I truly didn’t understand how sharp musky’s teeth were until the other day. I hit the Otonabee River with my buddy for an afternoon chasing musky. He is a fly fisherman and I was using gear. We started out by covering water and looking for weed beds. The section we were fishing had a few old cribs that usually have a few fish around them and right off the bat I had a musky bump my Slopmaster but didn’t commit. After that it was a normal musky fishing day with a few followers and lot of down time in between, until they started running water through the power generators. This rang the dinner bell for everything and the musky came alive. My buddy had a fish inhale his fly and snap his floro leader. He then had 2 other fish swirl and follow his fly.
Hand tied by Josh
Hand tied by Josh
I was changing up presentations, trying to get in on the action, and decided to go back to the Slopmaster. It didn’t take long before a fish ate it next to a weed edge and really close to the kayak. Thankfully it’s not very often that a fish will actually eat a bait and require a bit of surgery, but unfortunately this little 35-incher was one of those fish. I had the jaw spreaders in its mouth and was holding the fish over the net, trying to retrieve the hooks, when it decided to shake its head. My thumb was in the wrong place at the wrong time and when the jaw spreaders came out its teeth found my hand and dug in. It happened extremely fast and when I looked down I only saw open meat and blood.
Thankfully I wasn’t far from shore, and I have a motor on my kayak so I didn’t have to paddle back in. The hospital visit was pretty quick and I was in and out in just over an hour.
The doctor said that this was the first fish bite he had stitched up but he has done lots of hook removals before. Lesson learned, keep my thumb trucked in and not hanging over the fish's open mouth. I have also ordered a cut proof landing glove just in case.
- Randaller
