I’ve seen a recent post on one of the internet boards asking about safety in the surf. I guess after you fished for so long, almost exclusively at night, you stop thinking about safety in some sense.
I know that I have more screws loose than many of you. I almost never wear Korkers on a local jetty. Instead I wear waders with felt. If I can get away without wearing Korkers, I will. I hate those things, especially on dry rocks. They are a pain in the ass to walk with and they hurt my feet. Of course, places like Block, Montauk or Cuttyhunk are not the places were Korkers are optional.
Yes, I said I wear waders on the jetty. Would I recommend you do the same? No. By all means put on a wetsuit or a splash top. You will be much safer if you happen to fall in the water.
How about lightning? Do you routinely leave when lightning is in the area? I have done it on rare occasions. It takes a lot of lightning to chase me away.
Swimming to rocks at night? I think it’s fun in certain places. I won’t swim to anything in Montauk yet there is no rock pile in Cuttyhunk I probably would not be willing to at least try. Why? Because I never feel in Montauk that a giant fish is one cast away like I do in Cutty. I know its weird but that is how I feel. Besides, the strong currents and ever-present surf on the south side of Montauk can be a pain to deal with.
How many times have I forgotten flashlight or had battery die on me and still continued fishing? More times I care to admit. How about swimming in waders to get to rocks? Been there, done that.
Yeah, I take some stupid chances, something I would never recommend for you to do.
But I do have my fears and you will probably find this amusing. Strictly for conversation sake, let’s say I caught a thousand stripers in one season (wishful thinking last few years )Out of those, how many do you think I would touch with my hand? How many do you think I would lip to unhook? 1500?900? 500? 200? Obviously I don’t have an exact number but I would say it would be less than 50.Maybe even less than 20
I almost never touch a fish while unhooking it. Even when fishing bucktails, when all you need it to grab a lip and pop the hook I choose to use Boga Grip. There was a time when I walked like a peacock after the blitz with a chafed thumb. But then I started using gloves and that was the end of that.
This is the first season in a long time where I tossed all my gloves in the garbage to force myself to fish with a wrapped finger yet again. You don’t know how many times did the glove save me from a hook in my hand. But they were also a major pain. They would shred, the line would get caught on the casting finger, some gloves had a wrist strap that was too small. And most of all, after I had a frostbite, my hands do not handle being cold well.
If you think I am fearless I have a little secret for you. I don’t like hooks. I don’t like sharpening them, cutting them, replacing them, touching them. I don’t like unhooking fish, crazy schoolie bass and jumpy bluefish on treble hooks. Combination of Boga and pliers and keeping fish away from my body, especially small trashing ones has served me well over the years.
Now you might ask, if you have a fifty pound striper close to the rock and your best bet is to grab its jaw would you do it or still try to use Boga? Oh ,that is easy, Boga it is. I rather lose a 100 pound bass then get a hook in my hand..but I am weird that way…lol
So now the question is…why am I not fishing barbless hook?…I have no idea. That is as honest of an answer as I can give you
I don’t blame you on the whole hook in the hand fear! I am very careful when unhooking any fish. I have seen hooks in hands, fingers and even a pic of a guy that works at Northport tackle when attending one of your book signings Z that had a treble in his face. Even “crazy” Alberto knie posted a pic not too long ago of a hook that went into his hand. I have seen it too many times not to think about it. Even ehen working a plug at night I am very careful not to have the plug fly back at you when retrieving and can’t tell where my plug is. I have had a few close calls like having the plug fly back from a badly hooked fish.
↓Tight lines moses
I don’t blame you on the whole hook in the hand fear! I am very careful when unhooking any fish. I have seen hooks in hands, fingers and even a pic of a guy that works at Northport tackle when attending one of your book signings Z that had a treble in his face. Even “crazy” Alberto knie posted a pic not too long ago of a hook that went into his hand. I have seen it too many times not to think about it. Even ehen working a plug at night I am very careful not to have the plug fly back at you when retrieving and can’t tell where my plug is. I have had a few close calls like having the plug fly back from a badly hooked fish.
↓Tight lines moses
“So now the question is…why am I not fishing barbless hook?…I have no idea. That is as honest of an answer as I can give you”
Does it give you a bit more confidence, that you have a better hold on the fish. I know i do and never ever crush barbs.
↓i never cared about hooks unil i burried a chx scratch in my left pointer finger. It twisted so bad and hit the bone that I was on anit biodics for a month and lost a lot of feeling in thtttthis finger. I also went boga several years ago, and ive said single best piece of gear I own. i have been working in my shop on a grip extension for the boga to move even further away from the fish and the trebles.
