2 Cutthroats and 1 Sucker.

I did end up going fishing this past Sunday. I had a less than average day and only managed to catch 2 yellowstone cutthroat trout. My cousin Danny was able to land 5 yellowstones and one splake for a limit.


We couldn't have asked for better weather. We had sunny skies, and the wind didn't come up until we were already headed back. It was nice to finally feel the sun, and have the temperature find it's way into the 70's.


We decided to head home for the day, and that is when things got interesting. We had to motor across the lake and decided we should get all of our gear packed up before we headed back to the boat ramp. I started picking up all of my lures that were laying around the front of the boat, and noticed that my 9' rod was in the way. I reached down and picked it up to move it over to the side so that I could finish picking up my lures. When I tried to pick up the rod I noticed that the spoon I had tied to my line was caught in the carpet of the boat on the floor. Now, this is where I thought to myself, "I should set down my fishing rod, release the tension on the line and pull the hook free." But...then I thought, "I'll be fine, I don't need to set the pole down." Stupid decision. I reached for the lure, and just before I could grab it with my left hand, it came loose. Here is what happened.

As you can see, I buried the hook in my left hand. I thought for a minute that it wouldn't be so bad. My cousin cut off the other part of the treble hook and I started to try and remove it myself. The only problem was that there was 1/4" of the hook in my finger, deep in the muscle, and the barb was buried. It became apparent to me that I would have to go the hospital and have it cut out.

So, we headed for the boat ramp and found the game warden from Cody sitting there. Danny backed in the boat trailer and I loaded the boat onto the trailer. The warden asked for our licenses, and I asked him if he had any advice on how to remove the hook without going to the doctor. He looked at it, cringed and told me, "good luck." I just looked at him with a look of irritation.

He finally let us go on our merry little way. Danny drove me to the Thermopolis ER, which on a Sunday, is virtually dead. There was nothing happening and I think my little accident was the talk of the day. They cleaned around the wound and stuck painkillers in my finger. Then the doctor took a leatherman...yes, a leatherman and pushed the hook all the way through the other side. I won't lie, it hurt...a lot! I just hope that I learned a lesson from all this.

As for the fishing, it was pretty good. We caught all of the fish but one on an 1/8 oz chartreuse marabou jig tipped with a 3" GULP! minnow. Here is a picture of the stringer. Don't forget to be safe out there! Don't catch a sucker.