# Pier Safety



## Surf_Pier_Guy (Jun 9, 2000)

Went fishing on the pier at the Leesylvania State Park on Sunday. Though the pier was crowded fishing was great. The pier was crowd was family oriented with little children with Snoopy rods on a worm and bobber. Then this guy gets onto the pier with 3 long 15 foot surf pole and started casting over people heads and when he caught a fish he would reel in all the way to the tip of his rod and swing the fish over the pier rail. I was thinking to myself, "man, this guy is dangerous and he will get himself or somone around him hurt." To make a long story short he ended hooking me!!!!  As he was swinging one of his fish over it got caught on the top of the pier railing. I was thinking if that fish spit the hook that 2 way rig would would hit someone. Being the friendly fisherman that i was i grabbed the top of the metal leader and swung it over for him and placed the fish on the deck of the pier. The fish then thrashed around and spit the hook!!!! Now imagine this. This 15 foot surf pole was bowed like at big bow getting ready to fire an arrow a thousand yard. (the line was never loosen.) When that fish spit that hook the rig shot up and hooked me right on the hand. The hook happens to be those sharp Tru-Turn hooks. It was very painful because the hook had gone deep into the skin. After 30 minutes on doing the "Rambo" style self surgery I then decided to see the doctor. So what started out nice, the sun was warm and fishing was great-i was in the Potomac Hospital Emergency Room for 2 hours. What lessons were learned here? Should i have not helped the guy? Should i tell him to be more careful? From all my years fishing at the piers in the Hampton Roads and NC I should have know better. I would always instruct the person with the fish on what to do-i should have told him to loosen his line after i had the leader in my hand. Has anyone had any accidents on the pier before? Please share your story.

~SPG


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## Heaver (Feb 7, 2001)

Lesson learned: Stay away from idiots like these that don't know what they're doing.

Several years ago at Little Island Pier, Chris leaned over the rail to help one handline a skate up onto the planks and remove the hook. The moron holding the rod had been trying to crank the skate and bottom rig up out of the water but managed to get it only about 12" above the surface. As Chris leaned over the rail the hook straightened, and the rod unload, whipping the 5oz pyramid sinker and bottom rig straight up skyward. The sinker hit Chris dead square between the eyes. He wound up with a serious impact injury and laceration, and left the pier to seek medical attention. 5 min after Chris left Mr. Moron was again trying to lift out of the water using only the rod/reel yet another skate! So folks just never learn....

Lou


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## BLUEFISH (Apr 18, 2001)

You see lot of those in public pier al over Md too! I do most of my pier fishing at Point lookout. I know we are rookie when we start fishing with 12' or 15' surf rod..but
when you practice when pier is loaded with kids and member of families and tourist..that's asking for it..sure enough this idiot manage to throw rig straight up about 60 feet in the air and ended up hitting this poor girl who could not move out in time.She ended up going to saint mary county hospital and guess what?
He stayed after and got everyone's line tangle up by casting one side of pier to other side of pier. I came real close to cut him up and use for shark bait then I realize we don't have shark in Point Lookout.(exept for some samll dog fish)


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## Sandcrab (Mar 20, 2002)

I posted this awhile back about the problems of fishing on a long, crowded pier in San Diego, CA. 

San Diego, CA - A crowded fishing pier in the early morning hours. The pier is about 30' above the water and the only way to get your catch up onto the pier is with a long yank of the rod while yelling "heads-up"! 

A bunch of us regulars are catching mackeral and bonito on "bonito splashers", a rig which consists of a cast-a-bubble partially filled with water followed by a large, white bucktail streamer. The intent is to cast out and reel frantically to make the bubble splash. The bonito come up to take a lookie-lookie, see the white bucktail and the rest is history. You yank the fish over the rail and continue fishing. 

Three guys (Let's call one of them "Joe Bongo") come on to the pier with brand new fishing equipment. After they put line on their reels, they hook up some bonito splashers and start working the water. Two of them are fishing the end of the pier which faces open water, and their friend "Joe Bongo" fishes the pier area behind them which faces the shoreline behind them. 

One guy finally hooks a large mackeral, plays it for awhile, and finally gets it to the pier. He give a quick yell of "Heads up!" to let everyone know the fish is coming "uptown". Then in a feat of strength not seen on this planet, gives it the strongest yank I have ever witnessed in my life. The mackeral "shoots" straight out of the air (straight up - mind you!), and proceeds to go airborne like a sub-launched nuclear warhead on its way to Russia! The regulars all start chattering "This is going to be good!" and scatter like roaches from bug spray ("Houston, we have a problem?"). 
The mackeral finally reaches the end of it's upward momentum and starts coming down - only to hit "Joe Bongo" (their buddy on the other end of the pier) SMACK IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD. Stunned, he tries to get up but is so dizzy from the mackeral that brought him to his knees that he can not even move! He yells and screams at his buddies and they end up in a fist-fight. 

And the regulars laughed their butts off! It was probably a good half hour before anyone could resume fishing! 

Pier fishing - You gotta love it!  

That is my .02.


