Hook injuries
Safety · Last reviewed 2026-08-10
The commonest angling injury by a wide margin, almost never serious — and with one exception that always is.
Safety
Hooks and barbs — Can cause injury needing treatment
A hook past the barb cannot be pulled back out without tearing tissue. Hooks in hands and scalps are common and usually minor; a hook in or near an eye is a sight-threatening emergency.
What reduces it: Use barbless or crushed-barb hooks. Wear eye protection whenever you are casting anything with hooks. If the barb has not passed, back the hook out along its curve. If it has, cut the line, leave the hook, and get medical help. Never attempt removal near an eye.
Precautions that always apply here
- Use barbless or crushed-barb hooks where people are close by. A barbless hook comes out of a person the way it goes in.
- If a hook goes past the barb into a person, cut the line, leave the hook where it is, and get medical help. Pulling it back out does far more damage than pushing it through under proper care.
Hooks go into people constantly. The overwhelming majority of these injuries are minor, and the response is straightforward. There is one category that is not, and it is worth stating first: A HOOK ANYWHERE NEAR AN EYE IS A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. Do not touch it, do not attempt removal, cut the line if the hook is attached to tackle, cover the eye if you can do so without pressure, and get to hospital.
For everything else, the decisive question is whether the barb has passed under the skin.
If the point has gone in but the BARB HAS NOT PASSED, the hook will come straight back out the way it went in. Reverse it out along the curve of the bend, clean the wound, and carry on.
If the BARB HAS PASSED, it will not come back out — that is precisely what a barb is for — and pulling will tear a substantially larger wound. Cut the line to separate the person from the tackle, leave the hook where it is, and get medical attention. Various field techniques for removing barbed hooks circulate; they have their place in genuinely remote situations, and in a country with accessible medical care the sensible answer is to let somebody with anaesthetic and sterile equipment do it.
Barbless and crushed-barb hooks eliminate the difficult case entirely, which is the strongest practical argument for using them.
Infection is the part people underestimate
The puncture itself is usually trivial. What follows it sometimes is not.
A hook that goes into a person has usually been in a fish, in mud, in a bait box, or in salt water, and it drives that contamination deep into tissue through a narrow puncture that then closes over. That is close to an ideal setup for an infection, and marine and aquatic bacteria include some that are genuinely unpleasant.
So: clean any hook wound properly rather than rinsing it in the water you are fishing, which is the reflex and is exactly wrong. Use clean water and a dressing. Keep your tetanus cover up to date. And take seriously any puncture that becomes hot, swollen, increasingly painful or red-streaked over the following days, particularly from salt water — that is a reason to see a doctor rather than to wait.
The same applies to injuries from fish: spines, teeth and gill covers all produce contaminated puncture wounds and cuts, and they deserve the same treatment as a hook wound.
Practitioner consensus
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: That wound cleaning and awareness of infection risk from marine punctures are treated as standard practice in sea angling.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: General angling safety practice promoted independently of the angling press.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where to go next
Fishing this applies to
- Feathering and multi-lure tracesSeveral hooks on one trace, under tension, frequently with fish attached and frequently swung over a crowded pier. The commonest hooking-injury arrangement in shore fishing, and it usually involves somebody other than the angler.
- Fly fishingA fly passes close to the caster's head twice per cast, which makes eye protection the single highest-value item in a fly angler's kit.
- Popping and stickbaitingLarge trebles attached to a green fish beside the boat cause the characteristic injury of this fishery, and it is not a minor one.
- Saltwater fly fishingCasting a weighted fly in wind puts a sharp hook past the caster's head on every stroke, and eye injuries are the serious version.
- Pole fishingFishing with a long jointed pole and a short fixed line, giving bait placement precision no rod and reel can match.
What these connections rest on (5)
Practitioner consensus — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Feathering and multi-lure traces
The safety topic this method's mechanics create directly.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Shore and boat practice in north-west European sea angling for the species and method described, presented across multiple independent contributors.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practice connecting this quarry to this method, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as tested fact.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Authoritative guidance — 4 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Fly fishing
General angling safety guidance covers hook injury prevention.
