Muskie Discussion Forums
| ||
| Moderators: Slamr | View previous thread :: View next thread |
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] Muskie Fishing -> General Discussion -> Hand-Landing Muskies, Part 2 |
| Message Subject: Hand-Landing Muskies, Part 2 | |||
Ranger |
| ||
Posts: 3928 | (I posted this tale of pain and woe and danger (and a yippee 3 fish day!) last summer. I bring it up again because it relats to the thread on hand-landing muskies.) Two days ago I was fishing on my favorite remote musky waters in my 14' tiller drive boat. I was on a 300 acre flooded strip mine with a ton of standing timber, when I found myself in deep trouble. I was using needlenose pliers to boatside release a lightly hooked 36-38" ski when the fish thrashed wildly and I suddenly found myself also hooked, badly, on the rear of a Poes Jackpot. One hook was buried to the shank over the lowest knuckle of my trigger finger. The hook tip was protruding almost 2" from where the hook entered the back of my hand. The fish started up again, and once the fish stopped thrashing, I finished unhooking the fish (somehow I never dropped the pliers!) and leaned back to take stock of my situation. There was one other guy on the water, about 300 yards from me, and I thought maybe I should get help. I started the motor and began threading my way through the standing timber toward the other fisherman. At one point I put the motor in neutral and tried to pull the hook out, but it was too painful and the hook wouldn't budge. So I resumed my slow troll toward the other guy, again, threading my way through the trees. I suddenly began sweating, became light headed and I thought to myslef, "Jeeze, am I going to pass out?" I woke up when I ran right smack into a tree trunk. I can recall the BOOM! sound very clearly. When I came to I was hanging over the right side of the boat, my head was in the water and I was dragging my right arm and hooked hand in the water. I think I was sliding over the side of the boat at the moment I hit the tree, but I can't recall for sure. The boat's impact may have thrown me forward and into the water, too. I didn't inhale any water but my head was all wet. I noticed I had traveled about 50 yards since I passed out, I was much closer to the other guy. I went a surprisingly long distance before I hit something, though I may have bounced off some trees before I woke up. Passing out was the most dangerours part, by far, of my experience. Had I fallen in the water, had the lure hooked onto a passing tree trunk, had the lure hooked into my leg in the water, etc., I would have been in real bad trouble. Maybe/probably drowned. I should have put my life jacket on ASAP after releasing the fish. I got close enough to call out to the other fisherman and he came over to help me. The first thing he did was cut the split ring so I was no longer dangling the entire lure from my hand. Looking back, I was too shocky to realize I needed to cut the hook away from the lure - I had been dangling the lure right along, even pull started the motor and shifted gears with that hand! Stowed away the trolling motor, too. Anyway, my new friend, Mike, followed me to the little landing and helped me load up the boat. I did the 30 minute drive to the hospital where it was decided that I was one of the worst hooked people they had ever encountered. They tried a lot of tools that were on hand, then gave up and sent an orderly to open up the maintence shed for the 2' bolt cutters. The ER doc had no trouble cutting the 3X hook with those. They gave me a ton of antibiotics and when I arrived home I ate a double dose of pain meds I had on hand. Called in sick the next day, hand swollen and throbbing. Today it's feeling much better, swelling is down and looks like I suffered no damage to nerves or tendons. I had the presence of mind to take my 35mm camera into the hospital with me so there's a visual record of that part of the deal. My wife says she got a great shot of the doctor using the big bolt cutters to finally cut the hook. I'll post some pics in a few days. A pretty close call, wouldn't you say? Today I'm buying new LONG-ASS needlenose pliers and some really good bolt cutters. Maybe some welding gloves, too. I'm going back to netting all my bigger fish and removing the hooks while the fish is in the laying in the net on the bottom of the boat. Screw the boatside release technique I've been trying to master. (Sorry, Jason, I tried.) You folks who hold up big muskies with the lures still in the fish's mouth should take heed of my experience. Can you imagine a big fish slapping you in the face or chest or neck with a Poes Giant Jackpot, Believer or Suick? I sure as $hit can. By the way, that was the third fish of the outing! I hope to get back as soon as I can handle a rod again, maybe day after tomorrow. [:bigsmile:] What do you think of my close call? I used to think I was pretty careful while fishing alone all the time, but I'm going to be changing my ways a bit. | ||
| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] |
| Search this forum Printer friendly version E-mail a link to this thread |
Copyright © 2026 OutdoorsFIRST Media |