Orchidman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 12, 2025 9:48 pm
Got called back to the charter boat a month ago as all but one of the crew I had trained, for various reasons either quit or are unavailable. Have been doing the mid week charters and the remaining guy does the weekends.
Yesterdays charter was a rough one.......ended up fishing in the harbour as the bar was impassable.....and even the harbour was bouncing the boat 2-3meters up and down.
Anchored up, got the punters who didnt succumb to sea sickness fishing and finally got time to catch a couple for myself.
One of the guys lost his terminal gear on a 7ft shark so I started tying a new trace for him. Was just finishing tying a no 9 long shanked hook onto the trace when the boat took a particularly nasty roll.......The punter was sitting down holding on to his rod and fell off his seat taking the rod with him and pulling the trace out of my hands.
The hook entered just below the first joint on the inside of my little finger, scraped along the bone and the tip ended up just visible poking out the end of the finger. The guy fainted on the floor.
I immediately cut the nylon, told Mark to grab the bolt cutters, knew that I would have to push the hook through the finger to be able to cut the barbed end off as it wasnt coming back out with the barb on.......
20 seconds later I grabbed the shank of the hook, pushed the hook further into my finger ( Human skin is bloody tough and it took considerable effort) till the barb was completely exposed, Mark then managed to cut the barb off and I backed the shaft out. Wrapped the finger in clean Handkerchief, grabbed my personal first aid kit out of my bag and opened it, wiped the blood off, squirted some Chrystaderm cream over the injury, slapped a bandage on it, cut a finger off a latex glove and slipped it over the bandage, taped it down with electrical tape, then put a latex glove over the hand to keep it dry.
Whole operation took at the most about 2min 30seconds from start to finish.
We stayed fishing for 3 more hours then headed back. Got the boat clean, fueled it up for the following day and came home. Applied a new dressing last night and, surprisingly enough managed to get a good nights sleep without the finger causing me any grief.
Today its just tender to the touch.
The biggest lessons I reaffirmed were these...
Always have a plan. If you have a plan, dont hesitate, just do it. In the last 20 odd years of working on the boat I have always run through the 'What if this happens' scenarios in my brain.......
I knew that the rush of adrenaline immediately the hook entered would suppress the pain and used that to my advantage.
Luckily, the hook was new, wasnt rusty, didnt have bait or any contaminants on it. Didnt have time to take pics. Will wait a day or so to see if it becomes infected.
Got 2 days of moving furniture and cleaning the homestead ahead as I have hired the place for 50 people for a Xmas party tuesday night...then 5 more mid week charters before xmas day.
I hate Xmas!!!
made into trail bologna.