This could get ugly…maybe even get classed by Bob as a "horror thread"
I am sure he could tell a story or two

But here's one that happen to me about 25 years ago. Three of use where out fishing for Corvina at the Salton Sea in California. It was just getting light in the morning, and we were headed to Bombay from Corvina Beach in my buddy's 14 foot skiff. We were all looking for birds feeding on the water (a sure bet to find feeding Corvina). We spotted a bunch of birds diving on a school of bait and we headed for the area as fast as possible.

In those days, we were using 1 ½ oz chrome crocodile spoons that were about 6-8 inch long and were fitted with 4/0 or 5/0 treble hooks. We liked using these kinds of lures because they resembled the small corkers that Corvina so often feed upon. For those of you that don't know what a Corvina looks like, they look just like a "White Sea Bass". They can get to up to the 40 pound class, but average about 8-20 lbs. When hooked, they love to jump out of the water just like a tarpon does, and try to "throw the hook" while they are dancing on there tails. It's quite a sight to see!

The Salton Sea gets hot! I mean really hot. It is not uncommon for it to be 110 degrees in May by 10 am, and it never seems to drops below 80 at night during this same time period. So needless to say we all had just our shorts on and nothing else. Well, we finally stopped the boat and grabbed our rods and everyone started casting into boiling swirls of fish. It didn't take but a few seconds and all three of us were on solid to nice sized fish. My fishing buddy who was standing next to me hung into the biggest one (about 20-25 lbs) and out of the water it came!

It walked on the water for about ten or fifteen feet, violently shaking its head with that 8 inch crocodile spoon hanging from its jaw. When all of a sudden, my buddy fell backwards and yelled duck! As I looked up, in horror, I could see that that damn spoon was headed right at me like a silver knife! It happened so fast that all I could do was to duck, and lower my head and protect me from getting that spoon right between the eyes. Well 25 years ago, I was pretty fast, so that sucker didn't get to nail me between the eyes!

But that sucker did nail me right between my shoulder blades in the center of my back!

It happened so fast, that it didn't even hurt. All I could feel was something heavy hanging from the middle of my back. Now this is when you find out who your "true" fishing buddies really are! I handed my rod to my buddy because I still had my fish on, and my buddy's lure hanging in the middle on my back. I couldn't reach the damned thing because it was stuck right between my shoulder blades in the middle of my upper back.

Both of my "good buddy's" just kept on fishing! And the one whose lure was buried in my back was using my rod now, and fighting my fish! Talk about putting salt onto a wound! They both continued to fish and landed one or two more fish each before the school of fished had moved off.

Finally, after about 10 minutes, and more degrading words then one could think to use, they finally put down their rods and decided to get that 5/0 hook out of my back. The hook was way in past the barb, and there was only one way to get it out. We were in my buddy's boat, so we used what was in the boat. The only knife that he had was one of those old folding 8" pearl handled knife that had a saw tooth edge running all the way down the top. He hadn't cleaned or oiled it in 5 years of fishing (in the salt) and it was so rusted, that he had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to get it open. We were tuff then, and took far more risks then we do now. About two minutes later, my buddy had his lure back, and we were back up on plain again looking for the next next school of Corvina. It was great to be young!

Cowlitzfisherman