We had a 4 day weekend at work, so I accompanied the boss to his place outside Beaufort on Adam's Creek.
Been visiting there with him over the years, long before I worked for him.
I've had a lot of fun there shrimping and fishing.
He's got a cute little pier with his 2 boats on lifts and I absolutely LOVE fishing off it in our "down time".
Never dreamed I'd catch a 300 pound billfish off the pier though!
Hi, my name is Bill. Haha
That sucked.
A little after midnight.
Two hook rig and about a 20 pound stingray.
Other hook in the ray.
Once I landed it and figured out it wasn't a skate I was trying to keep my "somewhat inebriated" wife away from the tail.
Reached down too fast with the pliers and felt a nice pop as the barb seated itself in my thumb.
Boss and his wife were already passed out back at the house. No cell service on end of his pier.
Ray would flop and it would twist in my thumb. Tried to get wife to unhook the clip and it would twist. She whipped out her knife and started sawing on the leader, until I remembered that it was metal. Holy smokes that hurt too!
Finally got the hook unclipped. I cut the line and let the ray keep the leader. Made way back to the house. Sat down took a couple shots of pain relief. Realized the long shank hook wasn't gonna come back out the skin if I tried to go forward and cut the barb. Finally found some bleed stop spray that had 4% lidocaine. Sprayed for about 4 seconds, then grabbed the pliers and it came back out the way it went in.
All told it took about 40 minutes from puncture to exit.
I'm 49 and have done a lot of fishing in those years. I guess I was due. I've seen folks hooked in much more sensitive areas with bigger hooks.
It coulda been worse, but dang that was NOT fun!
