Video: How to Remove a Fish Hook from Human Skin

As a new fly-fishing season gets underway and anglers deal with windy conditions and rusty casting skills, the chances that someone is going to get hooked are perhaps higher than ever. So it’s worth offering a refresher course in how to remove a hook from human skin. In the best of all possible worlds, the hook is barbless, but even if it isn’t the process is fairly straightforward, simple, and—best of all—painless.

In this short video, Michael Chilton of rodandrivet.com takes one for the team by sticking himself in the leg with a barbed size 2 hook. If you’re squeamish, you might wanna look away for that part. The important lesson comes afterward, as he demonstrates the simpler hook-removal method that every angler should know.