Strangest injury caused by a fish

Atlas Knife Company

Atlas Knife Company

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Feb 16, 2010
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A couple months ago, we got 12" of rain in 48 hours. Our pond, a 7 acre bass fishing beauty, flooded severely. It went about 18" over the damn which is 6' above the normal water level. The pictures were taken after 7" of rain. They show our little fishing boat chained to the fence with only the bow above water, water going over the damn, and the pool at the bottom of the overflow. There were about 20 grass carp in the main pond about 18 years old. We also stocked 20 10" carp last fall. Several of the larger grass carp went over the damn in the flood. The carp are currently in this pool at the bottom, which is about 15' wide, 80' long and about 2' deep. We don't know how many, but at least 15 have been counted on the bottom side of the damn. Right after the flood, we netted and hauled two of the carp back up the hill to the pond. The water was still warm and the fish were very active. They took quite a beating from the flooding and were quite cut up. They also didn't like being netted and were further injured from thrashing in the nets. We decided to give up and let nature take it's course figuring the fish would probably die anyway.

Last weekend we noticed the fish were still in the overflow pool. The water had cleared up and we counted 11 fish. Big fish. Still around 42" long but much thinner. The first couple fish right after the flood weighed around 75lbs. The fish currently weigh around 50lbs. Using a couple fishing nets and a wagon, we managed to catch 7 fish and haul them up to the pond. Five of them swam away, one stayed upright but didn't swim away, one was dead by the time we left. Each successive fish was easier to catch than the last, obviously they are slowly starving and the colder water was slowing the fish down considerably. The last fish we caught went in the net and thrashed once and that was it. It did swim away peacefully when we put him in the pond.

The carp were resting on the bottom of the pool at the northern end behind a retaining wall in the calm water. Catching 50lb. carp is VERY hard on aluminum fishing nets. We destroyed two nets moving the nine fish(2 + 7). Toward the end we noticed the carp had moved from one end of the pool to the other. I was standing in the middle of the pool off to one side and the southern end of the pool was whacked with a big stick. The carp that was there made a big swirl and darted toward the northern end of the pool. Carp swim very fast, probably about 10-15 mph. I was standing in about 12" deep water, but the carp decided to swim straight into my leg. It couldn't have hit me more squarely in the calf if it tried. I've been hit in the leg by a hockey puck several times and this was worse. Still, we hope to get new nets and the remaining carp this weekend. I'll try to get pictures of them.
 

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i was surf casting at port aransas tex. & we were catching a potporri of fish. we have these small fish called sand trout & no limit since so many. casting a gold spoon & hooked one which ran between my legs, the treble hook went through pants & stuck in my lower thigh. was agony wading back so my buddy could untangle us.
dennis
 
I used to guide for northern pike (amongst others). I was certainly used to the cuts, gouges and slices these toothy fish can dish out, but one time I was taking a hook out of a big, healthy 42" fish when it wacked me in the thigh with its tail. Not sure if it was the angle or what, but it felt like someone hit me with a small baseball bat! My leg just about folded right there. I managed to finish what I was doing and release it unharmed back into the lake, but I walked funny for the rest of the day:o
 
75 lb Grass Carp. Those are huge.

I caught a blue cat, no more than 6 inches long. I was barefoot in a boat. I went to grab it when he flipped off the hook. It impaled my middle toe with a side fin. He was thrashing frantically with that fin stuck in my toe. Dam that hurt.
 
When I was around 10 I caught a three pound large mouth bass while fishing with my uncle. I was using worms and two hooks about 12" apart from each other. The bass took the top hook, and while I was un hooking it the fish slapped it's tail and drove the bottom hook into my finger! My uncle had to back the hook out ! I still kringe thinking about it 41 years later!
 
There was a sad case of a fisherman who got a hook in his finger .Doctor took it out but the next day there was major swelling. It was a flesh eating bacteria .Dispite amputations he died in a few days.It was that rapid !
 
Back in the late 70's a friend and I were bass fishing at Lake Moultrie (lower lake of Santee Cooper) SC. We were wading in waist-deep water and casting
Texas-rigged plastic worms around the base of cypress trees. My friend was standing to my right side doing the same. I had just finished a cast when I felt a 'tick' (a pick-up) I reeled in a foot or so of slack and set the hook....NOTHING. This happened for the next several casts to the same spot.
"This must be a yearling", I thought, so when the ole' boy did the same thing again I hit the free-spool on the bait-caster and let him run for several seconds. Leaning forward I cranked in the slack and set the hook with all I had! That little 3/4 lb, bass came out of the water like a rocket and hit my buddy square in the chops.,,,the look on his face was PRICELESS:eek:
He threw up both hands in a half-hearted attempt to shield himself (dropping his rod in the process) while falling back-wards and disappearing under the murky water leaving only his hat floating on the surface.

