Was out Saturday enjoying a day on the water trying to entice some lazy Fluke(Summer Flounder ).I have a bad habbit of palming the reel when it is in free spool(Penn 965 levelwind).Well a typical Jersey coast Bluefish hit the bait going away and got the old index finger betwen the side plate and the line guide.I had to torque the drag down to gain a little line to free the digit.I thought it was going to break it and honestly I think it would feel better now if it was broken.After the fact I was thinking about the chain of events and considered what would have happened if it were not a spiral wrapped rod.I lost my grip for a few seconds when the fish locked the finger down and the rod stayed stable.If it were to twist I thing it may have been worse.I guess you can add this as another advantage to having a spiral wrapped rod.And I woke up that morning figuring I wasn`t going to learn anything!!!

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)

Why, Fredd, why do we have to learn these things the hard way all of the time? I think that black cloud above my head moved east for a short time... LOL!

Putter
Williston, ND

At least you had a fish as an excuse. I was playing with a Daiwa Millionaire-Z 300 and let my left index finger reach around and as I was turning the handle like a feeling how smooth it was, smooshed the tip of my finger and felt like a idiot.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/2005 09:25AM by Tom Kirkman.

Uh, how big was the Bluefish, and how was teh FLuking? Where were you fishing? THey've been doing decent up in Raritan Bay this past week. Pool fish on the Highlands boats have been as big as 12#'s.

Got my pinky finger behind the levelwind on a Penn 345GTI while fighting a large halibut. Lost the fingernail and had much pain for many days.

No more levelwinds on my ocean gear.

Billy,The blue was about10 lbs..Put 8 fluke in the box between 2 people that were between 16.5 to 17.5 inches.Overall catch was 38(30 were throw backs).We fished the beach area between Long Branch and Asbury Park.Traffic was heavy.We tried a little further off in 65ft but the Spiney Dog Fish dominated the catch.

Freddwhy (Rapt-Ryte)