Ouch!

Striper fishing continues to hold up very well and the size of fish continues to get bigger. The fishing is so good that I have been doing family fishing trips on the salt water for stripers instead of perch as I normally so. One change that I have noticed is that the seals have left the harbor; I assume that the increase in boat activity is the reason as there still seems to be plenty for them to eat.

I suffered a treble hook through my finger this week, it was my own fault I was fishing with friends and doing a little experimenting with a lure I had been given by a client last summer and never tried. I usually remove all but one treble hook from any lure that I use to reduce my chance of getting hooked. But I was not expecting much so took the lure out of the box and tied it on. It was very successful and I caught several fish, interesting that they were bigger than the ones we were catching on my regular bucktail jigs.

Of course one of these bigger fish came to the side of the boat and was quite lively so that when I reached to grab him the second hook went through the back of my index finger on my left hand. Not much fun at all for either of us. I got the young fellow fishing with me to unhook the fish and we got him overboard but in all of the commotion the hook had come around and was now all the way through the back of my finger and out again. This should have been a good thing but my pliers were shaped so that it was not possible to reach in and cut the barb. We were able to take the lure off of the hook using the split ring and I drove back in to the harbor with the hook still in.

I asked around at the harbor but no one had the wire cutters that I needed. We loaded the boat and headed home. I called my family doctor and asked for a few minutes of his time. Luckily they could fit me in. Dropped the boat and fisherman at the house and Argy drove me to Waldoboro with my wire cutters in my pocket. Dr. Waterman said that I certainly do keep his job interesting; he removed several shotgun pellets from me ten years ago or so. The worst part of the entire ordeal was the Novocain injection. After that the barb was cut off and the hook removed like I had planned to do an hour before. Everything is fine now and the finger is not even sore.

The lesson here is simple take a minute to do what you know to be the safe thing. Just a little thought and action can save a ton of effort.