T.O. Island Report and a lesson learned

[tbayboy]

First excuse any typos, you'll undertand later.

 

So on with the report (hopefully I can post it, the boards crawling again). PatrickG and I hooked up this morning and headed off to Center Island on the 10am boat. At the water the official was waiting to make sure everything was on the up and up:

 

 

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/198/485480310_5cb490a134.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="The officials" /></a>

 

 

 

It wasn't too long before we saw another fisherman pull one in it turns out hes an OFNer from the old board whos name I forget (sorry). There were quite a few other anglers around but except for one guy plopping right beside me and casting over my line it wasn't overly crowded. Anyhow, not to long later:

 

 

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/222/485512923_f950b42669.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Patrick starting the day right" /></a>

 

 

Hooray, we're in the game, unfortunately next cast Patricks lucky crankbait comes off the line, not to be defeated:

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/485480528_4a7a8d5f4b.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Where's my lure" /></a>

 

 

 

But it wasn't meant to be. Ah well, back to fishing we went, had a few decent follows and as you can see it was a beautiful day:

 

<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/223/485480630_44e6c61706.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Toronto Urban Fishing" /></a>

 

So all is well in the world right?

 

 

Hows that for a setup .

 

 

Around 1ish Patrick landed another 15"er but the fish had managed to get the hooks pretty messed up. So as I'm trying to pry its mouth open so Patrick can get in some spreaders the "docile" pike dives in the air, twists and comes unhooked. Unfortunately during that little tussle I felt this prick and then some pressure and some torque and sure enough

 

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<a href=" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/179/485512615_2eacc6d086.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Please be careful when fishing" /></a>

 

 

 

Son of a b****! Honestly I was more upset at myself, we screwed up that 'unhooking' badly and I got what I deserved.

 

We tried getting it out but the barb was in too deep. I gotta say, I now have a lot more understanding for the guys that promote barbless hooks. Also for guys who wear gloves and guys who know that crankbaits and jumpy fish require your full attention.

 

Anyhow, we headed to the first aid station on the island which has nothing but bandages and ice bags. Sigh - the fishing day was over

 

Back to my car and Patrick drove to St. Joe's where I got to watch the hook be pushed the rest of the way through and then out of my finger (after a local of course) - very weird to watch the hook come out your finger but not feel it. Then it was off to see a nurse for a tetnis shot and we were done. (kudos to st. joes - 2 hours in and out and friendly all the way, course wasn't busy so I got lucky)

 

What upset me the most is that the action was just getting good, I look forward to reading everyone elses reports and Patrick: thanks a bunch for being a standup guy there, I owe you a treble and a full day of fishing. Hell if my finger feels up to it I might just be back there tommorow so if you see someone doing a lot of one handed casts come on over and say hi

 

PS: typing without your middle finger is a serious pain

[canadian_copper]

great outing till that bro!!!! ouch!!!! hope ya didnt damage anything

[bbog]

Oh that hurts!!! A reminder to everyone to be safe out there.

[dsn]

outchhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Thats another reason I prefer to stick to carp fishing. I don't like messing around with trebels.

 

 

 

[tbayboy]

yep, I'll definitely be more careful. It was a classic 'I've been nicked by the hooks a 100 times, its never a big deal' and then one time it is . Luckily no major damage and the feeling is coming back already but yep - take care everyone or you'll waste your afternoon too Funny things is that the doc thanked me for giving him a chance to do a hook as he hasn't done one since he use to work hospitals up north, guess I was glad to help

[silveradosheriff]

That sucks that it got your driving finger!

[mepps]

ouch!

[lovetofish]

ouch! Thats gotta hurt! Didn't know that pike fishing was open over there. maybe i'll check it out.

 

lovetofish

[b2kptbo]

Like the picture with the CN Tower but oooohhh ouch on the last. Safe time on your next outing...

[PatrickGG]

Hey! Tbayboy i hope everything is o.k on your end and no problem with helping you out i think it just becomes more of a priority

 

when someone is hurt, I was in shock when it all went down everything happened so fast i almost lipped him bare hands to avoid the accident

 

that occurred but it was to late, so hopefully next time things will go alot smoother and this for sure this will be a day that i wont forget.

 

 

 

Hope to see you soon for some more pike action Sean and get well.

 

 

P.S

We ran into R.J, he says hes gonna re-register to the site, we actually witnessed his first T.O Island pike landed so he seemed very

 

happy about that hopefully we hear from him soon.

Edited May 6, 2007 by PatrickG

[lunkerbasshunter]

ouch!!!!

 

Looks like you guys were having a good day until that hook up.

 

Glad your ok!

