Fort Bragg PB report-good time despite everything!

Went out with my good friend Capt. Ron for our holiday crab trip.  After spending a frustrating hour trying to get the Whaler to fire-up we were finally in business. Once on the water conditions were great and we blasted up to Tenmile and dropped 8 pots.  Once the gear was out we ran north to Westport to fish.  Fishing was good to excellent but we only found blacks and blues, no reds. C&R'd numerous nice lings. Kept nice limits of jumbo blacks and blues.

The last fish I brought in however, changed my day.  As I was lifting a big 4# blue over the rail he fell off the jig just as I went to grab the jig.  The when the fish unloaded the Kunz built rod it shot the jig's 5/0 hook DEEEEP into my palm.  OOOOOUCH! At first it didn't feel tooo bad, so I thought I just got stuck, when I opened up my hand and I could see it was burried, I knew getting it out was gonna suck.  Tried pulling it out but despite lifting the skin on my palm way up, it wasnt going to go.  I finally pulled hard enough to get the barb to cut backward through my hand.  At that point there was still a good-sized piece of me between the shank and the barb.  I little pioneer surgery with the Dexter Russel and it was out, but bleeding pretty good.  Major buzz kill. 

We went down to our pots.   After we pulled the first two it was obvious our pots had been robbed.  @#$%^&.  We got a few, but we resoaked them and got more in just 45 minutes.  This crab pirating crap has got to be stopped.  It used to be pretty cool up in Bragg, but I guess the honeymoon is over up here too.

As I was driving home I was wondering how in the heck I was going to fillet all of these rockies with a gooey hole in my hand without ensuring an infection.  I had an idea and it turned out to be a great one.  I put on some disposable latex gloves and then my fish cleaning gloves.  My hands stayed warm and dry even in the chilly 30 degree air! Best of all when I was all done, my hands didn't stink at all!!!!  I am doing this all of the time now.  Wish I didn't need a hole in my hand to figure this out, but it really is a nice way to process fish.

me, jelly and Leah sat down to a dinner of giant crab salads and it all felt worth while.   

 

right on on your trip it always good to be on the water would you call yourself a hitchhiker that always sucks when you stick that hook in yourself and even better when someone does it for you . my two cents on the latex: always! welcome to the party! I use the A lot in the kitchen because, I have my hands into everything and this why there clean. plus growing up and cutting fish for work I got tired of girls telling me my hands stink like fish no matter what i did. Ya, but it was OK for me to smell like them

Hi, Pretty impressed with the way you handled. I felt ouuuch when reading through. It is the positive attitude that made the story attractive. 

Sean-
Awesome report. Sorry to hear about your hand and hope it heals really quick.
Just curious, though.  Why do you think your pots were raided?  I've wondered the same thing about mine sometimes.  Then, a few weeks ago, we stayed in eyesight of our pots while they soaked.  Our entire 4 pot line was only maybe 75 yards total laterally so they were all very close to each other.  3 of them were stuffed full of crabs after 1 hr soak while #4 was entirely empty.   If I hadn't been right there the whole time, I woulda thought that #4 got ripped off.  Of course, if I used some time of detection system I would always know for sure...
Regards,
John

Sorry about your hand. Very happy it wasn't your eye though.
I use playtex gloves ALL THE TIME. The great thing about them too is you can pour a little Ajax or Comet and wash your hands with the gloves on and they are good to go for next time. A real convenience in avoiding smelly hands. I also have an industrial rubber coated apron I wear when I clean my fish, especially at a public fish cleaning station. Just wipe it down and it's clean. No smelly stuff in the clothes afterwards.

Playtex-sounds kinda freaky...but I bet those would work great.

Jzumi-Me and my buddy Ron kind of have a crabbing "routine" for lack of a better word.  Cpt. Ron is into a clean layout of the gear...aka crabpots all in a STRAIGHT row.  Our row was more of a zig-zag when we got back...lifted and drifted... .  Leah's dad is looking into a super crab anti-poaching product.  I'll keep you posted on those if they turn out to be any good.   

So far the hand is healing well.

Ouch!  That sucks.  What really sucks is the theft.  What would happen if you were to cruise up on someone in a boat ripping off your pots while on your yak???   That could be a tricky situation.  I know some will say that they(the thieves) would see you and leave well before but on a day with a big swell at HMB this summer I had boats coming from out of nowhere.  I didn't even hear them until they were three waves away.  Just a little sketchy.

getting stuck in the hand that bad while 3 to 4 miles out on the yak would be a predicament
to say the least.

did you consider cutting the hook (you'd almost need bolt cutters tho, eh?) and pulling it
out after that? can pull either way.

Sean,
Hope the hand heals quick, barbed hooks in the hand can be dangerous, thank god it wasn't rusty!
Crab stealing is getting out of control, I talked to a couple guys at Linda Mar the other week and they said their traps had been raided a few times too. 

Jason

did you consider cutting the hook (you'd almost need bolt cutters tho, eh?) and pulling it
out after that? can pull either way.

I thought about it for a second, but with the way it went in and the lengthof the point, it just wasn't happening.  It appears to be healing quickly.

OUCH!!! Damn... that had to hurt. I hope that your hand heals quickly. Hooking yourself is no fun. I've done it... once. Good to hear that you and your family still enjoyed the bounty of your pain. Good thing you were on a boat and not on a yak. Watch out for flying hooks in the future.

Heal fast

Freddie