Worst Fishing Injury Ever?

[CaptMatt]

Okay to go along with the "Fish on" thread and the "weirdest thing" thread Im asking this.

What is the worst injury you've ever sustained while fishing?
Mine involved a 13 year old kid a blue fish and a Big Azzed treble hook. While landing the fish for the kid the hook buried into the underside of my thumb with the fish still attached to the other hook. Every time the fish moved the hook went deeper until it hit the bone. I finally unhooked the fish and then myself. My clients insisted on me going to the hospital but we finished the day and I let it heal the natural way.

I have another captain buddy of mine you had a client hook him in the mouth with a circle hook. He had to finish the day with a hook in his upper lip and a throbbing head ache.

How bout some of you?

 

[JackM]

That was bad enough. Forgive me if I don't read any more of these. My thumb hurts and my lip is sore already.

 

[jayL]

I've been hooked three times. In order of increasing severity:

1. I was spinner fishing hay creek at about 14 years old. I cast it too far into some bushes on the other side and got snagged. I pulled it pretty good, and it came flying back. Smacked me in the cheek and I ended up with some new jewelry. My dad and I pulled on it with pliers for a good ten minutes before it came out.

I returned to fish that day.

2. Avon, NC. I'm 15 years old. I'm throwing a plug with two treble hooks off the pier. I catch a spanish mackeral and hand line it up onto the pier. He won't settle down so I go to grab him and he flops hard. The hook goes 90% through the meaty section between my thumb and forefinger (ya know... right next to the ball of nerves pressure point). I break the fish's jaw and walk to the pier house. At this point, I'm held down while an old man pushes the hook the rest of the way through to clip the barb. The alcohol dousing after was the worst part though.

I returned to fish that day.

3. Hay creek, I'm 14 years old. I snag a size 12 salmon egg hook on the opposite bank. I pull to snap my line, and feel the split shot hit me in the hand. I look down.... that wasn't a split shot.

I've never seen anything like it before, but the EYE and the POINT of the hook both went into the back of my hand. Right at my wrist near the base of my thumb. All that was visible was a little golden arch. I was basically stapled by a hook. I had to go to the doctor and get scalpeled to get this one out.

Once the hook was removed they found 8 inches of line that got slurped into my hand like a spaghetti noodle. The doctor said she had never seen anything like it, and almost didn't know what to do with me.

I did not return to fish that day.

8 years later and I still have the scar :-o :-o :-o

 

[sdwlucas]

Ok the first one was not while I was fishing but had to do with fishing. My parents and I were on the PA Turnpike about one and a half hours from home. I'm going to say I was about 8 years old. I was re-arranging my tackle box in the back seat of the car and left a lure on the seat. I slid my hand over top of it and bam one of the treble hooks was imbedded in my palm. I didn't say anything due to the fact that I knew my dad would be mad. I tried yanking it and pulling.........nothing, an hour and a half later we got home and I told my dad. By that time it was sore and tender, my dad pulled the treble hook up and back through my skin and finally cut the barb.

This one sounds too much like JayL's second post. I was fishing at the pier in North Carolina, it may have been the Avon pier, unless there is one in Hatteras. A run of Spanish Mackeral was on it's way through and probably I was using the same type plug JayL was. In any case the only way to cast with all the other fisherman was to flip it out from underneath the pier. I flipped it out, the bail closed, the plug came 180 degrees and landed right in my forehead. I was literally walking down the pier with a lure sticking out of my head with blood pouring down my face. I went to my dad and he did the same exact thing pulled the hook through and cut the hook. Some lady said you know you are bleeding......(if I wasn't so youg I would have said ***())*@^@*^(!&(^&@!(^&(&@!&&*!)*@* Returned to fishing.

 

[Chaz]

All of my injuries so far have been getting stuck by my own fly kind of stuff. But I am getting older.

 

[RLeeP]

My most serious fishing injury doesn't sound like much, but it has been a real bear in some ways.

