I have never been hooked myself but have seen others do it and hear about it. It looks and sounds like a real pain and almost always seems to happen when the action is hot.
If you are going to release your fish anyways, try using barbless hooks. A sharp barbless hook is less likely to loose a fish than a dull barbed hook. And the bigger benny is that if you do hook yourself it is not a near surgical operation to remove.
I personally like to use as small a guage sharp hook as I can. The wire size has a lot to do with how much tearing occurs and the smaller and tighter the hole the better the fish stays on. I never thought of it but this may be another hook that I would prefer to get stuck with over other hooks.
Santa is going to buy us all kevlar fishing gloves this year (make sure you are wearing them when you check your stocking stuffers too in case he got you some lures). :)
Rec in the article is tetenus booster for FIVE years since last one for this sort of penetrating trauma not the usual 10 yrs. Just wanted to make sure I am not misleading anyone. Tight lines.
I hooked myself once, fortunately I had a pair of snips with me and cut the barb off and backed it right out. I've hooked myself several times over the years but only once up to the barb, ouch.
My son David got a hook in his ear once pretty bad, emergency room trip took care of it, I wont mention who was holding (casting) the rod when this mishap occured.
