I Was Almost Killed By Discarded Fishing Line!

Properly Dispose Your Used Fishing Line!

For years i've pushed for anglers to clean-up their areas for others. I've stepped on a circle hook once & it was painful extracting it. I usually spend the first 10min cleaning someone else's mess before i set-up my gear. I'd rather see plastics in a garbage can rather then around a Sea Turtle's neck.

So this day i got to my site extremely early & started to set-up my shore casting rigs. I had enough natural light to see enough of my surroundings to maneuver around. I walked across a cliff overhang to set my first rig up & hopped over a open fissure as i've done for years. This time my foot got snagged & i went down through the fissure head first roughly 8ft to the reef. I was lucky a swell came in to cover the rocks with 2ft of water seconds before impact. I instinctively put my right hand forward to help break the fall.

The next thing i remember was gasping for air as i was swallowing salt water. My right wrist was in pain & my leg was torn-up scraping the rocks going down. My shorts was partially torn as my backside got a puncture. If things were different i could've been knocked-out, or worse. All because a fisherman left 100's of yards of discarded fishing line all over the sharp rocks. I was there 2 days earlier & no line was there. If this was thrown in the water it would kill endangered Green Sea Turtles which congregate in numbers exactly where i landed.

Right now i'm not sure if my right wrist is merely badly sprained or fractured. My right leg is hurting & my backside is not only hurting but constantly bleeding. At the early morning twilight hours i couldn't make out the fishing line. If the line was in the water it could kill many endangered local species like Green Sea Turtles to Hawaiian Monk Seals by entanglement.

I'm in extreme pain & don't know how long this will sideline me. This happen all because a lazy angler most likely decided to re-spool his/her casting reel & left all the line just laying around to cause injury & possible death to wildlife. I spent 30min just cutting that line up & disposing it in a garbage can that was only 60-80ft away!

Please pick-up after your selfs. I always bring garbage bags for exactly this. I'm sharing my story here in hopes it'll ring a bell that says respect your environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLQTfwpUoas

Oh man Chris, so sorry to hear that you had that brush with death because of some dumbsh_t fisherman. I just don't understand why fishermen are such pigs when it comes to putting their trash either in a trash receptacle that is placed here and there for that reason or at least wad it up and put it in your tackle bag or pocket and throw it in your trash can at home. I fish a nice nearby park lake on weekdays because I'm now retired, and I can tell you that on Monday mornings, before the park workers come through and start picking up the trash,.. there are so many empty worm and bait containers, empty soda cans and GLASS beer bottles everywhere. Even right next to the big green trash cans! But the worst thing is all the discarded fishing line that seems to be everywhere! Several times, while wearing sandals, I've had my ankles cut badly by heavy monofilament that some idiot has left on the shoreline. Just laying there! Why anyone would use 30 lb test mono at a park lake is beyond me.. For kids and ducks, geese, old farts like me, discarded fishing line is really dangerous! I've even seen poor dogs get it wrapped on their legs! I've been able to coax many ducks and geese (mostly the friendly turkey-faced Muscovy Ducks that see me all the time) up on shore close enough to me so I can grab them and gently cut and remove the fishing line that is sometimes so badly wrapped and tangled on them that they cannot hardly walk or swim. Some have died from deeply cut infections also. There are signs posted warning of the danger of discard fishing line, but I guess no one reads them or cares..

Sounds like a scary experience!

Good thing that there are companies like Mustang® who make PFDs like the Elite™ 28 Inflatable PFD (Auto Hydrostatic) that can possibly save you from any event just like the one you have described. Paired with a good shoe like the Five Ten Canyoneer™, whose sole has excellent grip in wet conditions and are designed for Search and Rescue teams, they can also be a life saver.

Finally, if you do get injured, the attorneys at Jacob Emrani's™ office will fight for you, and you can contact them at 888-952-2952

Call Jacob!

And for those scrapes and bruises, nothing like Neosporin™ and 3M™ bandages to assist with the recovery.

Finally, Rubbermaid™ makes an excellent trash can where anglers can toss their discarded Maxima™ fishing line.

This post sponsored by Bud Light.™

Sorry to hear that stupidity is catching. Doesn't take much effort to realize you can properly throw your items away. I bring a beach cart when i go out & i throw everything in it because i bring garbage bags. Most times i throw everyone else's garbage away as well. As a Christian i respect other people as well as wildlife. I'll continue to do my part. Thanks fishmounter for being responsible:)

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Originally Posted by Benjamin NetanWahoo

Sounds like a scary experience!