In August of 2005, I stepped off a rock ledge in 8 inches of water on the Provo River and thought I was moving my foot down to rest on a ledge that was probably 16 inches under water. But my bifocals fooled me and the lower ledge was actually about 20 inches under water. I hyper extended my left knee and it has been a killer ever since. Lots of Mobic and I wear a brace when I fish. After a long day on the creek, that baby hums all night like a cheap transformer that used to come with the old electric trains.

I think a major contributing factor was that it was the same knee I fell down a flight of stairs at a fraternity house in 1971 and smashed into an empty beer keg

 

[Maurice]

Once while fishing Lake Arthur on a boat after 10:00pm, I hooked my brother in the eyelid with a broken back 3" jitterbug. I was setting the hook on a fish next to the boat. It put an end to the fishin for a short time. I used needlenose pliers and hemostats and a lantern to remove it. Talk about putting a damper on the evening. After it was removed, we all took a big sigh and I asked if he was alright...He said it felt like my son, was 6 at the time, punched him in the eye. I said so should we fish or go in. Then I couldn't control my laughter.....

We lasted another 30 minutes before he threw in the towel. He had no damage to the eye except a scratch on the white part. And a patch for two days...

 

[Wmass]

I was fishing for channel catfish and redfish in Florida when I was about 13 or 14 with my stepfather. I caught a nice sized channel catfish and couldn't get the hook out so my stepfather gave it a try. He stepped on the fish and it speared him with its back fin or a bard (we couldn't tell) but the damn thing went right through his foot halfway up the foot. RIGHT THROUGH HIS DAMN FOOT. I had never seen anything like that, I thought his head was going to explode when I tried to pull it out with pliers.

 

[sandfly]

Fly fishing for sharks in rohebeth bay De., caught a small hammer head while wet wader in shorts., went to grab him behind the head when he latched onto my right leg...7 stiches inside and 17 out....got him on the wall and the scar on the leg....Oh yea after being released from visiting the Hospital went out and caught a few more wearing waders of course...

 

[Wulff-Man]

I got a bad mosquito bite once. Nearly got infected.

But seriuosly, you guys got some good tales. JayL, that last one is amazing. It sounds like something you would see on one of those gory medical TV shows. And Sandfly, I just saw Jaws again a few days ago, and your story reminded me of Captain Quint. I can see you telling your tale to the grandkids, propping your leg up on the table and pulling up your pant leg to show your scar, with the mounted hammerhead on the wall above you.

 

[fritz]

Sorry for your misery (and some of these things could get quite serious) but you all provided me with a good laugh this morning. I've had some small mishaps but nothing compared to you all-- glad that things were not worse.

 

[FarmerDave]

Man!!! ... and I thought i was accident prone. You guys take the prize, but do me a favor. Stay away from me!!! :lol:

I hooked my little brother by the ear lobe once. After that, he let me know when he was walking behind me.

Oh wait, I remember another one. Once while sneaking through to woods to fish a private stocked trout pond, I did a nose dive into a brush pile. I jammed a stick into my hand right into the bottom joint of my thumb. It made a deep hole but it didn't hurt and hardly bled. In fact, I had to squeeze it to make it bleed to help clear out some of the dirt. The reason it didn't hurt is the stick hit the nerve. My entire thumb was completely numb for quite some time. It was like it was shot with Novocain. Most of the feeling came back gradually over the next month of so.

 

[Clarmy]

Here's one from way back. My cousin and I were on our bikes heading to the stream for a morning of fishing. We would lay the rods across the handle bars. He was in front of me and stopped quickly and I just sped on by. Well the drag on my rod started whizzing and he let out a yelp. When I stopped he was hooked in the lower ear lobe. Took him home and my mon didn't know what to do ... here's where my age shows, the Sanida Dairy Milkman showed up and we used and ice cube and razor blade to extract the hook. I think my cousin was an ear piercing trend setter.

