubborn but I'm starting to learn my limits.


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[itchmesir]

I've taken a few hooks in the fingers... luckily they've all been small or debarded. Now taking a giant clouser to the back a few times surely sucks and will leave welts

 

[don_p]

Been pricked in the hands / fingers releasing fish or tying on a new fly but thankfully never sunk a hook in my flesh while casting ....or anyone elses. But, I've been hooked plenty in the vest, hat, rain jacket, waders, shirt, rod tip, net, tree branches, weeds, brush. ....and all are my secondary reasons for using barbless hooks.

 

[ia_trouter]

I've taken a few hooks in the fingers... luckily they've all been small or debarded. Now taking a giant clouser to the back a few times surely sucks and will leave welts

While we're swapping war stories. I have about a one inch tear in the back of my waders. Probably caused by one of Ard's defective salmon flies. I don't want to even think about a musky fly in my ear. I'm pretty careful with the big stuff.

 

[ejsell]

I've also thumped myself a few times mostly with clousers. Yesterday was the closets I've come to impaling myself. Luckily it was a fairly small hook and it only went through the very top layer of my skin on my finger. The hook did go all the way under and pop through. I didnt realize it was even in at first and broke the tippet when I yanked on it. A second tug broke the layer of skin without any blood so I considered that a warning to be more careful.

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[mka]

I was at the San Juan last summer when I had a big rainbow at the net...then all of a sudden the fly popped loose and the midge shot into my hand and sunk in good. I thought I had pinched the barb fully on that fly, but when I tried to pull it out it wouldn't come out and hurt like...well, you know. So, I cut the tippet and left the fly in my hand until I finished fishing that afternoon.

When I went back to my room at Abe's, I drank a few Coronas to get my nerve up...took a pair of forceps and yanked it out. I didn't know a little midge could hurt so bad???? Didn't cry...but I did have a couple more Coronas after the fly was out

 

[trout trekker]

Face, hand, arm, butt, neck, back, leg, I even put a 3/0 all the way through the butt section of a fly rod, just above the winding check.....it's windy in the west.

"Go barbless or go to the urgent care clinic." :thumbsup:

Dave

 

[kentuckysteve]

I have hooked my hat once and hit myself a few times but been very lucky so far.

 

[JoJer]

My first rod was a horrible Shakespeare 7 wt composite. I was still transitioning to flies from spin fishing and I was throwing weighted streamers. I could hear those babies zinging past my ear when my loops invariably closed. I made me a barbless angler from the get go.
So, no, no drama so far except for waders and boot laces.

 

[el jefe]

I was at the San Juan last summer when I had a big rainbow at the net...then all of a sudden the fly popped loose and the midge shot into my hand and sunk in good. I thought I had pinched the barb fully on that fly, but when I tried to pull it out it wouldn't come out and hurt like...well, you know. So, I cut the tippet and left the fly in my hand until I finished fishing that afternoon.

When I went back to my room at Abe's, I drank a few Coronas to get my nerve up...took a pair of forceps and yanked it out. I didn't know a little midge could hurt so bad???? Didn't cry...but I did have a couple more Coronas after the fly was out

That San Juan is a dangerous place!! Folks should do what's right for themselves, and stay away.

 

[mka]

That San Juan is a dangerous place!! Folks should do what's right for themselves, and stay away.

For sure...should at least be a danger sign in the parking lots

 

[comeonavs]

Never stuck someone, my guide in a the boat a few weeks ago did duck once and said man I heard that fly by coming

Worst was the stupidest , was tying a size 18 parachute adams on at the truck, went to cinch the knot and slipped, buried that thing up to the shank of the hook in my finger.

The line trick didnt work, pushing it through wasn't an option. Yup stuck my hand in the cooler full of ice for a minute or two. Got out the razor sharp pocket knife out and made a nice clean incision to remove the hook.


Damnedest thing, couldn't hook myself that bad again if I tried.

 

[dennyk]

Been there, took a #6 streamer in the back of my right shoulder. Went through my vest and shirt. No one around so I cut the tippet, fished a while longer. Got home and my wife needed to remove it. Very windy day.

Denny

 

[allen1958]

Was climbing along the side of a hill because I took my wife's boots instead of mine! So wasn't having much luck in finding places to fish out of the water and decided to go back. Had my rod in my right hand and slipped, slid about twenty feet, I was so afraid I was going to break the rod...... Anyway landed on my back the wind knocked out of me, with the little size 18 zebra midge buried in my right thumb! No the barb was not crimped! I still had quite a way to go and had to remove it with my pliers. Damn that hurt! I was also surprised at how tough human flesh is in resisting a barb.
If any of you have read any of my other posts, this was the first time I didn't take my boots, have done it again with another story! I was so mad at myself that day, it really doesn't help when the only person to blame is yourself....

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