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Private charter with a group I've been fishing with for the past 4 years. Flat glass weather 45 miles on a 240 heading from Point Loma. One angler fought a ~120 lb marlin for a few minutes, and I brought a nice 50lb class wahoo to gaff before it let go of the jig. Found a 100 ton spot of yellowfin on the right paddy and limited out easy on yft and dorado when this happened:
Yes, that is the back of my head. Yes, it hurt until they cut the jig away from the split ring.
The good news was that we had someone on board that was trained in subperiosteal surgery and wound closure under local anesthesia. The sad news was that person was me.
Captain called it a day and made a straight course for San Diego, which cut the corner on Mexico within 12 miles of the coast. This attracted the attention of the Mexican navy, who ordered us to stop and prepare to be boarded. Usual inspection stuff, but only a few of us had passports as we did not intend to fish Mx waters. The commanding officer of the boarding party asked why were were so close to Mexico, and the crew told him we had an injury on board. The officer asked to see it and the second ticket called me into the galley. As I walked from the rail into the house, I walked past the young Mexican sailor with the MP5. He took a double take at the commercial tuna hook sticking out of my head and flinched. I showed his commanding officer the hook and the inspection was immediately over. He offered assistance from their ship's nurse, which we gratefully declined. He had a junior sailor recording the encounter on GoPro, who was going really pale staring at me. No passports checked, no fish hold opened, the boarding party ran off the boat, into their RIB, and took off faster than they came at us. Adios!
Got into the ER in San Diego after a 5 hour run and waited 2+ hours to be taken in and examined. The doc tried to push the barb back out after anesthetizing me, but he couldn't do it. He threw in the towel and asked for a #11 blade and cut it out. Four staples, done in less than a minute.
But the weather was gorgeous and the fishing was all surface action.
Yes, that is the back of my head. Yes, it hurt until they cut the jig away from the split ring.
The good news was that we had someone on board that was trained in subperiosteal surgery and wound closure under local anesthesia. The sad news was that person was me.
Captain called it a day and made a straight course for San Diego, which cut the corner on Mexico within 12 miles of the coast. This attracted the attention of the Mexican navy, who ordered us to stop and prepare to be boarded. Usual inspection stuff, but only a few of us had passports as we did not intend to fish Mx waters. The commanding officer of the boarding party asked why were were so close to Mexico, and the crew told him we had an injury on board. The officer asked to see it and the second ticket called me into the galley. As I walked from the rail into the house, I walked past the young Mexican sailor with the MP5. He took a double take at the commercial tuna hook sticking out of my head and flinched. I showed his commanding officer the hook and the inspection was immediately over. He offered assistance from their ship's nurse, which we gratefully declined. He had a junior sailor recording the encounter on GoPro, who was going really pale staring at me. No passports checked, no fish hold opened, the boarding party ran off the boat, into their RIB, and took off faster than they came at us. Adios!
Got into the ER in San Diego after a 5 hour run and waited 2+ hours to be taken in and examined. The doc tried to push the barb back out after anesthetizing me, but he couldn't do it. He threw in the towel and asked for a #11 blade and cut it out. Four staples, done in less than a minute.
But the weather was gorgeous and the fishing was all surface action.
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