Date: May 24th, 2016
Time: 12:15 pm
Wind: Calm
Location: Beach
Lure: Plug
Fish: 1 striped bass
After lunch I headed down to the beach at the end of my block. I usually bring a rod and this time was no different. With nothing going on I decided that I would head home and fold some laundry right after I casted ONE LAST TIME. Wouldn't you know it, the plug gets inhaled by a bass. Very excited, I run over to the beached bass and go to grab the lip and remove the hook. I let my guard down. With one of the treble hooks in the fish, the other one went into my hand when the fish rolled. Every time the fish rolled the hook went deeper until I could no longer see any part of it. I desperately tried to prevent the fish from rolling. The pain was so intense it brought me to my knees. My hands at this point were useless. One was attached to the bass the other was holding the fish down. To make matters worse the 9' rod was stuck in the middle of my arms. I did have a bit of good fortune - I took my cell phone out of my pocket before I started to cast. It was about ten feet away laying on my binoculars case. So I stood up, and started to bite through the 60lb leader that was attached to the lure. Despite being able to bite through the leader the rod, now unattached to the lure, was still in the middle of my arms. I knew I had no choice but to release the fish and use that hand to throw the rod to the side. So I got back on my knees laid the fish flat and threw the rod aside. Of course the second I let go of the fish it started to flip and twist. Both of us were all covered with sand at this point. Him laying on his side and me laying on my belly. After I got control of the fish I made it over to my phone. I was able to dial Gina's work number with my pinky that was holding the fish. Gina called my neighbor Bob. As Bob was heading down to help me, my other neighbor Bob call my cell. It turns out that he was watching from his front porch. He could hear it in my voice and headed down to the beach with bolt cutters. He was able to free the fish and cut me loose from the lure. As we we walked off the beach the other Bob greeted us and off to the hospital we went. The Nurses at Brookhaven hospital were very nice to me. First was the tetanus shot, then came the x-ray, and after what seemed like an eternity, it was removal time. They injected something to numb the area. About 7-9 shots. No Pain. They came back in after about 20 minutes and stated to push the hook through the other side. It looked 100x worse then it felt. The only thing that I felt was pressure from the swelling. The 2 other hooks that were cut off weren't allowing the hook to get pushed through. So they had to make a few incisions to allow the barb to poke through and get cut off. As I looked around everyone started to laugh becuase the sweat from all of us was just rolling down our faces. The barb showed itself and the doctor quickly cut it off. She then removed the hook from the original area from where it went in.
No stiches. The hand is swollen and sore but I'm ready to roll.
What I'm about to tell you is true.. Last weekend I went to the tackle shop to buy that lip holder that you see pictured because I felt that I was pushing my luck grabbing the bass by the lip with all of those hooks. The morning earlier I used it to safely handle the 19lb bass that I caught. I can assure you anytime I have a rod in hand my lip holder will be within reach.
Here are a couple of tips for the guys and girls that may fish alone: Carry a fish Lipper, keep your cell phone close by, carry a small bolt cutter.
I plan on fishing the Danny Plug with one less treble hook.
If you do get hooked, it looks much worse than it feels, once you have removed the lure and the fish from your hand..LOL
I can assure you any hospital on LI has seen plenty of guys come in with hooks in them. They know how to remove them.
Tremendous lesson learned. I'm just glad this didn't happen 80 miles out!
Good luck out there and don't let your guard down like I did. I'm just glad it was me and not Gina.
Thank you to all that helped:
All the people at Brookhaven
Bob S
Bob E
Steve B
Gina
