Thank god another bass boat was close yesterday

[Johnny C]

Yesterday afternoon at New Hogan I caught a two pounder on a spook. I usually grab them with a towel but this time I didn't. Well the fish was hooked on the front and back hooks and the center hook was through my through my thumb.I had a firm grip on the fish with my left hand so he wouldn't move..Not much pain but I was freakin handcuffed. So I saw a guy bass fishing a couple hundred yards away and gave him a hollar. He came over and saw I was screwed. He removed the fish with his pliers and then the hook off the bait. I was then able to cut the hook and slowly work the barb back through and remove it....A big thanks to John in the old Stratos!!!!!!!!!!!

[Matt Moreau]

Ouch!!! Glad to hear you got some help.

[Joe W.]

I had some close calls yesterday with spooks and rip baits. My buddy hung up a rip bait and yanked it free almost hitting me in the face, then as I was unhooking a fish on a spook I almost had the same situation as you. The hook didn't go in past the barb thank god and the fish stopped moving long enough for me to unhook my hand before it went any deeper. You have to be extra careful with baits with multiple trebles!

[Greg_Cornish]

How does it feel today?

[86ranger]

Glad to hear you are OK. That is one of my worst nightmares so I invested in a pair of Boca Grips. The Boca Grips were a great investment cause it is so safe and easy to get the spooks out of the fish.

[Greg_Cornish]

Good grief, spendy...
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... tid=182431

But.. about the same as a dr. visit unless you went to emergency.

[Joe Bruce]

i had that happin with a three lber but wasnt lucky enough to have a grip on it.

dam near went into shock.

[Joe Bruce]

i had that happin with a three lber but wasnt lucky enough to have a grip on it.

dam near went into shock.

[Johnny C]

Greg it feels fine today..Running an orbital sander all day so the had is numb anyway. Not near as bad as the one in my stomach this spring......Joe that is the spook you gave me..So far a lost giant and a hook in my hand..See how you are!!!

[Greg_Cornish]

My brother wrote for his local newspaper in southern Minnesota. This story of his might feel close to home...

As the saying goes, "A bad day fishing is still better than a good day at
work" and I'm sure that most of us cling to that thought like a
woodtick to a deer but there are days when I'm not completely
convinced.

Oh, you'll hear no complaints from these fellas nor any of the other
contestants in this the best of three annual fishing contests on Lura
Lake sponsored by the Lura Lake Areation Corp. It's just that there are
days when I wonder how good a golfer I could be.

Jesse and I were to be partners at this contest (whose sole function is
to provide the funds necessary to operate the areation set up each
winter) and things were looking good for our team. I mean what the
heck, hadn't Dad and I taken close to 30 walleyes on the lake last
summer and early fall that weighed between 4 to 8-1/2 lbs. apiece?

Well as is the case so often, looks can be deceiving. Jesse and I tried all
the old haunts and there was nothing going for us but good talks about
old trips on the water. Wait I take that back. I did pick up four
bullheads on rapalas but Jesse was outfishing me, he had a dozen on
leeches.

Then just 10 minutes before the contest was due to end (12 noon)
Jesse hit a large fish while casting to a favorite shoreline and judging by
the terrific runs this fish put us through, Jesse and I were planning how
to spend the prize money when a contest judge motored by to warn us
about the very few minutes left and, upon seeing Jesse fighting what
was surely our prize winning 10 lb. walleye, hung around to get a
glimpse. Would you believe a five pound, foul hooked carp? That was
good for a laugh at the weigh-in. I should mention here that Butch and
his partner Greg Roozer caught 5 bass that day that totaled 16 lbs. 2
oz.! To top it off there was another 5 lb. bass taken that day by a
separate team. Great contest!

When the contest had ended Jess and I had time to kill before Bonnie
and the kids were due to join us for a cookout so what to do? Go fishing
again of course and we got into smaller walleyes at the Mapleton end of
the lake. We had taken six when I saw one of Jesse's casts go bad then
felt his Rapala take a deep bite into my back after passing over my
shoulder and suddenly we had problems! Now for solutions.

