Don your earmuffs, we're going fishing!

Ever since I have been old enough to hold a fishing rod in my hands, my dad and I have been fishing. He has lugged me along with him to every lake, river, pond, and stream in East, TN. We have landed a few big fish now and then but nothing compares to the catch that dad made one hot summer day. Read on...

Dad and I were on a fishing trip at Douglas Lake, in Dandridge, TN. We arrived early in the morning while the fog was still lifting from the water. Minnows were running in schools, as larger fish, in need of some breakfast, were pursuing them. We launched our small fishing boat and motored across the lake towards a rocky bluff. We brought the boat to a standstill and tied our fishing lures onto our lines. We were so excited about being on the lake. There wasn't many other boats on the water and it seemed like the perfect day.

We had only cast our lures into the water a few times when I felt something hit me extremely hard in the side of the head. It didn’t take me long to realize that Dad had accidentally hooked my ear with his lure! Not knowing what he had done, Dad started yanking on his fishing rod thinking that he had just entangled in some brush. After several yanks, he turned around as I started yelling. He saw the lure in my ear and the blood trickling down the side of my face and immediately realized what had happened. From the astonished look in Dad’s eyes, I could tell how bad he felt about what had happened. He rushed over to me to access the damage and saw that one of the barbs off of the fishing lure had buried itself into my left ear lobe. We were in a dilemma on what to do. We didn’t want to leave the lake and ruin our fishing trip, but we couldn’t just leave a fishing lure in my ear lobe. Dad tried to gingerly remove the hook but it was no use. Then he spotted a gallon jug of ice that he had brought along, and he got an idea. We put the cold frozen jug of ice on my ear to numb it, and Dad took some pliers from his tackle box and carefully removed the hook from my ear. Needless to say, my stomach felt rather queasy at that point but at least the fishing trip was saved! We stayed on and fished for most of the day.

Moral of the story: Either wear earmuffs while fishing, or stay clear of Dad when he’s casting!