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: General angling safety practice including hook handling.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Popping and stickbaiting
A direct safety claim about the method's characteristic injury mechanism.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: General injury prevention principles for recreational activity.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Practitioner accounts of hook injuries during the landing of large fish on lures.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Saltwater fly fishing
A direct safety claim about the method's characteristic injury mechanism.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: General injury prevention principles for recreational activity.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Angling safety guidance including eye protection when casting.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Pole fishing
General angling safety guidance covers hook handling.
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: General angling safety practice.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Equipment involved
- Albright knotThe shock leader join is a safety connection rather than a strength one. A join that catches a rod ring at the start of a heavy cast releases the lead and terminal tackle as a projectile at casting speed, and the hooks travel with it.
- Dropper loopA trace of dropper loops is several baited hooks on one line standing out from it at intervals, which is the arrangement most likely to find a hand during casting, landing and unhooking. Droppers tangle by construction, and untangling them means handling hooks under tension.
- Haywire twistThe specific injury this connection causes is not the hook. It is the wire tag: trimmed with cutters it leaves a stiff needle-sharp spur beside the hook, on a fish with teeth, frequently in the dark. Breaking the tag off by fatiguing it is a safety instruction rather than a refinement.
- Improved clinch knotDrawn up by pulling the standing line while the hook is held, which is the same exposure. Fine line and cold hands make it worse rather than better.
- Landing and unhooking equipmentForceps, disgorgers and cutters are the tools that keep a hook removal from becoming a second hook injury, in the fish or in the angler.
- Non-slip loop knotA loop knot is tied at the lure, which means it is tied with the hooks in the hand — routinely a treble or two, often in poor light and cold, and with the tag being trimmed close to them.
- Palomar knotThe sequence requires the loop to be passed over the whole hook, past the point, and the knot to be drawn up by hand with the hook hanging in it. That is a hook under hand tension, which is the circumstance in which most hooks go into people.
- Polarised glasses and eye protectionA lens is the only thing between a moving hook and the one hook injury that is always a medical emergency, and it works whether or not the sun is out.
2 more
- Uni knot Knot
- Wire trace deadbait rig Rig
What these connections rest on (10)
Practitioner consensus — 4 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Albright knot
A connection joined to the harm it can actually cause, written where the knot's own construction or the situation it is tied in creates the risk rather than where fishing in general does.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British sea angling practice: shock leaders, multi-hook trace construction and the dropper loops a trace is built from.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of established connection convention, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Comprehensive angling practice: reel filling, leader and dropper construction, and the connections each arrangement rests on.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Coarse Fishing — A. & C. Black, 1912 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Classical coarse angling practice: hooklengths, loops, droppers and the terminal arrangements built from them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Dropper loop
A connection joined to the harm it can actually cause, written where the knot's own construction or the situation it is tied in creates the risk rather than where fishing in general does.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British sea angling practice: shock leaders, multi-hook trace construction and the dropper loops a trace is built from.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of established connection convention, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Comprehensive angling practice: reel filling, leader and dropper construction, and the connections each arrangement rests on.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Coarse Fishing — A. & C. Black, 1912 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Classical coarse angling practice: hooklengths, loops, droppers and the terminal arrangements built from them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Haywire twist
A connection joined to the harm it can actually cause, written where the knot's own construction or the situation it is tied in creates the risk rather than where fishing in general does.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British sea angling practice: shock leaders, multi-hook trace construction and the dropper loops a trace is built from.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of established connection convention, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Comprehensive angling practice: reel filling, leader and dropper construction, and the connections each arrangement rests on.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Coarse Fishing — A. & C. Black, 1912 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Classical coarse angling practice: hooklengths, loops, droppers and the terminal arrangements built from them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Non-slip loop knot
A connection joined to the harm it can actually cause, written where the knot's own construction or the situation it is tied in creates the risk rather than where fishing in general does.
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British sea angling practice: shock leaders, multi-hook trace construction and the dropper loops a trace is built from.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated descriptions of established connection convention, recorded as practitioner consensus rather than as scholarship.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Comprehensive angling practice: reel filling, leader and dropper construction, and the connections each arrangement rests on.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Coarse Fishing — A. & C. Black, 1912 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Classical coarse angling practice: hooklengths, loops, droppers and the terminal arrangements built from them.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Authoritative guidance — 6 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Improved clinch knot
A link from the arrangement to the substantial safety topic describing the injury it is associated with, rather than a warning restated on the record itself.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That angling injuries are dominated by hooks entering the person handling them, and the circumstances in which that happens.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and terminal tackle, and on what to do when a hook goes in.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Landing and unhooking equipment
Angling body guidance on hook removal and injury avoidance.
