My brother and I were fishing the mouth of the St Lucie at Stuart Fl several years ago We had anchored off the jetties just inside to fish for snook. We noticed a boat anchored about 100 yards away, saw no one aboard. It was not in a spot you would anchor to go ashore. We decided to go look at it.

An older man was laying in the bottom of the boat with his arms and legs wrapped around a pretty good size tarpon. Both were still alive. Mark asked him what he was doing. He said he was waiting for the damn tarpon to die so he could get the hook out of his hand as he was attached to the tarpon. Probably been there 45 minutes or so. We unhooked both of em and he left, wore out/bloody/slimy but alive.

Damn lol..

I had the stinger hook on a king rig pop out of a big king one time and caught me in the side of the nose. Didn't use the string trick as no one on my boat would help me. Had to do it myself with a set of pliers. It was tough getting the balls up to rip that thing out of my nose but I finally did and after the bleeding stopped went back to fishing.
Nothing a few beers couldn't soothe.

Years ago I was fishing on lake Fork. I had a three pound bass get me hooked on my rogue. He would flop and jerk the hooks out of my hand and embed them in another spot. Finally my partner freed the bass and me. Other boats came over to see what all the screaming was about. I was a bloody mess and sore for over a week.

After my experience with a wuss partner, I found step-by-step instructions with diagrams, had them laminated, and stuck copies in my tackle bag and in a dry-locker on the boat. Haven't had to use them (knock on wood).