He spent the entire next week ' 'splainin' the black eye he was sporting...:)
 
got a lake loaded with carp and it's considered a nuisance fish; they wouldn't mind us catching them all but i don't have a clue how to catch them...they sure don't hit on trout baits...what do carp hit on?
 
Depends on the type of carp. Grass carp, or white amur, are beneficial as they eat plants and don't reproduce in smaller ponds and northern climates. Asiatic flying carp are a different story. However, most carp are vegetarian, therefore corn & cherry tomatoes work well.
 
Common carp can be caught on whole kernel corn, or dough balls. The internet is full of dough ball recipes. I just use wheaties. Wet a handful and shape in a ball.
 
the classic carp bait is big red soda & corn chips. you knead it until a stiff dough. put on a # 10 treble hook with a real small split shot. carp are supposed to be one of the smartest fresh water fish & bite very very light. on a windy day you might pass on carp & fish for cats. they put up a good fight & if bled out make decent carp balls.
dennis
 
the classic carp bait is big red soda & corn chips. you knead it until a stiff dough. put on a # 10 treble hook with a real small split shot. carp are supposed to be one of the smartest fresh water fish & bite very very light. on a windy day you might pass on carp & fish for cats. they put up a good fight & if bled out make decent carp balls.
dennis
 
There is the apocryphal tale of a fisherman decapitated by the tail of a thresher shark he caught.

I heard a story of a mate on a local party boat that was working on a 36 hour trip to one of the offshore banks around here. A patron caught a spiny dogfish and while the mate was taking it off of the hook it twisted and spined him in the forearm. The spine hit an artery and the crewman had to be airlifted off by a coast guard helicopter.

When I was about 12 we were bluefishing with my father. It was a rough day. We were on a Grady White Overnighter 20. We were fishing around Graves Light in Outer Boston Harbor. We got one bluefish and while the old man was putting it into the fish box under the walkaround it somehow thrashed and latched on to his face beneath his eye. My mother pried the jaws apart and cut her index fingers to the bone. We didn't know how bad the damage to his face and eye was until he got to Mass. General. The fish just missed his eye and just hung on to the flesh above his cheekbone. He had a dimpled scar but the fish did not remove any tissue. My mother got stitches and it took a few years for her to regain all of the feeling in her index fingers. Between my parents and the fish there was so much blood on the deck it looked like a massacre. :eek:
 
I got two different onces from blue cats, both in South Carolina but many years apart.

Back in '96, I think it was, we were at Santee and stayed at Canal Lakes on the Diversion Canal. We weren't there an hour and hadn't even unpacked yet, and my dad hooked a big blue on a crappy light action rod my uncle had brought. The bank drops off a couple of feet to the water, and we'd brought a dip net with an extension handle, but hadn't put it on yet. I went into the lake with the net to get the fish. It swam between by legs and the tail slapped me on the inside of the thigh. If you've never been tail slapped by a big cat, you have no idea how strong they are. It left a bruise the size of my hand on my thigh, but I got it in the net. It was a 28lb blue on 8lb line.

Two years ago, I was down near Cheraw fishing on the Pee Dee with a friend. I caught a 17lb blue and was attempting to hold it for a picture. In all the squirming around, the fish managed to slam one of it's pectoral spines into my chest about 2 inches above my nipple. Talk about pain! I got really lucky, it only went in about 1/2". I'm sure that my heavy t-shirt played a part in it, and I'm kind of thick in the chest too. If I was bare chested at the time (and had a scrawny chest), I think that the whole spine would have went it, and it was almost 3" long. It might have hit my lung or my heart if it went deep enough. Scared the **** out of me at first. I thought I'd been killed by a catfish!:o

I was sore as hell for several days and the area around it was inflamed too. Doctor put me on some anitbiotics for a few days and it cleared right up.
 
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catfish have a slime that hurts like hell if even a little gets i a cut. i found that meat tenderiser gives immediate relief. never-ever flip a channel cat back in water to release. even the smallest twists when you throw it back & everytime the pec. fin will scrape your inner finger. i hold them out & let them drop straight down. you can try to throw them back quickly but the fish will twist even faster & give you pain.
dennis
 
Saw a Spanish mullet take a hunk out of my uncles palm. He was talking to me and let it get too close to his hand and it bit him.
 
pilote said:
got a lake loaded with carp and it's considered a nuisance fish; they wouldn't mind us catching them all but i don't have a clue how to catch them...they sure don't hit on trout baits...what do carp hit on?
Click to expand...

A real simple bait is wild berry flavored Powerbars.
We usually use doughballs though.
 
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