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on hook handling, removal and injury.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Palomar knot
A link from the arrangement to the substantial safety topic describing the injury it is associated with, rather than a warning restated on the record itself.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That angling injuries are dominated by hooks entering the person handling them, and the circumstances in which that happens.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and terminal tackle, and on what to do when a hook goes in.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Polarised glasses and eye protection
A link from the equipment to the substantial safety topic describing the mechanism it addresses or creates.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident prevention in angling and around water, including hook injuries and contact with overhead electrical infrastructure.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and tackle safely and on the protective measures commonly recommended.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Uni knot
A link from the arrangement to the substantial safety topic describing the injury it is associated with, rather than a warning restated on the record itself.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That angling injuries are dominated by hooks entering the person handling them, and the circumstances in which that happens.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and terminal tackle, and on what to do when a hook goes in.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Wire trace deadbait rig
A link from the arrangement to the substantial safety topic describing the injury it is associated with, rather than a warning restated on the record itself.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: That angling injuries are dominated by hooks entering the person handling them, and the circumstances in which that happens.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and terminal tackle, and on what to do when a hook goes in.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Related reading
- Barbed and barbless hooksA barbed hook past the barb in a hand cannot be backed out; a barbless one comes out the way it went in. The barb question is a human-injury question before it is a fish-welfare one.
- Crack-offs, and why they happenSeveral ounces of metal at casting speed carries serious energy and lands well beyond where the angler was aiming.
- Etiquette on charter boats and crowded shore marksA rig swinging at head height on a moving deck is the commonest source of hook injuries at sea, and it is almost always somebody else's rig.
- Floppers, slip tips, and holding a fishA tip is a barbed metal point on a shaft under load, and the injuries it causes to people follow the same pattern as any barbed point: they are inflicted during handling, unloading and recovery rather than during use.
- Hook points, patterns and penetrationChemically sharpened points penetrate skin with very little force, which is exactly why they are also the ones that end up in fingers.
- How fly casting worksFly casting is the only casting style in this catalogue that brings the hook past the angler's head twice on every cast, at speed, on a line the angler cannot see behind them. The hook is small and often barbed and the eye is the injury that ends the day.
- How to handle a fish you have caughtMost hook injuries to people happen while unhooking a live fish, which is why a tool rather than fingers is the standing recommendation.
- Lure hooks, and why they are the weak pointTwo or three trebles on one lure means six to nine points in reach of the hand unhooking a fish that has not finished moving, and the characteristic injury connects angler and fish through the lure.
7 more
- The double haul, and casting a fly in wind Explainer
- The kinds of hook, and what each is shaped for Explainer
- What you actually need to start fishing Explainer
- Why casts fall short or tangle Explainer
- Why hooks straighten or open Explainer
- Why knots slip or break Explainer
- Why line twists, and how to stop it Explainer
What these connections rest on (15)
Authoritative guidance — 12 connections
Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.
Barbed and barbless hooks
Angling body guidance on hook injury avoidance and removal.
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on hook handling and injury.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Etiquette on charter boats and crowded shore marks
Angling body guidance on hook handling and injury.
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on hook handling and injury avoidance.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Floppers, slip tips, and holding a fish
A claim that a piece of equipment participates in a hazard substantial enough to have its own record, so that a reader meeting the component is routed to the full treatment rather than to a warning sentence.
- CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Technical and sporting standards for underwater activities, including spearfishing equipment practice, the conduct of the activity and its safety requirements.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Hook points, patterns and penetration
Angling body guidance on hook handling.
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on hook handling and injury.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How to handle a fish you have caught
An explainer joined to the safety topic that carries the mechanism behind a hazard the explainer's subject creates or encounters.
