wazatherfisherman Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 After seeing the picture of a Long Tom caught by MattGb1989 and reading PaddyT's comment of "stick your finger in it's mouth- if you end up screaming in pain- it's a Long Tom- if you don't it's a gar!!" It reminded me of being bitten by one (a lot smaller than MattGb's) that I caught up at Fingal on the Tweed River. I had been spinning for Flathead and got the small 'Tom' in and onto the sand to take the lure out, when as I reached down for the lure, the bugger grabbed me by both the index and middle fingers- OUCH!!#@!%#!GRRR#! punctured both fingers, both sides, multiple spots- couldn't believe how much it hurt. Plenty of blood. Yep, I screamed. Worst part was having to listen to all the one-liners from the 3 mates I was there with!- "amazing how a little fish like that can make a big bloke scream so high pitched" and "who screamed-was that you or the fish?" etc etc. Having been bitten by plenty of fish over the years, I thought of a "list" of one's that had got me in a painful way-a couple of Bream, several Tailor, a Tarwhine ,a Green Eel, a Flatty, a Hairtail and of course that 'Tom. The 3 most painful bites I've seen were 1 a Pike Eel got one of the boys on a houseboat Hairtail trip- that's when we learned they have the extra row of teeth down the middle of their mouths, it bit down on him multiple times before we could get it off him. 2 Had just that day shown a mate how to use your index finger to get the hook out of a Luderick and he caught a really big Tarwhine on cunje later- tried same technique-ouch! 3 My Mother stuck her finger straight into the mouth of a Blue Swimmer buried on the mudbank at Windang, mistaking it for an oyster, came running back to the boat to get the landing net with a badly bleeding finger. Wondered what other Raiders had been bitten by? NOTE bitten not stung! Cheers Waza 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pirate Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Breams are tarwhines are the worst culprits. Tried to lip and 38cm bream and it slipped. Had a deep gash on my thumb and took a few days to recover. Similar thing happened with a large tarwhine. Deep cut into my index finger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazatherfisherman Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 2 minutes ago, Pirate said: Breams are tarwhines are the worst culprits. Tried to lip and 38cm bream and it slipped. Had a deep gash on my thumb and took a few days to recover. Similar thing happened with a large tarwhine. Deep cut into my index finger. The mate doing the Luderick technique put about half his index finger in the Tarwhine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Restyle Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 i got bitten by a 40 odd cm tailor while removing the hook, swearing at it made it let go, the wonders of swearing at a fish. second worse was a squid, just like a bird and have multiple chomps before u manage to pull them off. This one was interesting as when i picked the squid up behind the head it somehow wrapped around and had a few. 3rd... well i dont know as they were the only 2 painful enough to remember, the only one that comes to mind is a flatty and their abrasive mouths. ill never put my finger in a breams mouth as they do have some decent chomps on them when they get big. I cannot imagine the agony a hairtail or a eel would bring... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 Got a nice scar on my thumb from a tailor many moons ago-however it all happened so quick that im still not sure if it was teeth or the treble i was trying to remove! HAd a couple of near misses with spotty and spanish macks (which is why they get introduced to Mr Club before they enter my boat these days) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volitan Posted November 12, 2019 Share Posted November 12, 2019 I was walking around a headland in Hawaii and found a humuhumunukunukuapua’a stranded in a tiny Little Rock pool and scooped it up to carry it back to the sea. It took a chunk out of my finger - it never occured to me they bite but they have a beak like a parrotfish. And that really is their name too - I expect there is a shortened version but I don’t know it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazatherfisherman Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Restyle said: i got bitten by a 40 odd cm tailor while removing the hook, swearing at it made it let go, the wonders of swearing at a fish. second worse was a squid, just like a bird and have multiple chomps before u manage to pull them off. This one was interesting as when i picked the squid up behind the head it somehow wrapped around and had a few. 3rd... well i dont know as they were the only 2 painful enough to remember, the only one that comes to mind is a flatty and their abrasive mouths. ill never put my finger in a breams mouth as they do have some decent chomps on them when they get big. I cannot imagine the agony a hairtail or a eel would bring... The Hairtail got me when the gaff man swung it my way- I was trapped in the corner of the boat, got me on the arm- one of the ganged hooks 'stood up' saving me from severe injury, but bled like mad until the slime applied. Eel got me when I put my hand in "the drink pool" we used to put cans of drink in- some idiot put the eel in there with line wrapped around it, took my full weight on my rock plate to get it off my finger Edited November 12, 2019 by wazatherfisherman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Signing Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 20 hours ago, Restyle said: i got bitten by a 40 odd cm tailor while removing the hook, swearing at it made it let go, the wonders of swearing at a fish. second worse was a squid, just like a bird and have multiple chomps before u manage to pull them off. This one was interesting as when i picked the squid up behind the head it somehow wrapped around and had a few. 3rd... well i dont know as they were the only 2 painful enough to remember, the only one that comes to mind is a flatty and their abrasive mouths. ill never put my finger in a breams mouth as they do have some decent chomps on them when they get big. I cannot imagine the agony a hairtail or a eel would bring... I made this same mistake. I'm still not sure how he managed to turn around but he got me right in the webbing of my hand between index finger and thumb 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Signing Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Special mention to those of us who have been dumb enough to grab marlin beaks with bare hands. Especially when the fish is taking exception to being handled 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 44 minutes ago, New Signing said: Special mention to those of us who have been dumb enough to grab marlin beaks with bare hands. Especially when the fish is taking exception to being handled Yeah-na-dont do that!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharknett Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 No other way to land a 113cm king from the kayak so stuck thumb in the mouth and fingers in the gill cavity while it thrashed. The abrasion on my thumb bled profusely. Still don't own a gaff. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankS Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 Been chewed on to a few species, Tailor of coarse Bream, squid, but the worst I can remember was one day fishing the Brothers reef at Bermagui a mate bought up a very large Leatherjacket, before dehooking it we all shared high fives, as you do when an exceptional fish of any species comes aboard , suddenly without notice the jacket escaped the hook and on it's way down to the floor it latched onto my right knee, shook it's head and took a large chunk of skin from my knee. Mate stood on a Hairtail which was in a hession sack but still had it's head attached couldn't stop the bleeding and had to end the session and take him to hospital, no shoes in middle of winter, he wears shoes now. Frank 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirvin21 Posted November 13, 2019 Share Posted November 13, 2019 I've got a good scar on my thumb from where I decided to thumb grip a 60 odd cm flathead, needed stitches won't do that again The other memorable one was sticking my hand in a murray coods mouth the dehook it and it bit down and shook it's head 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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