Had a situation today that hopefully you will never need to use, but it would be good to have it in your bag of tricks.
Was ice fishing, and had a huge perch ignore my minnow, and as i was working on the fish house, I only had one line down. I grabbed a rod with a lure on it - turned out to be a darter (lindy) and thought that would get down there fast enough to tempt it. I struggle with how to keep lures from tangling - will post on that next - and had this one wrapped in a Bass Pro Shops lure wrap. Unfortunately both trebles were caught in the cloth liner. . I unhooked one, and was working on the other when the rear treble slipped out of the hook keeper, and into my index finger. two barbs were in; I managed to get one out, but couldn't see the other well enough to assess it. Had to get rid of the rod to see better. Went out to the snowmobile and grabbed my tackle bag to get the scissors out to cut the line. A leatherman tool on your belt under a Frabill suit on the side opposite a shoulder waiting for rotator cuff surgery is useless! I cut the line and removed the rod. The hook was in beyond the bend. Options. get on a snow machine and drive 1/4 mile home, get in the truck and drive 40 minutes to the hospital, sit for 1.5 hrs until some pimple-faced intern cuts the thing out of your finger, and then get floored 6 days later with a bill for >$500 an hour in the emergency room. Not a good first choice. Didn't think I could push it through and cut it off - hook was too small and in too deep to get the point out the skin. And it would have hurt. More. Then I remembered the trick where you loop mono around the bend of the hook, press down on the hook, and give it a yank. Why not? I also had 2 pairs of forceps, and a leatherman tool in my tackle bag, and since I had just wired computer fans into the house, I had a side cutters and needle nosed pliers. I arranged all of them on a chair. I went over to the neighbor's house and asked him if he would do the honors. He was hesitant, as he didn't know anything about this method, and he figgered it was a trip to the ER. I told him I would coach him, and that I had nothing to lose.
The line on that reel was old and curly, probably 8# line. Since neither of us could see (think over 60!) we weren't sure if we had the flourocarbon leader or the main line, so we quadrupled the line - why do it more than once if it might hurt? Got it looped around the bend of the hook that was left, I pressed down and told him to give it a jerk. The hook was out! No pain, 1 drop of blood. I had read about this, but never knew anyone who did it or had seen it done. It works! I tried to google how to remove a fish hook with mono, but I can't get to google now
As I said before, I hope you never need to use it, but it worked for me and it might save you some pain/$.
