Kudos to this dude for pain tolerance and guts, but he screwed up the string method repeatedly. It really does work, and causes no pain. I used it on my dad a few years ago and it saved the trip after fish # 1 put a treble hook in his hand. I removed the hook from the lure and cut off the other 2 hooks before I began. The key is to wrap the line around the hook several times, push down on the shank and then yank quickly on the same plane as the hook, not straight up. This video shows it being done successfully. Learn it. You will probably need it one day.
http://youtu.be/sKAAGWZskGg