Astronaut Training

[Ratherbfishing]

Who, besides me, has been hit in the head or chest by a bass flying through the air after a "too vigorous" hook set?

[J Francho]

I sonetimes set them into the air, but not into my chest.

[southernson1989]

I hit myself with a buck spot once. When I was six I got my first fly rod. We use them for bream but pawpaw has a ten pounder on the wall he caught on his. Thirty minute fight that was. But anyway the day I got it I was facing the setting sun and didn't realize I had a bite and sent my first fish on it which was a six inch bass flying over my head.

[Bluebasser86]

I hit a buddy with a little bass night fishing once. Didn't realize that the fish was cruising back to the boat right under the surface with my jig. On the other hand, he should probably be glad it was the fish and not just my jig. 

[alrab23]

I had a buddy set the hook on a Texas rig once and the bullet weight hit me right below the eye. Had a big bruise for quite a while.

[RoLo]

If one-pound bass are flying chest-high,

better cross-your-legs for two-pound bass!  

 

Roger

[RSM789]

One time I had a bad hookset when I failed to notice the bass moving towards me as I reeled down.  I didn't know if I stuck the fish at all, so I reeled like crazy to take up the slack of the fish swimming towards me in order to get another (better) hookset in.  Just as I reared back the second time, the smallish bass cleared the water completely with a jump.  The second attempt at a hookset did nothing more than make the poor fish skip twice across the surface of the water & then slam headfirst into the side of the boat.  I don't know if I ever apologized more to a fish than that one.

[nixdorf]

Last December, I was fishing a bluff wall on Guntersville with a heavy 3/4 oz jig. I managed to cast my jig across a shrub branch at the base of the bluff with the jig hanging down a few feet. I reeled up the slack until the jig was hanging by a foot and started rocking it back and forth like a pendulum. The idea was to jerk it free when it swung away from me. I've done this many times.

Well, I jerked way too hard and the jig started screaming back towards me at high velocity! I didn't have much time to react, but did manage to duck my head at the last second. Good thing, too because the jig hit me right on my hairline (approximately where my eye would have been had I not ducked). Despite the thick hat I was wearing due to the cold, I ended up with a bleeding dent in my head from the weight of the jig slamming against my skull. Thankfully, it bounced off my head with no hook penetration. The dent in my head is small but is still there, five months later!

I didn't quite rip a fish out of the water and send it to orbit, but it sure hurt like hell!

[BrianinMD]

The scar on the my chin and my nickname "chatterface" resulted from this. Just was not my own hookset....

[geo g]

I once foul hooked a bass on a big bill dance deep diver.  I put the pressure to a big hook set and the 8 in bass and the lure shot back at me with such force it buried a treble hook deep in my belly with the fish still attached.  I got the fish off, but could not get the big treble out.  I cut off the lure , fished for three more hours, took care of the boat, and went to the E/R.  People laughed as I sat in the ER with this lure hanging from my shirt.

 

The funny thing was a did it again a month later, minus the fish.  The lure was hung on some sawgrass.  I put pressure on the rod and it shot back and buried again in my belly.  Same Doctor cut it out both times.  He said he didn't realize fishing was so dangerous.  I told him only when your an idiot!   

[J Francho]

Maico probably has a good story involving bass bouncing off his outboard into his accountant. Lol.