An Eye Full: Angler’s near-miss a good reminder of fishing safety

Published 7:21 am Thursday, May 26, 2016

Everyone who has fished any amount of time at all has done it, and counted themselves lucky they did not get hurt in the process.

You cast toward shore and in the first reel or two hang up on some brush. You jiggle the rod tip a little hoping the lure comes loose.

When it doesn’t you immediately go to Plan B. Not wanting to disturb good waters you reel down loading up as much pressure as possible on the line and then you pull backwards. The idea is that either the line will snap, where the only damage is a lost lure, or the bait comes loose.

If it is the latter the most common result is that the lure flies back toward the boat like a missile. For the lucky ones it safely lands somewhere on the water in front or behind the boat. For those already having a bad day it ends up embedded somewhere in their body.

Getting hooked, however, is probably more common while trying to unhook a bait from a still lively fish. Crankbaits with multiple sets of treble hooks are notorious for finding their way from a fish’s mouth to a fisherman’s hand.

And then there is Alan Haynes.

A life-long sportsman, Haynes has been fortunate enough to have fished throughout North America. Now he is happy just to wet a hook at Grove Club Lake in southern Smith County. Although the lake is full of quality bass, Haynes’ passion is the giant bream it also produces. He often goes out either alone or maybe with a friend to spend some time on the water catching them.

Haynes is normally pretty cautious. OK, he can be cautious to the point of paranoia at times. He didn’t make it into his 70s by taking unnecessary chances. Then again he also runs a hunting lease called the No Talent Hunting Club. Things seem to happen to him or around him.

Last week it was Haynes who got hooked, sort of.

“I was fishing from my pier and throwing into some brush next to my neighbor’s boathouse,” Haynes explained. “Normally I fish with 6- or 8-pound line, but I had just bought a new reel and it had 10-pound line on it.”

Using a rubber-skirted eighth-ounce jig it did not take long to get tangled in the brush pile.

“I was pulling and pulling and it didn’t break,” he said. “It just released and the next thing I know I was on the floor of my pier. It nearly knocked me out.”

Haynes was lucky, if you can call it that. Instead of taking the hook to the eye he was hit by the weight. For several minutes he laid on the pier in pain and blind in one eye.

Because he was alone, Haynes had no one to drive him into Tyler to the doctor’s office so once he was able to gather his wits he drove himself.

A week later there is still so much blood in the eye his doctor is not able to tell him whether he will regain vision or not.

“All around my eye is black; he said I took a direct hit and that I shouldn’t do that,” Haynes said with a laugh.

The 76-year-old considers himself lucky because this is only the second time something like this has happened. The other was on Lake Tyler years ago when he flipped a jig with a trailer over a log. As he worked it back, the jig grabbed the tree bark.

Again Haynes loaded up the line, but instead of it breaking the log rolled back toward him, the jig unhooked and then next thing he knew he was hooked.

“There is a lesson to be learned here,” Haynes said. “It is a lot easier to cut the line.”

But we all know that is not going to happen, especially with an expensive crankbait or spinner tied on or when fishing productive water.

So what do you do if you are not hooked in the eye or near an artery?

There are-on-the-water options depending on how the hook is sitting. While it may not sound like it you have to hope the barb went all the way through so the point can be cut off and the shank pulled back through the entry wound.

If it does not go all the way through the best option is known as the string yank method in which fishing line is looped around the hook, the hook is pushed down to release the barb and it is yanked out.

Personally, I have only been hooked once. It was in an earlobe by a young fisherman standing next to me. I opted for a much easier removal technique. Seek medical help.

Fishing is not supposed to be an especially dangerous sport, but stuff happens sometimes.

Have a comment or opinion on this story? Contact outdoor writer Steve Knight by email at outdoor@tylerpaper.com. Follow Steve Knight on Facebook at Texas All Outdoors and on Twitter @txalloutdoors.