Fishing and common sense
By Captain Rob Ottlein
Most of us that have fished any distance offshore know of the things that
can turn a beautiful day into one of chaos. Seas turning rough, lightning
storms, man overboard, a boat taking on water, etc. Most of these problems can
be avoided by listening to weather reports, routine maintenance and most of all
by using plain old common sense.
Let’s move inshore
and look at some of the dangers a person fishing from land might encounter.
What dangers could there be fishing from land you ask? Lots of them and most
caused by, you guessed it, the lack of common sense.
There’s the guy
that is new to the area, is fishing from the beach, and decides he’s going to
pick up one of those pretty blue jellyfish that washed ashore. He gets stung by
the venomous tentacles and winds up in the ER being treated for the pain from
the sting. I’ve watched people, and I’ve done this myself before I was set
straight, standing in the surf surrounded by a school of baitfish throwing a
cast net. At the time you don’t stop to think about the sharks that follow and
feed on the baitfish. You learn how
lucky you are when you pick up the paper the next day and read about someone
being bit on the calf or ankle while wading in water that is knee deep. The
central east coast of Florida is the shark bite capital of the USA.
People have watched
their false teeth swim away, lodged in the back of a bluefish, after they bit
down the fishes back because the fish was biting his hand and wouldn’t let go.
I’ve gotten out of my boat, wearing flip flops, to retrieve a lure out of a
tree and was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake. On another occasion I almost had a
heart attack one night while I was wade fishing in the ICW. It was very dark
and as I was casting I looked down and had this large head and eyes looking up
at me. It was 2 feet from my body and all I could think of was alligator.
Luckily it turned out to be a Manatee.
I’ve been in a lot
of scary situations over my 47 years of fishing but the scariest happened back
in the 80’s while fishing the Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey. The situation I
put myself in was all due to a lack of common sense.
The Ocean was very
rough that day and as I walking out on the jetty dressed in my fishing waders
that had a set of Korkers tied to the soles (Korkers have carbide tip spikes on
them to cut through the moss on the rocks so you don’t slip) I was thinking I
should turn around and go home. Instead I went out about ¾ of the way on the
jetty, picked a flat rock, and climbed down to begin fishing.
As I made my first
couple of casts I was broad sided by a wave but I held my ground. I was hit by
another but still held. The third was a large powerful wave that knocked me off
the rock. I must have passed out for a
couple of seconds because when I regained my senses I found myself in a hole
between a couple of rocks. It was then that I felt some pain and realized my
ankle had snapped when I was knocked over by the wave. My waders were filled up
with water and I couldn’t move. Another wave came in and I had to hold my
breath as I was under water in this hole in the rocks. A couple more waves came
in and again I had to hold my breath. I started yelling for help but nobody
could hear me because of the rough surf. I began telling myself that I was not
going to die in this situation.
I gained my composure and through all the
pain I managed to get my waders off and slowly forced myself to climb to the
top of the jetty. A couple of other people who were fishing saw I was in pain.
They called the Emergency squad who came and carried me off the rocks and drove
me to the ER where a cast was put on my ankle.
Through all of that
I did manage to save those waders I had on that day. I just threw them out a
couple of years ago after they became dry rotted. I did however lose a custom
made fishing rod, a Daiwa reel and my lure bag that day. I consider that a
small price to pay for my life.
I’m older now and
hopefully a bit wiser but I’m sure some day in the future I’ll do something
stupid that question’s my lack of common sense. Ah, the things I go through for
my love of this sport called fishing.