 

Cheers!

[007]

Ouch!

 

I know how that feels - it's a year to the day since I did exactly the same thing as you down at the T.O Islands! It was last year's pike opener that I hooked my first ever pike but painfully ended up in St Michael's having a treble removed from my finger! I learnt the hard way to be careful when unhooking those small pike - they're difficult buggers.

 

I was out at the islands today to mark the anniversary but didn't manage to hook any pike or my finger (thankfully)! Glad you guys got into some pike though before it all went wrong.

 

You'll be out there again soon. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

 

007

Edited May 6, 2007 by OO7

[tbayboy]

Yep 007 thats it exactly - those little ones are scrappers. I should have seen it coming the way it kept flipping itself out of the water when Patrick was bringing him in. Ah well, glad to know I'm in good company - who's turn is it next year then?

 

So far the finger isnt too sore but Clampet your probably right about it starting to hurt tomorrow (lots of drugs around here somewhere) but so far its just the shoulder they gave me the tetanus shot in thats sore (what the hell is in that anyways, hurts to lift my damn arm).

[Greencoachdog]

I embeded a treble like that in my knee one time, knelt down on a 1/2 oz inline spinner while tying up the boat! It went thru my blue jeans and into the knee. Had to cut the hook off as close to the shank as possible so I could get my pant leg up to work on it. Pushed it up and thru myself, no local or general... just lotsa cussin'!!!

 

I never will forget that.

[tbayboy]

Ouch, Green you sir are more man that I Funny thing is that I kept trying to back it out and never thought of pushing it through. of course I'd have still been screwed since we didn't have anything to cut it with (my cutters are now in my tackle bag - wont make that mistake twice)

[mattyk]

ohhh, that looks bad.

[mikeymikey]

Sorry about hooking & thanks for the pictures.

 

 

Ok so,, what is the safest/proper way to hold a pike ? and to remove the hook yourself.

 

would like to know exactly how everyone does it.

 

(oh i have never caught a pike before)

[Greencoachdog]

Sorry about hooking & thanks for the pictures.

Ok so,, what is the safest/proper way to hold a pike ? and to remove the hook yourself.

 

would like to know exactly how everyone does it.

 

(oh i have never caught a pike before)

 

 

First you beat it to a bloody pulp with a baseball bat (or hockey stick), then gingerly remove the hook!

[tbayboy]

Haha, yeah that would work (and growing up thats the way the little snot rockets were treated). The larger ones like in my profile pic are fine (under the gills) or for a bit smaller you can squeeze down behind the eyes (on the gills kinda - look at the last pick in patricks signature) assuming you can put your hand around its neck; I wouldn't suggest lipping them thought . This one was just a couple pounds and made us 'lazy' when handling it and frankly we were both trying to get the hooks out at the same time (it was hooked under the mouth in a weird and ugly way) so 4 hands, extra hooks and a small fish coupled with their slime factor and the the back treble hanging loose is what got me - had nothing to do with how to hold them in this case, just my own stupidity. Just one of those things but does make me wonder if there's a market for an easy to use 'wrapper' you could drop on the exposed trebles to cover them while you worked on the embeded one. Ah well, live and learn - maybe I should try crappies next - anyone got any ideas on shore sports for 'em?

[motv8tr]

Dang, that's one heck of a day you had there...gotta say I'm impressed with your typing ability though with a bumb finger and all. Hope it heals up ok.

 

Maureen

[huntervasili]

Well nice fish and glad to hear you got your finger all fixed up... could of course have been much worse so you've gotta be thankful for that... maybe the hook in your face, or even two of the points stuck in yea... heal up fast and get some more of them buggers...

[snag]

Yowza!

 

Had the same thing happen to me. Unfortunately it's been over 6 months and my finger has not healed (the hook went into my knucle)

I think you'll be good real soon.

 

I've breifly met Patrick, very nice man. Good that he was there to help.

 

Get well soon!

[Jigger]

The small ones always seem to be a lot feistier than the big ones. Hard to hang on to if the fish isn't much bigger than the lure. That looks like a sketchy spot to get hooked, OUCH! Hope you recover and get out there soon!

[majorlifts]

I had an experience with a muskie that left me with a feeling of great respect for this fish and pike. I caught a muskie, and forever have used a glove till one fine day I thought, hey im too good at this game to wear protective gear. Tisk tisk tisk, the grave mistake killed my afternoon of amazing muskie action in the hospital getting 4 stitches in my thumb.

 

Great care and respect is required when handling fish this size. No doubt about er.

[bassmaster4]

just by seeing that i think im gonna get some gloves for handilng fish