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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
 Posted - 06/15/2008 : 06:19:39
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On Friday I went fishing at little Chauncey, the water was like glass I wasn't catching shit; I decided to troll with a jitter bug. Their was an older gentleman on the bank with his golden retriever we were talking as I trolled by, as I passed him I got a strike, I reeled in and was no less then amazed on the end of my line was a horn pout. aka cat fish.
A natural night bottom feeder hit a Jitter Bug. The poor basted had five of the six hooks embedded in his mouth and eyes. I always catch and release. Being a nice guy I want to make an attempt to gently remove the hooks. As I went to grab him he started to flip around, He nails me with the sixth hook. Your natural instinct is to let go, the hook is already in me and I don't realize it's deep, He flips again and drives it in deeper. I scream in pain. I'm hooked in my left middle finger just below my nail.
I know the hook is deep and I don't want to look, the hook went in the bottom of my finger and straight through the top. I'm in trouble, my truck is on the other side of the lake and I can't operate the boat, I'm afraid to let go of the fish. I have no shirt on and I'm bare foot. I make a quick move grab the pliers and cut the line. Now what, I have both hands on the fish and it is still very much alive. I can't get to the motor. I can't step on the fish because I have no shoes on, I can't kill it because my knife is in my fishing bag and it's zippered, I can't choke it, I need too hands to control it.
My situation is not good, I yelled to the old timer on the bank, don't go any where I need you I have a hook in me. I grab the pliers and beat the fish, the jitter bug hooks and the hook in my finger are so tight together their is just enough space so I can barley see the one hook in my finger. I took a rag tied the fish to my hand grabbed the motor handle cranked it top speed to shore.
The old timer and I look at my situation. We both decide I'm fucked. Impossible to cut the hook away from the fish the barbs are in to deep and their is just no room to fit the pliers between me and the fish. I said I have no choice, call an ambulance. Leave all my gear on the bank and go to the hospital or have him get my car and load the boat and drive myself to the hospital. I decided to have him drive his car to my truck and load the boat. More problems, he just got out of the hospital and is recovering from a spinal operation. I said I would load the boat just get my truck. Bigger problem, he insists on taking his dog which means the dog ends up in my truck.
The thought of a swampy wet dog in my GMC Denali caused more pain then the hook embedded in my finger. I get the boat loaded and decided to cut the fish in half, every time I let the fish go the weight pulls on the hook. I managed to cut the fish as close to the head as I could. I took the rag and tucked it between the palm of my hand and the head of the fish. I have a fish head in the palm of my hand and a jitter bug sticking out the side. And I have no camera. I get to the hospital and of course everyone in the emergency room wants to know what's under the rag. People couldn't believe my situation, and were amazed I could talk and joke about it.
After waiting three hours I see the doctor, who is a female, I told her we need bolt cutters or a small screw driver to separate the hooks from the jitter bug. She tells me it's a hospital we don't have screw drivers. We fix heart attacks and have medical tools. A nurse walks in and hands her a pair of large bone cutters. Whoa hold on, the hooks are stainless steel and bone cutters will not cut the hooks. She says that's all we have, I said then we need a screw driver. She says let me try. I said you are going to cause me allot of unnecessary pain, she insists on trying.
She grabs the hook the one in my finger. I said doctor no offense but I would suggest you numb my finger if you insist on using a tool that will not cut steel. No answer, she puts both hands on
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Paul C. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2008 : 08:49:02 [Permalink]
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Wow, some story.
With the understanding that I like to fish, it sounds like the cat fish, a night feeder in this case, had to go out of his way to inflict pain upon you. With all of those hooks in him, perhaps hooking you back was revenge and a way to put himself out of his is misery. If there is a fish heaven, your fish is receiving high fins right now by his fish brothers and sisters who threw off this mortal coil (or more precisely, it was thrown off) in a similar way.
As for the Doctor, orthopedic surgeons do use screw drivers. So does the maintenance man. But who knows? Maybe she was in cahoots with the fish on some existential level because she sees the plight of being a woman as analogous to the plight of fish. Men tend to be at the bottom of both creaturs miseries, if you catch my drift.
