An angler’s truth: There will be blood

Nicks, cuts, bruises, and other aches and pains come with the territory when fishing. I’ve been fortunate enough to have made only one fishing-related emergency room trip when a hook stuck into my middle finger. At the time, the doctor assured me it was a fairly common occurrence.

Anglers must handle sharp objects such as hooks and knives daily. When catching toothy animals, such as sharks and mackerel species, it’s pretty much a matter of time before an accident will happen. For me, that time was last weekend.

On a beautiful morning I woke up early to meet Rafael Sanchez aboard his 24-foot Grady White center console. Our goal was to target a variety of fish among grouper, snapper, kingfish and whatever else might venture our way while fishing between 10 and 20 miles offshore. We set off with dead bait complimented by a live well of pinfish, shiners, threadfin and shrimp.

Our first stop was in water 50-feet deep over a ledge that produced action on tasty porgies, small grouper and nice size yellowtail snapper. We pushed a bit farther west, ending on an area of the underwater peaks known to hold plenty of kingfish.

The bottom bite continued with more grouper, yellowtail snapper, porgies and more. A flat line with a threadfin was cut in half meaning the kingfish had to be around. Another threadfin went out, and we resumed bottom fishing.

With plenty of fish coming up from the depths, a large kingfish decided it was curious what we were doing. It followed up a small grouper and hung around the boat. I quickly reeled in the threadfin and watched this king torture it’s future prey, slapping at it multiple times on the surface only feet from the boat. On about it’s fourth inspection, the smoker decided it was time to eat, going airborne with the threadfin in the razor sharp teeth.

The long shank hook was firmly implanted but with no wire leader it was looking questionable whether the Yozui leader would avoid being cut. After 10-minutes the kingfish was finally up to the boat where Sanchez gaffed it firmly, swinging it over the gunnel.

After exchanging high fives, I had to get a picture and size estimate of the biggest kingfish I had seen in quite some time.

Sanchez handed me his Boga Grip, which I struggled to get firmly held in the mouth. The kingfish decided it wasn’t dead yet, lashing out one more time as it kicked up, slicing me across my thumb and up my forearm. There was no pain, but the blood poured down my arm as I checked the scale only to see it went past the maximum of a 30-pound reading.

After a few pictures, my arm and hand had turned completely red. Eight gashes each doing their best to also paint everything in the boat red. Sanchez went to his first aid kit where we were able to clean up the wounds, apply gauze, then take a rubber glove I use for filleting fish stretched around the wound to apply pressure. The pain was minimal, so we resumed fishing the rest of the day and ended up catching plenty of grouper, snapper, mackerel and more.

That night I was able to clean, bandage, and wrap the gashes. There were luckily no stitches required after consulting with my EMT neighbors.

The end result was a reminder to myself that things can go wrong in an instant. Being prepared to deal with such a situation and acting quickly kept a bad situation from getting much worse. Check to make sure everything from your first aid to safety equipment is up to date, because you never know when you may need it.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 6:21 PM with the headline "An angler’s truth: There will be blood."