Reminds me of a time my missus came fishing.....and seeing as I havnt been recently, I will share this true fishing story instead.
Twenty years ago or more when I was pleasure fishing regularly I came home from work one teatime and announced that I was going fishing. I know, said the missus, you can take me and our lad (who was about 8) with you, to show us how to fish.......... Fuuuuuuuuck, I thought but had no choice really, so went to put the tackle in the car. I found an old glass boat rod about 8 foot long which weighed about 20lbs itself and must have had a 4lb test curve.........ideal for a wife first time fishing the canal.
There is a stretch of the LLangollen canal not far from here and its only a few metres from the roadside too, it was a decent evening and not many boats either. I set her up with the boatrod and showed her what to do and she seemed happy enough casting in and that but I had to bait the hook for her with the mixed maggots we were using.
I was showing the lad what to do as I fished, and the wife seemed happy enough catching the odd gudgeon which I had to unhook etc for her now and again. I was concentrating on my float which was showing signs of another tiny fish nipping the bait when the missus says really calmly......."Ive hooked my eye". There was no panic in her voice, but an overriding sense of calm seriousness which belied her predicament. I looked round as she was a few yards away, and she was there as still as a statue, frozen in subdued fear. I went over to her and sure enough the hook had pierced her eyebrow just above the lashes and it was in danger of being ripped away with a wrong move.
I released the bail arm to slacken the line and put the rod down very carefully, I told her to keep still and hold her eyelid away from her eyeball. The two red maggots had been squeezed up the shank of the hook and she said that she could feel them wriggling against her eyeball. Fortunately I have only used barbless hooks for as long as I can remember so getting it out was surprisingly easy as I think adrenalin gave me a steady hand.
Afterwards, (through a sense of relief I suppose)we laughed about it, how calm she was,how the maggots must have wondered what was going on, and how she could feel them but not focus on them cos they were too close, and silly things like that.
There was no blood, but we still decided we had better go and get it cleaned up, and I started packing my tackle away while she insisted she had one last go. Suddenly she shouts "Ive got something big" and I turn round to see her with this glass rod bent double, give it to me I said but she wouldnt. After a few seconds I could see that it was "dead weight" and as she lifted the rod it cleared the water, a totally smooth and symetrical easter egg shaped thing covered in a stringy algae but its weight was collosal for its size. Unfortunately the little hook was only in the algae type stuff, and as she tried to swing it in I missed it and it swung out over the canal again and came off and hit the water with the biggest "splurdoosh" I ever heard.
I tried to net it off the bottom but failed and was for going in the canal to find it, but stupidly let her talk me out of it and we headed home. Thankfully there was no damage on her eyelid and we often laugh about it even now, but I have always regretted not finding out what the "object" was as it was almost certainly man made and not natural.......any (sensible) suggestions anyone?
