Apr 23, 2016 5 min read

As I laid there, I looked up at the grid work on the bottom of the bridge and thought about the upcoming turkey season and hazards of the hunt. I also thought why did this happen to me and am I the only one who does stupid things?

I didn’t want to be lying on the wet ground wondering if I could get up. It was trout season and my line snagged an unseen underwater rock just a bit upstream. My thinking was if I moved a bit above the snag I could get it loose and wouldn’t have to retie the terminal rig.

One step and I was flat on my back. Since entering my older years and having had a hip replacement, I tend to be more careful where I step but I had a senior moment and forgot my promises to my loved ones that I would be careful.

As I landed, a big rock hit the small of my back and hip bone and, unnoticed at the time, gave me a bloody arm. Getting up was an adventure for I was still on a slippery slope but thank God nothing seemed out of place or broken. I haven’t taken a spill like that in years.

Why do I confess to this stupidity? My thinking is that it might remind someone else that the banks of a creek can be treacherous.

After a lifetime of fishing and hunting that is not the only accident that has occurred to me while out doing my thing.

My wife, Eileen, and I were fishing Ten Mile Creek near Plumsock on a nice spring day and, as usual, I was using a spinner while she fished bait. As happens commonly, my lure got caught on a willow branch and I gave it a big yank.

You can guess what happened next. The spinner came flying back like a bullet and I caught a big sucker, me! Now I had the Rooster Tail’s treble hook buried in my hand. I wiggled it with utter futility and decided to go home and have it removed. As I drove past the hospital with the lure dangling from my hand and starting to hurt, Eileen asked me why I didn’t stop.

Well, I said, it’s kind of embarrassing and I would rather go to my neighbor’s house instead. I had an emergency room doctor living right next door at that time and I would see if he was home.

When my neighbor, Mike, looked at my hand, he couldn’t help but grin. He took me to a small room and got out this 6-inch needle saying he was going to numb my hand. I looked at the needle and almost passed out. He was joking, of course, but did say he was going to save the spinner, which he did. It was my poor hand but he was very proud that he didn’t have to cut the hook.

He also told me of a fellow who came to the emergency room with an 8-inch Rapalla caught in his lower lip. The fellow had driven from Pymatuming with it stuck in his lip. By the time he arrived at the hospital, his lip was swollen to three times it’s normal size. So I’m not the only person to catch themselves.

Quite some time ago, I was fishing a large hole in a mountain stream and there was still snow on the ground. To say it was cold would be an understatement, but it was trout season and I was going to fish.

Across the water, I noticed a fellow coming to the creek. He wasn’t dressed like your average angler but instead wore gabardine trousers a dress shirt and dress shoes. He started down a steep path to the creek and started to slip. Instead of going down he started to run.

He ran alright right – right into that cold water. I watched as two other anglers fished him out as his hat floated downstream. He was lucky those other fishermen were there. Remember, I was on the other side of the creek. Accidents do happen.

Again, a while back, I was fishing below Canonsburg Dam with the late Dave George when another angler waded up on the other side of the creek. When approaching the dam itself, you have to be careful. There is a sudden drop off.

We went about our fishing, but Dave leaned toward me and said that guy is getting close to that dropoff. You know what happened next. Again I witnessed a hat floating downstream with no one under it. We had to fish that guy out too.

So you see, fishing can be dangerous and not only dangerous to those that boat.

It is obvious that you can drown while boating, but anglers also can have an accident while ashore. Don’t be like this old man and find yourself lying on the ground. Walk and wade carefully. Those rocks and banks are slippery.

And no, I don’t think I broke anything. While I am sore the thing that hurts most is my pride!

George H. Block writes a Sunday Outdoors column for the Observer-Reporter.