Lessons learned

[downsouth]

What happened
.
I landed about a pound and a half catfish saturda.y trolling bandits. That's where things turn..ed to crap in a hurry. I decided not to use the pliers on the little guy. Before I knew what happened, I was sharing two treble hooks with the catfish. Two in my thumb one of which was buried past the barb. The othr treble was buried past the barb in my index finger. I was effectivly rendered helpless in about 2 seconds flat. My wife got the pliers and tried to free my fingers which wasn't happening fast enough for me or the catfish which started trashing again. I told her to get the catfish off if she could. All this as I'm behind the wheel and we have four other lines out. She frees the catfish which falls fins in full defensive posture. The next thing that happened was much more painful than the hooks buried in my fingers. The darned thing fell and stuck his fin in my upper right shin bone. I'm looking down in agony at this fish hanging off my leg. With my right hand still hooked together, I let go of the wheel and knocked this catfish from hell off me,not before he thrashed again.

I could feel my shin getting numb as blood flowed readily from the wound. After we got the boat I purchased a 9.99 first aid kit from walmart. My wife got it out and cleaned the wound with some disinfectant wipes we keep on the boat. More about those later. In this first aid kit was a nice size box of band aids that had about five inside and 2 neosporin small packets. This thing looked fairly well stocked thru the transparent plastic. It was adequate for what we needed.

Lessons learned ;

All catfish get handled with pliers. It's the small ones that hurt you.

Be sure you know what is in yoir first aid kit, especially if it is a cheap prepackaged one.

Things can happen quick and being on the water when they do happen ads to the danger.

For the last few trips out when we caught catfish I thought to myself after wiping off the slim with disinfectant wipes, "why do sardis catfish smell so bad"?
Turns out that the wipes had soured and stank like
the worst pair of feet on earth.

Conclusions:

Experiance is a tough teacher, it gives the consequences before the lesson.

I hate a catfish !!

[duckhunter]

WOW.........what a story. How did you get the hooks out?

[CatchumDeep]

All the fish I catch on cranks are handled with pliers. All catfish caught on cranks are shaken off the trebles directly over the side of the boat.

[hawgdog]

Now thats a tough day!! My luck the other 4 poles would have hit while all that other was goin on

[CatchumDeep]

Now thats a tough day!! My luck the other 4 poles would have hit while all that other was goin on

All 4 by catfish, no doubt.

[downsouth]

WOW.........what a story. How did you get the hooks out?

My wife just had to keep pulling until they came out. I really was hurting on my shin to notice the pain while she was doing it.

[downsouth]

All the fish I catch on cranks are handled with pliers. All catfish caught on cranks are shaken off the trebles directly over the side of the boat.

BINGO !! That is my standard operating proceedure.
Don't know what I was thinking. We had just caught 7 keepers on our first pass. Just wasn't thinking with good sense.

[downsouth]

Now thats a tough day!! My luck the other 4 poles would have hit while all that other was goin on

It was still a good day although I was in disbelief shaking my head. I told my wife I didn't think that little fish could have whipped me any better. He also knocked my cigarettes and lighter in the lake.

She replied, "He could have stuck you in the pecan". I cringed at the thought she put in my head. I believe that catfish from hell would have knocked my outboard off and pulled the plug if he exited off the back.

[Stump]

Little too late now but, grab em behind the head with your thumb and middle finger and they can't hurt ya.

[Chucker]

Dang!!! Downsouth, you had a day of it. I try to handle all of the treble hooks with pliers. Been There, Done That. Man, I am glad you got it under control. That catfish fin spot will be sore for a while, I hate them. Sure hope you next trip is less eventful, with a lot of good fishing!!!!