Eye protection while fishing.... Wear it!!!

willierower · 09-03-2001, 04:00 PM

I called my wife at Kalama River Bait and Tackle this afternoon. She told me she just had a guy drop off another anglers rod, vest and fish. The angler who owned the gear was on his way to the hosptital to have a hook removed from his eye. From what she was told it doesnt look too good for the guy, the hook was imbedded in his eyeball.
Always wear some sort of eye protection, I always try to wear my Polarized sun glasses. Besides helping me see in the water they protect against flying lead, swivels, hooks, flies etc.
Rememeber you only get 2 eyes, try to keep them!
If any of you know the guy who was injured, Tell him his gear is safe and it is at the store.

dawhunt · 09-03-2001, 05:27 PM

This is a very good warning to all of us,Protect your eyes.might be a good idea to wear a wide brim hat to a hook in the head or neck has got to hurt and ruin a good day.
Bob dawson

WheresMyBobber · 09-03-2001, 06:25 PM

I've found fly fishing to be the real danger in hooking people. If you get a good long cast going, you'd better watch out that no one is behind you! I have hooked people before, and it isn't a good feeling.

Other than that, just don't take RT fishing. You just might end up with a Kwikfish stuck in the back of your head! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: WheresMyBobber ]

smilesforu · 09-03-2001, 08:59 PM

Hope he had a barbless hook and gets lucky with the placement of the hook. A friend I worked with had a commercial halibut hook get him in the eye....ouch. Blinded him on the one side.

I caught my dads nose as a kid when I tried to cast...whoops. Not a good feeling knowing dad is going to get the worm off his nose and be a unhappy camper. I was 4 or 5 at the time.

Another eye injury I know of occurred when a couple of boys were playing football in the house....football hit the lightbulb..glass in the eye.

Lets see one more eye injury story....friend opened a beer bottle with a rock and it exploded into his eye.

Accidents happen quickly and are impossible to undo sometimes. Nobody wants to be a walking billboard for safety, but some common sense preparation is not a bad thing.

sinker · 09-03-2001, 11:13 PM

Marty I too know of a guy who when he was a kid was throwing rocks at beer bottles in the ditch and a shard came back and got him in the eye and blinded him on that side.
How many of us did the same stupid thing when we were kids. Makes me feel very fortunate now.
This reminds me of that article in STS last year sometime where that guy had the swivel buried in his hand. OUCH!!!
Imagine if that were his eye, sucker would have penetrated to that funky gray matter.
Thing I really worry about is when my daughter goes fishing with me, which seems to be almost every time anymore. I'd hate to have something ahppen to her.
I wear prescription safety glasses all week at work, knock the side shields off and off I go fishing. How ya gonna get a 4 year old to wear safety glasses?? Let alone find them..... That's what worries me.

smilesforu · 09-03-2001, 11:47 PM

Get her some cool shades made of plastic...may not completely protect her but the plastic should shield most of the stuff with out shattering.
I had a swivel incident last week... not the first time I have been hit by the swivel. I always turn my head when I break my line because of this.

Its all healed up. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

happybrew · 09-04-2001, 01:42 PM

I always turn my head when I break my line too. Good thing too. Last year I had to make a trip to the emergency room to have a hook removed from the back of my head when my spinner came free and impaled my hat to my head. The funny thing is, I didn't realize it had gone through the hat until I started reeling in the line and wondering where my lure went. I thought it had just hit my head and bounced off. It didn't even hurt after it was stuck there. It sure was embarrassing sitting in the emergency room with a big old spinner hanging from my head, blood dribbling down. But it would have been worse to lose an eye, or hook my face and have a visible scar.

happybrew

Dogfish · 09-04-2001, 01:56 PM

I was fishing for silvers out of Sekiu this weekend and my brother had a long line release on a good sized silver. I got hit in the chest with a 3 oz banana sinker. OUCH! I'm no wimp, but man, that thing still hurts and it happened on Saturday morning.

A good point also on the barbless hooks. I removed a 2/0 gamakatsu from my dad's finger when the rookie tried to reach for a hook on a "yet to be bonked" 10 pound silver. I promptly removed it with the hook-out that I was in the process of handing him when it all happened. Then I got him a band-aid. Dad's, they never listen.

hawgcatcher · 09-04-2001, 02:10 PM

I have had my share of injuries but one I never expected happened on the Kilchis a few years ago. I had gotten snagged on a branch in the water and commenced to pull. The line broke at the hook and the lead shotgunned back at me and hit me in the mouth. I thought there was some strong pain coming and I glanced down to the bank and there layed my tooth. The lead had hit the tooth and snapped it off at the gum line. I picked up the tooth and continued to fish for awhile until the agony of a broken tooth became too much to handle. The dentist laughed (he wasn't in pain) and said that had never happened to a patient before and that I should have kept my mouth shut. Well the pain that I suffered was bad but the root canal and cap fee ($700) hurt worse. Ouch!