 

[Philly]

I've been lucky so far with hooks. My buddy hooked me with a treble hook on a Mepps Spinner. We were walking home when a Park Guard (this should date me) saw it dangling from my leg. He took me up to Roxborough Hospital. Where the doctor proceeded to try and pull it out of my leg. After some screaming on my part, he was told the hook had a barb on it. It was then cut out.
The second time, a smallie embedded a size 10 treble hook into my finger up to the bend. Recalling my earlier experience, and the fact I wouldn't be considered seriously hurt and would sit for a couple of hours I opted to remove myself. Went home, numbed my finger with ice. Took a pair of pliers and pushed. It took me two pushes to get it through. Clipped the barb off and took myself to the family doctor for a tetanus shot.
The worst that I can think of happen when I was fishing the Wissahickon and slipped on a rock. My forehead hit a rock, and I wasn't sure what else was wrong. I managed to drive myself home, and my dad insisted I go to my friendly family doctor. He’s a hunter and fisherman. He asked me what the hell happen to me. I told him. He looked at my forehead. Told me it was going to need a stitch or two, and the shot to numb it would hurt more than the stitches. I believed him. He put two stitches in. The he looked at my little finger which by this time was sore, swollen and very crooked. It's broke he told me. We can get an x-ray taken, but it will tell you the same. Ice it and try not to bump it for a couple of days.
The worst I ever saw, and the most humorous, since I wasn't involved was at the lodge I go to in Ontario. Late in the afternoon I was walking back to the cabin, and I ran into another guest. He asked me if I'd ever had a hook in my hand and how did I get it out. I told him the pushed it through myself story. He turned white and took a slug of his beer and showed me his other hand where there was 3/0 hook imbedded in his hand at the base of the fingers. They eventually took him to the local hospital, a 19 mile boat ride and 15 mile car ride, to get it removed. They took it out in the emergency room, and hung it on the wall with all the other hooks they had removed over the years.
Got the story from the lodge owner. The guy and his buddy were fishing and caught a decent pike about mid-morning. They were apparently drinking beers, and some how the guy started playing with the pike in the boat, and it nailed him with the hook.
Despite his pleas, his buddy refused to come in, saying we're paying to fish, we're going to fish, wrap something around it so it won't move. They had just come in when I talked to the guy around 3:30

 

[govtmule]

15 years ago took a spinner to the nose that resulted in the ER..(THANKS to my bro)

a few years ago at Ridley i was wet wading and took a spill on the rip-rap downstream from the bridge. Tried to play a golf outing the next day but only could do 16 holes. went to the ER and spent 2 days in the hospital.

2004 a week before my wedding i took a spill on pickering and broke my finger...MY RING FINGER..had to get the ring resized to a 14. never did anything about it and it's still bent and crooked.
I am a serious klutz on the water besides numerous flies to the body.

jeff

 

[ian_brown]

I didn't think I'd get to use this picture twice.

 

[mainiac]

I was on a long hike to a stream with my uncle. We were crashing through an area that had been clear-cut and was now thick with fir trees about 4 feet high.

While jumping over the growth from one downed tree to another, my uncle lost his footing.

The fall didnt look too bad, but it left him hanging upside down. A broken-off branch ripped through his pants and pierced through his scrotrum. Needless to say it was a long walk back to the cabin.

A treble hook in the ear lobe is pale in comparison. I still squirm thinking about that day.

 

[jayL]

I think I need to take a walk.... else I may be sick.

 

[govtmule]

im sure most of you know this technique but i've used it on myself as well as others. Also used it when my buddy got a rattle trap stuck in his leg.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20010601/2231.html

jeff

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

once i was fishing a stream and i attempted to jump down off of a small rock ledge into the stream. when i hit the streambed i instantly lost my footing. causing me to go knee first into a sharp pointed rock. i though i cracked my knee cap. i could hardly walk. i took me 1/2 hour to walk back to the car and normally it would have been a 2minute walk. thank god i wasent fishing slate run 1 hour from the car! i guess it was compounded by the fact i have injured that knee many times before, i still wear a brace while fishing. it hurt so bad i got hot and wanted to puke. needless to say....i never tried that again :-D