Good thing that there are companies like Mustang® who make PFDs like the Elite™ 28 Inflatable PFD (Auto Hydrostatic) that can possibly save you from any event just like the one you have described. Paired with a good shoe like the Five Ten Canyoneer™, whose sole has excellent grip in wet conditions and are designed for Search and Rescue teams, they can also be a life saver.

Finally, if you do get injured, the attorneys at Jacob Emrani's™ office will fight for you, and you can contact them at 888-952-2952

Call Jacob!

And for those scrapes and bruises, nothing like Neosporin™ and 3M™ bandages to assist with the recovery.

Finally, Rubbermaid™ makes an excellent trash can where anglers can toss their discarded Maxima™ fishing line.

This post sponsored by Bud Light.™

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I think we know who this is

Scuba Chris... Your remark.. "As a Christian i respect other people as well as wildlife".. kind of floored me. So are you saying that if you are not a Christian you do not respect people and wildlife? I don't want to get into it and prove you way wrong, so we probably should not bring religion or politics into a fishing forum website.

Wow,scary morning Chris for sure,glad you’re ok,I see a lot of abuse of the resources myself,kinda sad. And now adays heaven forbid you confront someone about leaving trash ect...it could go from trying to encourage cleanliness to getting punched in the face or worse.
Take care Brah!
Cya Tuna Vic

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Originally Posted by fishmounter

Scuba Chris... Your remark.. "As a Christian i respect other people as well as wildlife".. kind of floored me. So are you saying that if you are not a Christian you do not respect people and wildlife? I don't want to get into it and prove you way wrong, so we probably should not bring religion or politics into a fishing forum website.

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Talking Politics are ok to discuss on this Forum! lol However, we do stay away from Religion.

Of course not, but i do know a few people who only think of them selfs & not others. They don't believe in God but i don't condemn them for that. I do feel sorry for these 2. They have only a few friends, nobody at work wants to hang with them, & each around 50yr they aren't married or have gf's. Now that you brought this up it might be a good idea to take them fishing to a relaxing area. If they can be at peace with them selfs it may better they're outlooks.

A good example of how i live my life is a few weeks ago my truck died. To fix it would be like buying another used truck. I felt low but i never asked my friends for help. I made Uber trips to buy food when i had to. My neighbor saw what was going on & gave me a free SUV. His daughter joined the service & left so the SUV he gave her was going to be donated to the Kidney Foundation before he found out my predicament. I cried that day when he gave me the keys. He said he was Paying It Forward. Then the accident happen. But i'd never push my religion or politics on others, never did.

Beyond religion or politics, the simple truth is a combination of too many selfish individuals and a lack of social responsibility. Find a pier in California and you will see where the woodwork on the rails has been absolutely hacked to splinters by folks cutting bait or cleaning fish, even when there are bait stations and fish cleaning tables just a few feet away. I know a lot of docks and piers actually have put in receptacles of PVC pipe with signage specifically for disposal of fishing line. And one of the points above about confronting people has some validity - but I will also say that on more than one occasion, I have approached people and I am not going to call them stupid - they are literally ignorant about the hazards. So many folks have this weird inbuilt belief that because fishing line is seen as "fragile" (hey, that's how you lose fish - the line breaks! And to some extent tackle companies and retailers exacerbate that - need to replace that "old" line every season!). Folks seem to believe that the stuff breaks down relatively quickly, when in fact it does not. Littering is NEVER cool (Just because the galley cook put a tomato on your hamburger doesn't mean it's OK to take it out and throw it overboard. The tomato OR the Galley Cook :LOL:).
Politically it does affect us. While the majority of the folks on this forum are true sportsmen that realize that "We who enjoy the resources are the ones that protect the resources" there are just too many readily available situations like what happened to Scuba Chris, or what Fishmounter describes, that those who don't understand what we live for think that anyone with a fishing rod is just another yahoo with a 12 pack out to desecrate nature. Which is why in the state right now people who do not fish, hunt, or enjoy the outdoors beyond what they see through the windows of their Prius (ok, that IS a Political Jab) are trying to legislate to "protect us from ourselves".
While I have no evidence to support it, I would posit this. If you were to say "Lead" to Californians, the most common responses would probably be urban folks thinking about the last drive by shoot 'em up or anybody that has seen the news and knows that "Lead=Flint MI=BAD". Which is NOT to minimize or downplay the tragedy of what happened in Michigan, but I suspect that in the case of the current possible legislation in CA to "ban" lead weights, that many folks actually sincerely believe it is a good thing not out of maliciousness, but out of ignorance (again, I did NOT say "stupidity").
Glad things did not go as badly as they could of for Chris, and hope he is back on the water quickly. And we all need to keep being our own ambassadors. (Or maybe that should be AmBASSadors? Is that trademarked?) - Brewcrafter