Well friends, it's confession Time. I have reached another milestone of fly fishing. Tuesday afternoon I had to have a hook cut out by a doctor. Don't get squeamish on me. Feel free to giggle &/or guffaw. My family and co-workers certainly have...

Last week I was tying a bunch of flies while wearing a pair of old tennis shoes. I bobbled a box of Mustad 3906b size 12s. (That detail proving my credentials as a fly-tyer. I didn't just say, "Hooks".) I thought that I had picked all of them up, but there was a Toe Terrorist lurking in my shoe. With guile and cunning, it didn't strike right away. No, it waited until I put those shoes back on the next week. It had fallen to the toe of my shoe and got me on the big toe. Like "Ouchies", man. Still, I am lucky. I STILL have the massive calluses on my big toes that were put there decades ago by combat boots. All that the hook could do was to perforate the skin and callous, even though it sank in as deep as the bend of the hook. (It stuck in parallel to the bottom of my foot.) Actually, it really didn't hurt much, until I got all curious and started wiggling it around and trying to yank it out.

I got smart, secured it with a band-aid, and went to see my doctor. My doc is a fine man and fellow fly fisherman. I have put him on good water close to his house. He looked at my afflicted toe, and laughed. He sent me downstairs to see a podiatrist. The podiatrist laughed.

The podiatrist numbed my toe with 3 shots of pain killer. My feet, not being used to such drugs, went numb almost back to the heel. Better safe than sorry. The doc then cut through the callous and pulled the point of the hook out. He got a pair of surgical dikes and tried to cut the barb off of the hook. Now the podiatrist looks like an ex-(American)football player He is a big, burly man. He could NOT cut through the wire on that hook. He had to cut the darned hook out. (Note that it still doesn't hurt, except when I step normally.)

So Dr. Fish, when somebody wants to tell you that Mustad hooks are too weak, direct them to me. I have ways of changing their minds...

take care,
Ed

P.S. No, Dr Fish, I am NOT going to sue Mustad.