↓My friend Steve took a 6 siwash to the palm last summer while trying to unhook a 36′ bass. Hook in the hand and fish on the treble, was going to help him out but at the same time I hooked a 40′, luckily the barb was mashed and it backed out with out any issue. From this day on I only mash the siwash and not the the treble, I felt I was dropping to many fish when doing it to the treble.
↓I love having a 30lb bass on the front treble of my darted,my hand on the rear treble,while getting smashed off my rock and toasted into a salt water washing machineon spin cycle,and as a bonus being wrapped like a mummy by 80lb braid….. I love surfcasig,great to be alive..
↓Oh I forgot,and my flashlight not working. Lmao
↓I am always concerned about safety when i fish a local spot. Many have been swept away here. I carry fins & wear a pfd over my wetsuit. I never realized the confidence this spot breeds until you leave it.
↓Overconfidence, however has also found me bashed into MTK rocks & left me with a busted rod. My point is always prepare for the worst because it can happen suddenly.
Last August we had spectacular lightning storms out east, nothing is scarier than swimming with titanium pliers & running for cover with a carbon pole in your hand.
I carry a whistle and a glow stick. I crush all barbs but may not do so on the belly trebles any more. Lost a few fish this season.
↓I hear you guys. I still have phantom pain in my index from a buried rapala when I was 13, oh wait its real….nerve damage and scar. Ive found crushed barbs work pretty darn good. Sometimes you’d swear theres still a full barb on there. Definitely makes an easier hookup on some lures. I really agree its mostly just there to hold the bait on and thats only when Im fishing a texas rigged plastic in sweetwater or baitfishing. That said, Im still not confident enough to crush barbs on all my new plugs by a long shot, go figure.
↓Geez Irish that Chx Scratch story makes my finger hurt!
↓and Zeno how did you get frostbite if you dont mind?
Biggest fear is of things that go bump in the night seeing if you are a tasty morsel. May limit how far I go but nice to see what is around you.
↓I remember one new moon/blackest of nights being approached by a guy in the parking lot who looked “out of it” stumbling towards me and making psycho noises. I was feeling very uneasy since he would not answer my call out to him. At the last minute I shined my light onto his face last second just in case the situation was going to get bad….It did, he had a 4/0 trebles stuck in his eye. The rest is all about the drive to the hospital. I later found out he did this on a cast….Ugh!
↓Moses, The guy with the hook in his lip was “JR”, the owner of the place at the time. He was helping out on a charter boat. As he was removing a fish for a customer the guy suddenly yanked the rod, pulled the hook out of his hand and set in to his upper lip. There is a photo of it on his facebook page. He got nothing in return for that, no tip, no medical payment not even a sorry.
↓My biggest fear is that I forgot to crush the barbs on a new plug. I’d rather fish hookless than barbless.
↓Z, im with you on the hooks. All my barbs are crushed because I had a treble go in my hand while it was still attached to a flopping little bass. I do lose more fish, but its worth the comfort that I have if I get stuck again. Also Im always skittish thinking some Jason type character is going to pull me under when I am pushing out in Mtk. Stupid movies!
↓I can deal with bass on a treble hook the mouth open nice and wide and i can see whats going on. But its the blue fish that drive me nuts. i think they have metallica and ac dc stuck in their head 24 7. Anyhow it is better to be safe then sorry so a boga will be on my xmas list this year lol. a quick story, couple years back i put my finger in a cheese grater, it was off but inertia kept it swinging and that little movement tore my skin and shattered my finger. i put my finger in a cup of paroxide and almost died looking at it boil… dnt ask…. needless to say i would never be able to even feel a hook go through it. On a better note i bought a century sling shot 10’6″ paired it up with them penn torque and killed it this weekend at seaside nj. Thank you mike from K and M
↓I think that every fishermen that have been through the pain of a hook in the finger will agree, because I have quite a bunch of fish recently all my “mojo” plugs and lures are now barbless (faster to release the fish and safer)
↓I had a 4X 3/0 VCM treble lodged in my hand while unhooking a thrashing schoolie. After a random surgeon removing the hook on the beach with a pliers we wrapped it and it was back to fishing. It hurt like hell (almost passed out) but there is no reason to leave the beach for a hook in the had. I still don’t worry about hooks unless I’m fly fishing and then it is sun glasses or safety glasses to protect the eyes. I also learned to let the schoolies exhaust themselves a little bit before yanking them onto the rocks. I carry a Boga but rarely use it because I prefer to lip the fish to control it. There is something about touching the quarry that connects me to the elements that is hard to explain.
