Malletts Bay Wolfpack Smallies

[Champlainbaits]

Fished this morning from 4:45 until about 6:00...at 6:00 A pickerel I caught - caught me. He had one set of trebles buried in his tongue and I had the other set of trebles in my middle finger on my left hand WAY past the barb. I'll get to the rest of that story at the end. Let's start with the Good part of the morning.

Fist cast with one of my spinnerbaits something bumped it but missed. For some reason I really wanted to fish a perch chugger I made so I cut my SB off and tied on the chugger. A couple casts later I got my first smallie of the morning. 19.75 inches and pretty chunky.

Then about 2 casts later I got this one that was 18.75 inches.

When I got this one there were two other fighting for the lure as I was positioning it next to the boat. I love it when smallies are in wolfpacks...they are so much more aggressive when they are.

I got a couple more inbetween...

So things were moving along well and i was confident that I was going to be into some more big ones because I hadn't gotten to my favorite spot yet.

Then I hooked a pickerel and got it to the boat and realized my needle nose pliers were not with me. So I got him in the boat and thought I had the situation under control when it shook it's head one hard time and BAM. We became married to the same lure via a bond that only two creatures who are hooked really bad can share.

So that's when things got really fun. I fish from a kayak and my left hand was hooked to the fish and my right hand had a death grip ON the fish to make sure he didn't move even the smallest smidge. We were at a really painful stalemate and I couldn't think of any way out of it other than holding on really tight...until the pickerel died...and then try to deal with it.

That takes a long time and I was able to spend most of it considering many philosophical ideas such as:
1) cutting the barbs off all my hooks when I get home
2) never using anything but a spinnerbait again because it only has one hook
3) never using a chugger again because the only two times this has ever happened...it was with a chugger
4) karma
5) nerve damage
6) how much of a jackass I am

So it was fun and it really does take longer than you would think.

Every once in a while I would think it was dead...test that theory...let go a little and sure enough it would shake it's head and we would start all over.

Then finally he was a goner and I was able to get my nail clippers out of my life jacket pocket and cut my line...now at least I wasn't attached to the pole any longer. Then I used my free hand to paddle to shore and very clumsily climb out of the kayak and head for my work bench.

When I got there I didn't really have a great plan...basically grab on with plies and pull until it was out...and after a bit that plan worked.

The entire trip was videoed by my chest mount gopro and let me tell you...there are some pretty funny parts on there where I'm talking to myself

Here's a screen cap of me attached to the lure and the fish just before the pliers came into play...

[Lavman]

Yikes! After all that the other question should have been "is it too early in the morning for a beer!"

[JK47]

Great story. Glad you were able to keep all your fingers.

Not sure you could have done of any different. I have switched a few of my pike lures to single hooks for ease of release. The pickerels really like to thrash around once they are lifted out of the water.

[WildFisherWoman]

Ouch man.... At least you caught fish!

[woolywag]

ouch !!! never had that happen to me ,, luckly , but i was on a charter on Big O ,,,, my freinds brothor reached into the net to get his first 20 +- king out and he ended up w/ one barb from a J-plug in his index finger ,, the fish thrashed and tore the hook from his finger ,,, a nasty gash ,,, took seven sticths ,,, got infected , took something like 2 months to heal

[schodackbassman]

Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow........

[cowboy]

That looks like it could have hurt.TRY not to do that again

[Champlainbaits]

Yeah that one hurt a lot. All three times I've ever been hooked past the barb it's been with a chugger. Only twice was it my fault although I'm going to give the pickerel an assist on this one.

[raz]

Son of a...

[Brian]

Been there, done that. But in my boat. Good job making it all the way to your work bench.