Want to hear a scary story – one that will give you nightmares and turn your stomach? Beware: the following tale is not for the squeamish. Most frightening of all is that it’s true, it happened last year. Greg Finney graphically illustrates the potential dangers of handling powerful gamefish – and suggests ways that you can protect yourself.
Imagine you’re far out at sea and have been berleying for mako and tiger sharks from a 21ft boat since dawn. You’ve drifted down the coast off Batemans Bay, New South Wales (some 220km south of Sydney) at a little over one knot for several hours. About two hours ago, a 15kg outfit went off and you’re buddy has been fighting a solid mako ever since. The fish does the usual mako things of jumping and lugging down deep, and after two hours you’re thinking it should be getting tired and be ready to gaff shortly.
Eventually, the top of 27ft of 1000lb wire cable appears from the depths. As soon as it’s within reach you grab it and start taking wraps in gloved hands. Up to this point everything has gone like a well-scripted screenplay. The fish is a good one, perhaps 250kg or better. It should be heavy enough on 15kg tackle to take out the tournament if you can get it gaffed and tail-roped.
You can feel the sheer weight and size of the fish as you work it closer to the waiting flying gaffs. The boat is pitching in a choppy sea as 20 knots of north-east wind lifts up white caps breaking half a metre high. Every time the boat goes down you gain another precious metre of wire trace, taking wraps in alternate hands. But each time a wave lifts the hull up, you feel your arms stretched by the unforgiving wire and the immense weight of a big fish. Sooner than you expect, the fish is right under the boat and the first gaff goes in as you drop back to the deck in a sitting position, still securing the shark with tight wraps bound around both gloved hands.
Within a micro-second of the gaff finding its mark you’re wrenched back up on your feet and dragged towards the gunwale. You’ve been here before and know that sooner or later the gaff rope will come up tight and relieve the pressure on your wire wraps.
But this time the shark’s thrashing pulls you further than you’ve ever been before. The flying gaff rope is too long and the gaff-man has not been able to hold the rope. You’re going to get smashed unless you let go of the trace. That should only take a second, but before you even have time to comprehend what’s happening, let alone think about dumping the trace, the mako drags the wire up the gunwale and under the jutting tine of the forward bollard. Your left hand smacks into the cast-aluminium fitting with more force than you could ever imagine possible.
BREAKING BONES
You feel bones in your left hand snap like twigs, as it’s forced against the unforgiving bollard while the two wraps of wire crush tighter around it. You scream both in pain and as a reaction to the situation you find yourself in, and still the agony grows. Your right hand grabs the trace and pulls back to get it out from under the bollard, as a crewmate pulls on the gaff rope to get the fish closer. Before you have time to free your hand the fish surges again, its tail thrashing the wind-blown sea to foam and spray.
In a desperate effort to save your trapped left hand, you push back against the bollard with your right hand to reduce the pressure. It seems to work, and within a few seconds the gaff rope is also pulled up and you manage to ditch the wire wraps off your left hand. As you rip the glove off, you see a hand that is swollen to nearly twice its normal size, with a blue dent in the back as if it’s been hit hard with a large hammer. You know it’s broken, but at least your brain and body have started to adjust to the throbbing pain. As if on remote control, you do what you can to help the other two anglers get the fish tail-roped and tidied up.
BLOOD EVERYWHERE
The scene takes only a minute or two to settle, but it’s then that you notice the splashes of crimson around the cockpit. Aboard a sharkfishing boat, blood is a common sight. The bait and berley all leave a bloody mess, and so does the odd shark that we choose to keep. But this blood is somehow different. Its bright red, very fresh and human – which means it belongs to one of the crew. In something of a daze, you ask your teammates if they have been cut or injured – just as you feel the ooze running down your right forearm. You just stare at your gloved right hand as steady drops of blood turn into a trickle, and the reinforced heavy leather gauntlet tracing glove slowly fills up and overflows.
Suddenly, your broken left hand seems like a minor problem. Your mate removes the right glove and blood pours from the palm of your hand. All of a sudden it’s everywhere, and you reach your hand into the ocean to wash it clean and attempt to stem the bleeding. That works to a certain degree, but it also gives you a good view of the damage you’ve done. Your right palm is a shredded mess of skin, meat and tendons, and you instantly realise you have a very serious problem. As an afterthought you look at the back of your hand, without even knowing why. It has a 4cm hole in it where the bollard has gone right through your gloved hand and punched out the back.
