Is That Thing in My Hat or My Ear?

On the third day of our Florida trip, Mike suddenly had the bright idea that he wanted to pierce his ear.  For some reason, he thought a treble hook would be the best tool for the job.  He was wrong.

OK, here's what really happened: We were on Captain Al's boat in the mouth of Turkey Creek early Saturday morning.  We'd come upon our first school of Jack Crevalle of the day, and the action was fast and furious.

The tackle was ultralight; Captain Al had handed out 4' 6" rods spooled with 6-lb. test line before we left the bait shop at O-dark-thirty that morning.  The jacks crashed the 3-D minnow lures just as they hit the water.

Only on one cast, Mike's lure never made it to the water.

"Is that lure stuck in my hat, or in my ear?" I heard him say.  I looked over to see a treble hook embedded in Mike's ear and blood pouring down his neck and onto the shirt he'd borrowed from Dave.  Suddenly, I had to make a choice.

Do I: a) stop fishing and go help him get the lure out of his ear; b) keep catching fish and let him deal with it; or c)take a picture of Mike with the bait hanging from his ear?

Hindsight is 20/20, and looking back I wish I would have chosen option c.  But at the time I didn't know how seriously Mike was injured and felt it might be bad form to snap a photo.  I also didn't want to stop fishing when I was hauling in a jack at least every other cast.

As it turned out, Al stepped up and freed mike from the hook.  At first, Mike tried to stop the bleeding with a paper towel (see above image,) but, when that didn't work, Al cleaned and bandaged the ear.

"That's the first time I've ever had to use my first-aid kit," Al said.

I didn't get a picture of Al performing surgery, but take a look at this picture of him releasing a jack, and you'll get the idea.

The good news is, we caught numerous more fish that day in Turkey Creek and on the Indian River.  To learn more about fishing there and throughout the Palm Bay, Florida area, visit Captain Al's website.  And to read about another angler whose hooks got under his skin, read Arthur's post from last week.

Comments

[Kristine Shreve]

What is it with all the stories about people getting hooked by fish hooks lately. First Arthur was telling them and now you.

I'm starting to worry about going fishing now.

[Arthur]

Thanks for the link even though it kind of is at my expense. Oh well though. At least I know I'm not the only one to get hooked, and at least I didn't hook myself. I had someone take care of that for me:)

[Rex]

the number one rule of fishing is "every man for himself"

[Othmar Vohringer]

That must have hurt. I vaguely remember getting hooked on the leg as child when I stud to close behind a fisherman. Not pleasant.
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