Almost ten years ago, I was fishing at Keystone Power Damn Lake, by the damn on a rip/rap slope that descended into the water. You could rip a crank bait along on the rocks, and stop it once in a while to float up, and then continue; little chance of snags.
About 5' from shore, I thought I hooked a log. Then the log moved. We were fishing for smallies, and when you caught one, it would try to go down and in between the rip/rap. So I couldn't let this smallie play out. I had to get it up on shore. I was wearing teva sandals.....
Needless to say, when the smallie got up on shore, it was thrasing so violently, that it sank one of the free treble hook's points through the tip of my longest toe (next to the big toe).
My only saving grace was that over the prior winter, I had gotten some moisture in my tackle box, and most all of my hooks were somewhat rusty (it had been a busy year, and I had not had a chance to fix most of my lures).
It all happened so quick, but the smallie thrashed again, and the hook broke off in my toe while the crankbait freed itself from the smallie who then flopped right back into the water.
It was over in less than ten seconds. I just sat down on the ground in disbelief. My friend ran over and asked if I was OK; he said I looked pretty green. Then I had to grab my hemostats, take a few slow, deep breaths, and pull the hook out of my toe, shank end last. I had consumed several beers prior to the event which may have been partially to blame for the mishap, but was something I was grateful for while I had to remove the hook.
The smallie was about 20" long.
I got a tetanus shot the next day.