Your body’s first reaction is to go into shock. You vomit over the side and your body turns white and cold. It feels like the blood has been drained from your body and you’re not sure what to do or say. You know you’re in trouble, but you’re 25 miles out to sea without any serious medical supplies. The only dressing of any use is a T-shirt dunked in saltwater! Within minutes it’s soaked bright red, but at least the bleeding has subsided. You’re too scared to look at your hand again and just wish it was a bad dream that you could wake out of and forget. Luckily, your crew members keep cool heads and are already on the radio asking for assistance.
SWIM THE BERLEY TRAIL
It turns out that a 36ft Blackwatch is nearby and they offer to come over and help. They have a pharmacist onboard, along with a first-aid kit. Twenty minutes later they’re within sight, but the conditions are too rough for you to be transferred from boat to boat. You’re going to have to put on a life jacket and swim across – out in mid-ocean, while bleeding into the water that you’ve spent the past several hours plying with berley in the hope of raising a large tiger shark!
The several minutes that you’re in the water disappear in a blur, but you’re jolted back into reality when you realise you can’t climb aboard the big boat because both of your hands are unusable. Suddenly, you find yourself hoisted aboard, wringing wet and bleeding all over the shiny white gelcoat of someone else’s boat.
They put you under a warm shower and wrap you in a blanket to retain the heat in an attempt to prevent you going into shock. They give you a couple of painkillers, but they may as well have been cold and flu tablets. They don’t relieve the throbbing pain in either hand – or the fear.
Two hours later you’re within sight of land and a waiting ambulance. That intravenous drip, with its promise of morphine’s instant pain relief, can’t find a vein quick enough! Before you know what’s happening you’re being rushed to the south-coast hospital to have your wounds inspected and dressed. They find there’s not a lot they can do, so it’s decided that you’ll be airlifted to Sydney for X-rays and surgery the following day.
That surgery involves having your left hand opened up and titanium pins and plates fitted to the shattered bones. Your right hand has had tendon, nerve and tissue damage and requires micro-surgery. In all, the surgery takes five hours and you wake up from the anesthetic feeling ill and throwing up into a plastic bag in a strange hospital room. You feel very alone and scared, not knowing if your hands will ever be the same again.
This all sounds like something out of a horror story by Stephen King doesn’t it? Sadly, it’s a true story and it happened during the Batemans Bay Tollgates Tournament in mid-January, 2010. The unfortunate victim was my 20-year-old son, Andrew, and he was off work for 10 weeks after that incident, and still doesn’t have the full use of either hand. It brought home to our family just what a risk we take each time we head out for a day of gamefishing.
Now before we get down to the crux of this article, I should explain that the above incident occurred while tracing a 260kg mako shark. We all know how dangerous tracing and gaffing big sharks can be, and it should come as no surprise that occasionally the people that play with them get injured. I’ve witnessed quite a few shark-related injuries from wire and flying gaff ropes, and I’ve also seen quite a few injuries related to marlin and big tuna.
My point is that gamefishing usually involves the biggest, fastest and most powerful fish caught by anglers, and more often than not, strong leaders and big hooks are involved. That in itself is a recipe for trouble, but add a pitching boat plus other sharp objects like gaffs, knives and tag poles and there is lots of potential for things to go wrong.
AVOIDING ACCIDENTS
Like car accidents, there is no way to eliminate the potential for injury unless you simply don’t do it. I guess you could stay at home in bed or take up chess to avoid any risks – but who wants to do that?
Perhaps the best advice is to be mindful of the dangers and be particularly careful when tracing, gaffing or releasing any large fish. Learn the ropes (excuse the pun) from a crew that knows what they’re doing. And practise the techniques required. Don’t attempt to trace or release a big fish without quality gloves, and don’t put your hands anywhere near a shark’s mouth, or any hooks inside a large fish’s mouth while it’s still alive. A shark bite is bad enough, but getting a hook through your hand while it’s still connected to a large and lively fish is particularly unpleasant and dangerous – especially if it is still in the water!
Tagging and releasing marlin is a particularly dangerous pastime. Having a billfish boatside on the leader, and especially when grasping it by the bill, is fraught with danger if the fish does anything erratic – or things go pear-shaped. All marlin bills are potentially lethal, but the most hazardous weapon when releasing a marlin is the hook or hooks in its mouth. We normally troll our lures with two large hooks in them, and getting these out of a marlin’s mouth boatside is just fraught with danger. Trying to hold the bill with your left hand and get the hooks out with your right hand is as treacherous as things get in fishing. The safest option is to have one crewmember control the marlin’s bill and somewhat immobilise it using a snooter. With someone controlling the bill, you can use a de-hooking device to get the hooks out while staying out of reach of any free-swinging second hook.
