Lipping Fish?

[Al Greco]

Today I went out on my home lake and fished for about a half hour. I caught a 3 pounder and on the next cast caught one around 1lb on a crankbait. When I lipped the bass he shook and two hooks on the rear trebles sank in two of my fingers past the barb. After releasing the fish and spending a few minutes cutting the crankbait off I ended up with 2 hooks imbedded in me. Luckily I wasn't alone. I ended up going to the emergency room and they removed both hooks and gave me a tetnus shot. Now my question, Do you lip bass caught with any lure with trebles or do you net them and use the pliers to get the hooks out? This is the third time in three years I've buried hooks in my hand or leg. 2 other times I just pushed the hook through the other side, clipped off the barb, discarded the hook and kept on fishing. With two hooks in me, I thought I better let the pros take care of it. Also wondering how many of you have had this happen to you. Any advise is appreciated.....Al. BTW, I'm going fishing tomorrow even though my fingers hurt like Heck.

 

[Michael Snow]

I don't know how the pros do it. I can lip a fish and he'll shake away. The pros lip one and it just sits there nicely.

 

[Ken Neeley]

There are a few schools of thought on this but I'll give you mine.



During a tournament, never lip....swing it in if it's 2lbs or less, net it if it's more.



Lip 'em when fun fishing, unless it's a toad....4lbs ++++



BUT, if I'm fun fishing and lippin' 'em, and if I'm using trebles, I'll generally play the fish out a little before lippin'....they're a little more docile usually.



Also...if you drop your rod and get your other hand under the belly asap, they usually stay pretty calm.



OR.......give 'em a Valium before you stick your hand in it's mouth!!!

 

[Al Greco]

Neeley, I go by the same rules as you do for the most part and have lipped a ton of bass in the past with no problem except for the last 3 years. The funny thing is I fished at least 5 days a week prior to 3 years ago and never sank a hook in my finger. Ever since I started fishing once a week I've had a lot of close calls and of course the incidents I mentioned earlier. Oh well, I will be super careful now everytime I hook a bass and it's on a bait with a treble. The crankbait I was using was a rootbeer bandit. That color might not be as good as the mistake but it sure works for me.

 

[Ken Neeley]

Ahhhh...that explains it. You're out of practice and the callous is gone from your bass-thumb!!!



They make a cool tool for lipping pike and walleye...like a circular pair of pliers...don't know what they're called, but I used 'em once years ago and they worked great.

 

[Larry Anderson]

Grab him by the belly or squeeze at the gills...This works also...LA

 

[Michael Snow]

Neeley... Boga Grip looking things?

 

[Staci Matheis]

The Boga Greps are expensive. Like $60.

Berkley makes one that sells at Wallyworld for about $20 if I remember correctly.

 

[Ken Neeley]

Yeah, something like that....they worked great on pike when I used them on a fly-in trip to Canada.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

There are 3 things I do to prevent getting hooked...



1. Fish a Senko!!LOL

2. Never lip em' "green".

3. After lipping give their jaw a twist down.



Now before all the PETA's pile on, I'm not talkin about crankin' the fishes jaw down enough to dislocate or hurt it, just enough to get them to "settle" long enough to get them unhooked. Then slide your hand under their belly.



Caution....This does not work on those brown tigers a.k.a. Smallmouth. Lipping them only causes them to go apesh!t.



TOXIC

 

[Teri C.]

I've only had one emergency room visit and it took 4 or 5 doctors to get those hooks out. I feel your pain!

 

[Rich Stern]

I feel your hurt, Al. I got nailed last year. Thumb and forefinger with the same treble. Took it out myself, because my tetanus wasn't too far out of date, and the hospital was a pretty fair drive away. Amazing how hard you can pull on a barbed hook before it comes out of meat.



Since then, I've gotten cautious about lipping fish hooked on cranks. If they're hooked on the trailing treble, it's not too bad, but if hooked on the front, especially on a smaller fish, there never seems to be enough room to get a thumb in safely. I reach for the net with those.

 

[Michael Snow]

Rich, I gotta disagree with ya. "If they're hooked on the trailing treble..." that means the front one's got nothing stuck to it and when the flail, I usually get nailed by it. Never past the barb thank goodness.

 

[Rich D]

Unless I am meat fishing, I leave them in the water and use long needle nose pliers or hook outs. If I am fishing for dinner, I net them.



Rich D

 

[Texas Transplant]

I am not lipping a fish with all those trebles in his mouth. I'm either going to net him, or swing him in. Just not worth it.



On Denny Brauer's 'Schooled' this weekend, one of the anglers was using his fingers to take out a crankbait. Denny made the comment, that he couldn't understand why anyone fishing, wouldn't have a pair of needle nose pliers handy for that.



Haven't had to have a hook dug/cut out as yet, and hopefully won't.



Tex

 

[Greg Meyer]

We don't lip Walleye... cuz... real fish have teeth!!! LOL



However, Al, I do feel your pain... ouch!!!

 

[David Hunt]

Hey guys,



Will a regular pair of diagonal wire cutters cut a 2/0 or 3/0 hook?



I wanted to cut a hook on a bass this past weekend and my diagonals were up in the house tool box. Guess I should keep a pair in the boat to remove hooks from myself.



david....

 

[Al Greco]

Needless to say, I won't be lipping any bass unless they were caught on a single hook. It hurts more than most people think especially when stuck in the under part of your finger that is very sensitive. Besides going to the ER makes it an expensive fishing trip. Thanks for the information and be careful.

 

[Rich D]

David,



I went to Home Depot and bought a 12" bolt cutter as part of my muskie release kit. It was less than 10 bucks and will easily cut right through a hook.



Rich D