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock and the immersion response, shore angling hazards, small-craft guidance and the circumstances in which water users are most often killed.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accidental drowning statistics and the circumstances in which recreational water users are most often killed.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
Lure hooks, and why they are the weak point
A hazard characteristic of the equipment, joined to the topic that treats it in full rather than restated on every lure page.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident-prevention guidance for recreational activity including the handling of sharp equipment.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
- Understanding the Complexity of Catch-and-Release in Recreational Fishing — Reviews in Fisheries Science 15:75–167, 2007 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Handling and unhooking practice, including the interaction between hook pattern, removal difficulty and injury to fish and handler.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The kinds of hook, and what each is shaped for
A hazard characteristic of the equipment, joined to the topic that covers it in full rather than restated in miniature on every tackle page.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident-prevention guidance for recreational activity including handling of sharp equipment and injury avoidance.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
- Understanding the Complexity of Catch-and-Release in Recreational Fishing — Reviews in Fisheries Science 15:75–167, 2007 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Handling practice during unhooking, including the interaction between hook pattern, removal difficulty and injury.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
What you actually need to start fishing
A beginner record joined to the harm it is closest to, written where the record's own subject creates the exposure rather than where fishing in general does.
- Understanding the Complexity of Catch-and-Release in Recreational Fishing — Reviews in Fisheries Science 15:75–167, 2007 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Review of catch-and-release outcomes and the handling, air-exposure and hooking factors bearing on post-release survival.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- A review of catch-and-release angling mortality with implications for no-take reserves — Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries 15:129–154, 2005 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: Review of catch-and-release angling mortality and the factors associated with it.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Angling Times — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Contemporary UK angling practice as reported by practitioners, including the faults beginners actually meet and what is done about them.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Sea Angler — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British sea angling practice including shore access, pier and harbour fishing and session conduct.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why casts fall short or tangle
A link from a failure explainer to the substantial safety topic describing the injury that failure produces. Written where the record already describes the mechanism, rather than to complete a column.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident prevention in angling and around water, including the dominance of hook injuries among angling injuries and the circumstances in which they occur.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and tackle safely and on the measures commonly recommended.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why hooks straighten or open
A link from a failure explainer to the substantial safety topic describing the injury that failure produces. Written where the record already describes the mechanism, rather than to complete a column.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident prevention in angling and around water, including the dominance of hook injuries among angling injuries and the circumstances in which they occur.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and tackle safely and on the measures commonly recommended.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why knots slip or break
A link from a failure explainer to the substantial safety topic describing the injury that failure produces. Written where the record already describes the mechanism, rather than to complete a column.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident prevention in angling and around water, including the dominance of hook injuries among angling injuries and the circumstances in which they occur.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and tackle safely and on the measures commonly recommended.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why line twists, and how to stop it
A link from a failure explainer to the substantial safety topic describing the injury that failure produces. Written where the record already describes the mechanism, rather than to complete a column.
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Accident prevention in angling and around water, including the dominance of hook injuries among angling injuries and the circumstances in which they occur.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: Guidance to anglers on handling hooks and tackle safely and on the measures commonly recommended.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Practitioner consensus — 3 connections
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Crack-offs, and why they happen
Where a tackle failure becomes a public-safety matter.
- Freshwater Fishing — Macdonald & Jane's, 1975 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Line behaviour, knot performance, terminal tackle and casting mechanics.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Pike and the Pike Angler — Stanley Paul, 1981 (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: Line, knot and terminal-tackle mechanics described independently of the sea-angling tradition.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
How fly casting works
A fly-fishing technique joined to the harm its own mechanics create, rather than to the general hazards of being near water. Written where the technique itself is the risk factor — a weighted fly accelerating past a head, a wader standing in current, a line manager on a rock platform with a swell running.
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance including cold water shock, sudden immersion and the behaviour that reduces both.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Trout & Salmon — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British game angling practice including wading, river safety and the handling of a weighted fly under load.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
The double haul, and casting a fly in wind
A fly-fishing technique joined to the harm its own mechanics create, rather than to the general hazards of being near water. Written where the technique itself is the risk factor — a weighted fly accelerating past a head, a wader standing in current, a line manager on a rock platform with a swell running.
- RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance including cold water shock, sudden immersion and the behaviour that reduces both.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Trout & Salmon — Bauer Media (Specialist angling publication)Relied on for: British game angling practice including wading, river safety and the handling of a weighted fly under load.FishingHQ's interpretation of what it saysCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Sources for this page
- Angling Trust guidance for anglers — Angling Trust (Angling or fisheries organisation)Relied on for: General angling safety practice, including hook handling.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- RoSPA water safety information and UK accidental drowning statistics — Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: The general framing of recreational injury prevention in outdoor water-based activity.Background and mechanism onlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.