If you must use your hands to remove hooks and release a marlin, wear gloves and keep a good eye on where both hooks are at all times. It’s usually the second hook that gets you while you remove the first. If the fish is hooked on a circle hook, it’s usually best to just cut the leader nice and close and keep away from the hook altogether. Circles are notoriously hard to get back out, and the longer you spend trying, the greater the chance of a nasty situation arising. You should never put your hands anywhere near a live marlin’s bill or mouth without gloves. They are like a sharp rasp and will quickly remove skin and leave you with an infection.
This also applies to smaller fish like tuna, yellowtail kingfish and so on. Dolphinfish are especially dangerous. Getting trebles or twin-hook rigs out of a fish’s mouth is fraught with danger if the fish is still alive and kicking. Use gloves and pliers, and if the fish is to be kept, kill it before removing the hooks. Removing trebles from a thrashing dolphinfish or tuna is a great way to get a free body piercing that you may not have planned.
When releasing fish, make sure it is held firmly before removing the hooks. Having fish thrash about on the deck is especially dangerous. Many anglers have worn a large hook through their foot or leg when a lure-caught tuna or dolphinfish went wild with a twin-hook rig still in its mouth. This is even more likely in a pitching boat, and especially aboard one with a slippery fibreglass or timber deck. When hauling a big fish aboard to keep, put them straight into the fish box where possible, or cover them in a towel to help get them under control.
Another big danger is leaving lures swinging around off rod-tips after a hook-up, or when outfits have been cleared to allow the angler to fight a fish. Never leave lures or hooks on the deck when you retrieve an outfit. Always unclip the lure or trace and put them well out of the way while the fish is being fought and handled.
Even mooring a large boat can have its dangers. Never let your hands or feet get between the boat and the dock or a pylon. Crush injuries from this are quite common, as are fractured or broken bones from slipping when jumping into boats.
EMERGENCY ACTION
Most fishing-related injuries involve lacerations or broken bones, and bruising from falls. Include the occasional person overboard and you could be forgiven for thinking it might be worth finding a doctor to crew with you full time! In the event of any injury, make sure the skipper is aware. Aboard a small boat it’s usually quite obvious, but on larger boats with flybridges it may not be.
In the event of any serious injury, make sure that the danger is eliminated so you don’t suffer a second accident. This may require a fish being cut free, or a hook being safely removed from a wildly thrashing fish on the deck. Once the gear is safely cleared, it’s time to assess the damage and decide on a plan of action. If it’s a large hook through a hand or foot, don’t even think about attempting to remove it. Without medical experience you’ll run the risk of doing more damage, particularly to tendons and nerves. Cutting the hook with bolt cutters or heavy-duty pliers and removing it should only be a last resort if you’re days away from medical help. It’s usually better to immobilise the hook and make the patient comfortable before getting them to a doctor, who can make the call on how best to remove it.
Any laceration, cut or puncture wound should be washed with antiseptic. If none is available, saltwater will suffice. Wrap and bandage the wound to reduce bleeding. If you don’t have bandages, improvise with torn-up T-shirts, etc. Once the bleeding has been controlled, the patient can make a call on whether the injury requires medical attention or not. Although I’m not suggesting that it’s a good idea, I’ve known anglers to stay out fishing with minor lacerations, and then gone to hospital to have them stitched up when they got home that night.
In the case of broken bones, fractures, dislocations or severe bruising the only thing you can do is strap the injury and make the patient as comfortable as possible. Apply a splint if required and improvise if you have to. A short rod, or even a gaff pole and a T-shirt, can be used to splint a leg or an arm. Don’t attempt to fix a dislocation out on the water. Without proper training you’ll more than likely do more damage while trying to click a finger or shoulder back in.
Do not give alcohol to an injured person at any time. If they are in shock, keep them warm with a jacket or blanket and let them lie down and get comfortable. If you feel that they will require surgery when you get back to port, don’t let them eat or drink anything. A small drink of water is okay, but they should have no food or alcohol in case they need to be anesthetised.
Of course, every boat should always carry a functional first-aid kit – and it would be worth adding a basic medical guide book, kept in a waterproof, plastic, zip-lock bag.
THE INSURANCE ISSUE
Insurance is never an issue until you have an accident. Then you really need it. In many cases, insurance held by gamefishing clubs for tournaments does not cover personal injury by an angler fishing for that club in one of their tournaments. It is there to cover the club hosting the tournament and the directors of that club against personal liability. Most gamefishing tournaments require each boat fishing to have its own valid insurance policy. Each boat’s insurance should cover the anglers aboard that boat against personal injury.
Most fishing-related injuries will be covered by your boat insurance. This may cover ambulance and medical bills, and possibly, time off work or loss of income as the result of an accident. In the event of a serious injury it will also cover a payout and compensation of some sort for any long-term damage or ongoing disability. You really should check to make sure what your policy covers in the way of personal injury.
