So on Friday, I was on my way home to pack up and meet my wife and daughter at a campground in Conn. I was a bit ahead of schedule and decided I could squeeze in a couple of casts. Not enough time for the fly rod, so I grabbed my trusty 7' spinning rod. First cast with a small
popper and a fish explodes on it. Scrappy as hell, even clears the water once. I get him in and it is about a 27" striper, hooked on the trailers instead of the front hooks. I reach down to lip the fish and before my hand gets there, he flops and sinks the lead set of hooks into the meat of my right index finger. Deep too. Now that we are attached, he really goes to it and before I can control him, the split
ring on the trail hooks opens up and the fish is free. I quickly get that hook out of the fish and put it back in the water. Then I look to my hand. The point went in on the outside edge of the finger and straight down. I loop some mono around the bend and push down on the shank while pulling with my teeth, the hook won't budge. I'm now worried about tendon damage and so decide since the hospital is only 10 minutes away, I'd better go and have a professional remove it. Remember that statement.
I get the plug off the hook, so I am driving with just the hook in my finger and not with a plug rattling about. I call my wife, so she'll know why I'm late and find out she is at home, miffed because I am not there. She came home to "surprise me" and of course I was fishing. She is not pleased at my situation, but wants to help. My house is on the way, so I stop and off we go. Surprisingly, I am not bleeding at all. There is hardly any blood at the entrance wound and my finger does not yet hurt.
We get to the ER and they send me back to a op room. After a couple ladies gather all my info we wait and wait then wait some more (I am not upset, my injury is far from serious). Finally a PA comes and looks. I notice he is carrying a pair of rusted up lineman's pliars and a cheap pair of diagonal cutters. He looks at my finger and then asks if I have anything better than his tools in my car to cut the thing off. I thought it was a joke and laughed. It was not a joke.
The doc goes to work and give me a couple injections to numb the finger. He too is worried about tendons and decides that the point must come out the bottom of the finger.
He sees the pliars won't work. Then the diags are too weak to cut a 2/0 stainless hook. They even try a pair of those scissors carried by EMTs, but they just twist open. Finally they call maintenance for a pair of wire cutters. Sure enough a guy in a the standard maintenance uniform (light blue shirt, dark blue pants) shows up with a pair of decent cutters. I am guessing that they aren't worried about sterility because I already have a fish hook embedded in me. Anyhow the cutters worked and the hook was out.
Later we find out they the really do have a pair of cutters they keep in the ER for just such situations, but apparently someone didn't put them back (a nicer thought than someone stealing them from the ER).
Now my finger is back in battery and none the worse for wear, save for some slight stiffness. I made only one cast on Friday, but it was a doozy. Wife is still mad at me, so I think I'll take a bit of time off before I fish again. Tuesday should be good.............