A Place To Share Your Fishing Experience: Fishing First Aid

Fishy Tips

Tip No 1 - For coastal fishing, get a tide chart and learn how to use it.

Tip No 2 - Always try and get fresh bait. Catching it yourself can be fun too.

Tip No 3 - Use the lightest sinker you need for the job. Sometimes this will only be a very small one.

Tip No 4 - Become good at tying important knots. Get a good knot book, learn to tie the Locked Half Blood Knot and practice it.

Tip No 5 - Read as much as you can in magazines like Fishing World. There are heaps of really useful things as well as heaps of good pictures.

Tip No 6 - Never touch or handle a fish or creature that you can't identify. It might bite or sting.

Tip No 7 - Get a good fish identification book and study it.

Tip No 8 - Always wash salt off your fishing gear, including hooks and lures, after you've finished fishing at the coast.

Tip No 9 - Try and have a freshwater tackle box and a saltwater tackle box. This will protect your freshwater stuff from rust at the coast.

Tip No 10 - When you are not using your reels, keep them in a dark place, like a draw or cloth bag. Sunlight damages fishing line very quickly.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Removing A Fishing Hook

Ouch!...every real fisherman will get a hook embedded somewhere, but hopefully not a vital part. OK so here is a short guide to removing the hook.

1. Don't panic. Cut the line attached to the hook, sit down in a safe area with a table and good light. Ok now scream for help!

2. Assess the location of the hook. Is it deep or superficial. *** Do not attempt to remove a fishhook that is deeply embedded, lodged within a joint or tendon, or located in or near an eye or artery.

3. OK there are mainly 2 methods of removing the hook.

A.String-Yank Method.

In this method, take a long piece of fishing line, loop it around the shank. While pressing on the hook eye, yank the linesharply, parallel to the skin and in line with thehook, to snap the hook back out of the wound. I like this comment made by the author:"This method is quick, simple and relatively painless, as long as you get it on the first try. The secret to a first time success is yanking the loop of line, which is wrapped around the embedded hook, rather hard so the hook comes out on the first try. The reason you should get it out on the first try is obvious, the patient might not stick around for a second try."

B. Advance & Cut Method

Advance and cut method: single-barbed fishhook. (A) The fishhook is advanced through the skin. (B) The barb is then cut off and (C) the remaining hook is backed out through the entry wound

Advance and cut method: multiple-barbed fishhook. (A) The fishhook is advanced through the skin. (B) The eye of the fishhook is then cut off and (C) the remaining portion of the fishhook is pulled through the exit wound created by advancing the point.

C.Needle Cover Method

(A) Advance an 18-gauge or larger-gauge needle along the fishhook until the needle opening covers the point. (B) The fishhook and needle are then removed at the same time.

4. After patting yourself on the back for the successs of your major brain surgery, wash the wound with an antiseptic like flavin or diluted dettol....this part hurts! Squeeze out the blood and bits of worm bait too. Dress the wound lightly with a small plaster, not tightly. Only apply pressure if the wound is bleeding a lot.

5. You need to get a Tetanus injection within 24 hours of the injury. The tetanus shot lasts 10 years, so you can go ahead and hook yourself again anytime after that.