And then there is the larger question. Could all those the hooks the fish carried with him make him a multiple hooked phenotype?
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2008 : 13:29:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Wow, some story.
[quote]With the understanding that I like to fish, it sounds like the cat fish, a night feeder in this case, had to go out of his way to inflict pain upon you. With all of those hooks in him, perhaps hooking you back was revenge and a way to put himself out of his is misery. If there is a fish heaven, your fish is receiving high fins right now by his fish brothers and sisters who threw off this mortal coil (or more precisely, it was thrown off) in a similar way. |
The morphology of your reasoning seems to be one I can accept as an avid fisherman. Well said. 
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Paul C. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2008 : 14:08:34 [Permalink]
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The catfish is small suprise, they are fierce predators as well as scavengers. I have caught both a channel and a flathead cat on topwater stuff -- a homemade popper and, yes, a Jitterbug. For a design that's been around since, I think, the late '30s, it's a danmned good bait. I also know, as most old-timers do, about that hook business. That was intended by God to increase our vocabularies beyond mere exclaimation & into profanity.
Heal fast!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2008 : 15:01:22 [Permalink]
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A real avid fisherman: I was recently told about a co-worker's cousin (I think), who one day out on a lake got a hook through his lower lip. Almost through both lips.
He cut the line and kept on fishing for another several hours, because the fishing was that good.
When he got home, he found his cutters and removed the hook. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2008 : 03:30:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
A real avid fisherman: I was recently told about a co-worker's cousin (I think), who one day out on a lake got a hook through his lower lip. Almost through both lips.
He cut the line and kept on fishing for another several hours, because the fishing was that good.
When he got home, he found his cutters and removed the hook.
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Nothing avid about him, he is just plain nuts. If this is true I would like to know the complete story how he hooked his lip, do YA" think he was eating fish bait?
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Paul C. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 06/16/2008 : 08:34:54 [Permalink]
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| If I remember the story correctly, he was reeling one in and the hook wasn't set. Fish jerked, got free, hook came flying back at the guy's face. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 06:11:40 [Permalink]
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Hard to beat a Jitterbug, Fred Arbogast made a ton of money off that lure. Shame about the finger, in all my years fishing I've never had a serious jab with a hook even though I've caught just about every part of my body. But I did get some good blood when I was getting this bugger out of the water (coincidentally, this one hit a Jitterbug too!);
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Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 07:27:58 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by The Rat
Hard to beat a Jitterbug, Fred Arbogast made a ton of money off that lure. Shame about the finger, in all my years fishing I've never had a serious jab with a hook even though I've caught just about every part of my body. But I did get some good blood when I was getting this bugger out of the water (coincidentally, this one hit a Jitterbug too!);
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Wow!!! |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2008 : 09:25:26 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
Originally posted by The Rat
Hard to beat a Jitterbug, Fred Arbogast made a ton of money off that lure. Shame about the finger, in all my years fishing I've never had a serious jab with a hook even though I've caught just about every part of my body. But I did get some good blood when I was getting this bugger out of the water (coincidentally, this one hit a Jitterbug too!);
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Wow!!!
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Meh, don't be impressed by that. I added the 'Musky Master' bit as a joke, it's only the third one I've ever caught and the only one worth showing off. If I had caught it about an hour east in the Ottawa river it would have been too short to keep according to Ontario regs. I was actually targeting bass and was just about to hand the rod over to my 4 year-old daughter after the Jitterbug hit the water when almost immediately WHAM! If she had been holding it she would have been waterskiing down the Madawaska river.
How's the hand doing COA? Still able to cast and hoist a beer afterward? That's all that matters in the end! |
Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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Coat Of Arms
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2008 : 12:36:04 [Permalink]
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| Rat, nice fish. My finger has healed, Lost the feeling at the tip but not a problem. The day after my incident I was right back in the boat. Thursday and Friday I was at Cape Cod fishing for stripers. No keepers but had a great time. |
Paul C. |
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Hooked on fishing
