The Fish Hook Back

This afternoon I learned first hand that occasionally the fish hook back.

My wife wisely decided to stay home this afternoon and let me try and catch another snook or redfish in the "swamp" alone.

I loaded up my usual array of rods and headed for the spots where I caught fish yesterday.

I started fishing around East Gator Creek Road in the shallows using Chug Bugs and small silver spoons.

I should have known it would be a weird day when I hooked a small 5 foot gator on my third cast into the culvert.

I was using a silver Johnson's Sprite spoon and hooked the gator midway in it's side.

The gator swam off three times and all three times I managed to bring it back close enough to try and get the spoon out.  Finally, after the third time, I got the gator close enough to reel the line all the way to the spoon.

When I shook the rod back and forth a few times, the spoon dropped out of the gator's hide and I continued fishing.  The gator swam off probably wondering what the hell just happened.

I continued fishing and caught several ladyfish in all sizes on both topwater Chug Bugs and on the spoon before another larger size gator got too interested in my topwater baits.

I moved on up to Peacocks Pocket road and just past the first Catfish Creek entrance, I spotted some action in the narrow shallow marsh canal alongside the road.

It turned out to be a couple of redfish feeding off the bank, so I picked up the rod with a silver and black backed Chug Bug, smeared on some Pro-Cure fish scent and shot a cast past the fish.

One of the redfish hit the Chug Bug and I set the hook hard.  Much too hard in fact.

The Chug Bug flew back at my head and as I turned to avoid getting a hook in my face, the topwater bait hooked me with both hooks in my right side.

At first I didn't even know that the hooks were embedded in me but when I tried to take the hook out of my tee shirt, I realized I was bleeding.

I went to the truck and got my fishing pliers to pull the hooks out.  The rear treble hook came out without any problem but the front treble hook was embedded to the curve.

I tried to reach around and yank the hook out but I couldn't get any leverage so I snipped off the leader, got into the truck and headed home to get Karen's help.

When I got home I pried her away from her stained glass project and showed her my dilemma.

I asked her to get the pliers and pull out the hook or run the hook all the way through so I could clip the barb off but she was too queezy to do it.  She insisted I go to the hospital to have it removed.

Since I hadn't had a tetanus shot in a while I decided not to argue and went down to the hospital.

When I got to the emergency room and the girl asked what my problem was, I lifted my tee shirt and showed her the would. 

She said she would get me in quickly so I sat down and waited.  After I signed in, it took 20 minutes before I talked to anyone and the first thing they asked was Insurance.

I gave them my card and asked them how much it was going to cost.  The first girl didn't know and after talking to some more people, I was told that my Insurance had a $300.00 deductible.  So, I asked them what it would cost out of pocket.

Finally I talked to a nice lady who told me it would be much cheaper to pay out of pocket instead of through the Insurance provider.  About $150.00 to be exact, so I told her I'd pay via Amex.

Finally, I was taken to another room where after a short wait the lady doctor came in to assess the situation.  I told her that my wife couldn't get the hook out and that I probably needed a shot for tetanus.

She told me she was also a fisher woman and we quickly hit it off.  She got a sterile pack of tools which astonished me.  The stainless pliers were the size of lineman's pliers.

After giving me a shot that I didn't really want, she started trying to pull out the treble hook, lure attached.  She couldn't get a good grip and after several tries decided to pull the hook through and cut it off.

Finally, the deed was accomplished and I got a shot which was good for tetanus, whooping cough and diphtheria.  The damn shot hurt worse than the hook.

After I got my antibiotic scrip for any infection, the lady doctor came back in with her smart phone and showed me pics of a very nice red snapper she caught during the mini season out of Port Canaveral.  She also showed me a pic of a sailfish that she caught in the islands.

We parted ways, I paid my bill and headed home.  It was too late to go fishing and I wasn't really in the mood after spending $150.00 on the fish that hooked back.

I mused to myself why it was so hard to hook a fish in the water when it was so easy to get hooked by the same bait.

Remeber that some fish hook back.

Till next time, Tight Lines.