↓Listen, I love surfcasting but after my friend put a tail bomber treble in his hand and I had to drive him to the E.R. it isn’t worth it to no crush. Especially in the middle of the night. I get spooked at night sometimes, flying bats, boaters who can’t see me, googans…those all scare me especially at night lol.
↓Crushed barbs, when conditions tell me too if that makes sense. If its dark, windy and things are choppy sometimes that little voice says your senses are overloaded crush the barb. No better reminder when a hung up plug whistles past your head in the dead of night after you jerk it loose. I did invest in a boga it is a dam good tool … Plastic lip gips are just as effective … Keep those digets away from those hooks. I wear glasses because i have too a hook in the eye is more of a fear then in the hand.
↓Was careless with a blue one fine morning, sucker took a quick snap and I was gushing blood. Tried wrapping it with some tape to continue fishing, and it wasn’t doing bad until I realized I was dripping blood with every turn of the handle. Decided to head back to the car. Whipped out the first aid kit that comes with the drivers manual… cleaned with whatever was in there, wrapped it with largest bandaid I found and drove home with my finger pointed upward. i think it closed up on the ride home, and in the end, it healed pretty nicely, though I can still see the scar under my skin… if I draw 2 eyes above it, it looks like a smiley face.
As for crushing barbs, I try to crush the barbs more for the fish’s safety not mine. This year in MTK, had a schoolie that I was having alot of trouble unhooking, because I forgot to crush the barb, had to crush the hook to get it off.
↓I’ve never got a hook in my flesh, but I’ve seen it on more than enough occasions. I like to lip fish as well, it feels more like a “catch” if I touch the fish…some psychobabble could probably explain that. What scares me is BLOODWORMS. I hate those things. If that was the only bait that was catching fish I might just stand back and watch rather than bait one up. Seriously freaky with those pinchers!
↓I went to crushing the barbs while sweet water fishing. three hooks with insane pickerel on the other end made that a habit. now after three more hooks in my hand, arm and leg I thank God I crush barbs. (the one in the arm came from my plug bag sliding forward when bending to lip a fish. was from a tin in the front pouch). Boga is now my lipper of choice except when a schoolie is on a tin tube tail. I can slide the hand down and control the hook.and ALWAYS with Blues as a friend lost the tip of his ring finger unhooking one a few years back. I also wont do skishing due to fear of things that swim that might like a nibble of me.(4 years in the Navy with 2 unwanted swimming events gave me that one. hammerheads are BIG!).
↓I have been crushing the barbs on all my hooks for about 15 years,and I dont feel i have lost any fish because of it
↓“I know that I have more screws loose than many of you.” Z, your not that bad, although clipping the GoPro to your leader and giving it a cast!!
↓“I almost never wear Korkers on a local jetty. Instead I wear waders with felt. If I can get away without wearing Korkers, I will. I hate those things, especially on dry rocks. They are a pain in the ass to walk with and they hurt my feet.”
I thought your favorite jetty attire was flip flops and shorts?
And yes you have to have a couple of screws loose to do all the work you do on S.J. and then have to take this abuse!
Mark your calendar for 12/11 at Bob P.’s
For what its worth, when we kill ourselves doing what could be avoided we leave a family behind. If we think about the consequences before taking some of these chances then we would probably do otherwise, at least some of the time.
↓whoaaaa whooooaaaaa there i think everyone needs to check out pg 141 of doc mullers book secrets or surf fishing at night. thumb in the bass boga on the waist bare hand on the plug. i think its funny please dont flag me, i have nothing better todo then read the journal every day over and over and over again.
↓i wont drop a names
↓I tried the crushed barbs and after a few dropped fish wont do it anymore.Also I got to say this year I forced myself to use gloves and after awhile got pretty used to it.I was forever coming home with braid cuts and what not.I always bring the boga but unless its a big bluefish I rarely use it to unhook a fish. I usually grab the leader take a wrap around the hand and use the pliers to unhook…(hence the gloves) this was the first year I didnt put a hook in my hand in a long time!
↓My biggest fear is my truck getting towed at night when im bouncing from spot to spot and sharks. Even if it could be a 1 in a million chance of 1 being there, my mind convinces me there is 1 there.
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