Being do-it-your-selfers we, jumped into Plan A which consisted of Jesse
pulling the lure from my back with pliers. So much for Plan A, I think
Plan B was the one where we tried to force the point of the hook to
come out so Jesse could clip the barb off and slip the hook out
backwards. Yeah, right. I remember plan C very well. Some people on
shore might too. I was on my hands and knees for that one, with a
knife sheath to bite on (saw that in an old John Wayne movie) while
Jesse sat on my back with a firm two handed grip on the pliers. The idea
here was that a quick jerk may hurt but just for a little while. Don't do
that folks! At that point I knew I'd be seeing a doctor (if I didn't pass
out first) and Jesse might be joining me; for a gun shot wound.

I stopped at the Mapleton Nursing Home first and though no one could
help me and neither of our local doctors were available I couldn't resist
visiting an old friend, Leonard Swanson (Swanee), before leaving for the
E.R. at St. Joseph's. He seemed to enjoy that and was polite enough
not to laugh too hard.

Oh yes, the bill has recently arrived from the hospital. I spent a total of
five minutes in E.R., twenty seconds of which were needed to remove
the lure then a delay while waiting for a tetanus shot. The bill was
$120.00. The bad news my insurance didn't cover it.

[Mike]

Is that why they call you the "Spook Man"??

[Johnny C]

Now you let the cat out of the bag Mike!!!!

[justflipit]

i have had spooks hooks go in my hand too. what i do now is swing the fish over the boat and lightly put my foot over the fish so it cant shake. then i use pliers to remove the hooks and get the fish safley back in the water. this system works great for me know more sore fingers. i dont know about doing this with sandals on though.

[Bob DeLorenzi]

Glad you’re okay Johnny, that was a predicament. You probably already know about it but there is a really simple trick to removing fish hooks from tissue. Years ago Jenny got a treble hook stuck in her thumb (big surprise) at Stoneyford and it was pretty deep. We waited about an hour and when the other campers started waking up a guy camping next to us said he could get it out. Well we didn’t cut the hooks off of the POP-R and so when he took the hook out of Jenny’s thumb he got hooked by the other treble hook. Then I got to practice hook removal on him. It’s a pretty simple method using fishing line (of course you need two people).
That trick came in really handy on our next trip out on a party boat for rock cod and crab. It was right before they closed down Cordell Banks and this poor sea sick guy who had never been ocean fishing before got a giant treble hook attached to a 16 oz hex bar stuck with the barb buried into his pinky. They were going to cancel pulling crab pots to take him back in. He let me use the hook removal procedure on his finger and we had crab for dinner that night. Yum yum, way better than carp and bananas.

[TomAtkeson]

I did the same thing once, only the spook was attached to my rod and my thumb right between the finger nail and the skin. It hurt and I had no one to help me on that early fall evening on the back side of Cronta Loma with my car parked in the main lot. I had to cut it off the line twist the spook till I could hold it. When I got back to the car I drove my self right handed *im a lefty* to John Muir because I couldn't manage to pry it out of myself they hooked me up after some confusion about what end of the pliers actually cut the barb... silly nurses.

[Blue_R70]

what i do now is swing the fish over the boat and lightly put my foot over the fish so it cant shake. then i use pliers to remove the hooks and get the fish safley back in the water.

I know a bass is totally *insignificant* in the grand scheme of things (it's only a dang fish, after all) but if people really want to practice catch and release then maybe we oughta take a little more consideration into how they're handled before being released.

If you stepped on 'em with cleats instead of sandals you could also take care of the needling portion for fish caught in deeper waters!

[justflipit]

ya i know some of you would say putting your foot lightly over the fish is not handling it well. i have never had a fish die on me doing this and it is a quick process. when some of you try to lip the fish with a spook and then get stuck in the finger think about how long the fish is out of the water then you might get mad and not care about the fish any longer. i have to say my way is alot smoother than some of you who and up getting stuck and just look like fools out on the water.