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## fishnkid (Sep 30, 2001)

haha sandcrab i would of loved to see that happen. I bet you they felt quite stupid knowing that they just launched a fish and ended up nailing someone with it.


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## Jighead (Dec 1, 2002)

Oh Man, that was a good one Sandcrab!!

Unfortunately...those type come down here to thaw out. Over and over we get tourist who show up with 3 poles. They head for the center of the "T". One line goes straight out, one line goes over everyones line to the left and the other over everyones line to the right. I'm justing getting tired of all the little cuts from untangling everything! Cast overs don't bother me, its going to happen, but this crap is blatant!!


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## Kozlow (Oct 25, 2002)

Gear up like these anglers you should scare away some of those rookies. They brought along their 2 ton winch. Don't ask me to help you . Gday Mate . What no Fosters brews on the deck. I think I would need about a 12 Pak.
http://www.netspace.net.au/~bluemako/jetty.htm 

T<----->Lines
Kozlow


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## Sandcrab (Mar 20, 2002)

Koz,

A pier that has a two ton winch ready to haul up your fish? That tells you something!

Jighead - We get the same guys here with three rods...only they decide to night fish, fall asleep, and their lines drift like crazy because they didn't change weights during the tidal change. Snip snip solves everything!


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## Ruedy (Oct 10, 2000)

Sandcrab's story had me on my knees!

Look out when there's a bunch of unsupervised 14 year old kids on the pier armed with trebble hook jerk jiggers chasing a school of Spanish Macks up and down the pier!.....Saw a guy get hooked in the neck that way, and he was ducking! Luckily the kid's drag was set pretty loose.


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## Sandcrab (Mar 20, 2002)

Hook in the neck! Ow!


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## Ruedy (Oct 10, 2000)

Back of the neck. Yeah. I felt his pain!


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## Art77 (Mar 11, 2003)

Good to see that there are other users of this board that fish Prince William 
County. Beside people, what were they catching?


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## chest2head&glassy (Jul 2, 2002)

You PW county folks: Keep an eye out for the shad run in Occoquan River. They bunch up at the river below the dams above the town of Occoquan. The stripers will hang out at the base of the rocks for the buffet. We use to float large minnows under a bobber and drift it into the strike zone. Fun on light tackle.
It's been awhile since I fished up there, but I think the shad run starts in late March or early April. Yellow perch should be in the river now.


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## Art77 (Mar 11, 2003)

You are right about it being time for the yellow perch, but water has been muddy and mostly to cold for an old man. (It was still snowing here this morning.)


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## fishnkid (Sep 30, 2001)

hey reudy watch the sterotyping about 14 year olds and stuff. I am 14 and im not one of those kids running around with gotchas and cutting people off. Believe it or not i have a problem with older people. Every now and then when im on a pier or even at lesner bridge people maybe 10-50 years older then me come up and cut me off. Last year during a good bluefish blitz, the were a group of people around 20-50 years old all jigging the school so i moved down maybe 30-40 feet thinking eventually there going to come up this way. Well as soon as they did that group of people came too. And guess what, I had people launching gotchas over my head ect untill it got to the point when i moved to take a fish off my spot got stolen. Basically those people come in all ages and sizes.


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## Ruedy (Oct 10, 2000)

Fishnkid,

I thought exactly of that,but, unfortunately it was too late.

Also, I thought of you, knowing your age, knowing I enjoy your posts and having the impression that you are one who IS supervised by your own, internal, level of maturity and civility.......Unfortunately, it was too late when I thought of these things......Please accept my apology.

But, as stereotypical as my post sounds, the fact remains they were 14 year old kids.

Reminds me of the saying "One bad apple ruins the whole barrel."


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## Ruedy (Oct 10, 2000)

And I agree with you, Fishnkid, they do come in all ages and sizes!


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## DavB (Apr 15, 2000)

FK, *you* don't act your age. Proves there's still decent parenting going on somewhere.  

Then, there are the ones older, sometimes way older, that act like 14 year olds...


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## BLUEFISH (Apr 18, 2001)

Went put to Occuquan this morning....it was little windy and cold. not a thing...Birds were having a feast out there..I though it might have been shad but it was sunfish...guess still have to wait for them herrings and shad.. I did not even catch yellow perch..then again water was muddy too.

So, how do you catch yellow perch in Occuquan? where do you fish and what do you use...?

went to burke lake...nothing.. Accotink for little trout action but i let them go..figure let someone else catch them trout.... probably heading down to virginia beach or york ditch for some puppy action......


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## fishnkid (Sep 30, 2001)

haha yeah. DavB i am going to have to agree with you on that. Most 14 year olds will do the run and sling method not caring whos in there way but then again i have seen many people do it. Its not the age, its the maturity.


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## Art77 (Mar 11, 2003)

To fish for yellow perch in the Occoquan: Just below the Rt.1 & railroad bridges, in or on the edges of the channel; fish small minnows on the bottom or jig a small Silver Buddy. Potomac River limits apply (5 @ 9") rather than Virginia regs.


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## catman (May 28, 2001)

Sandcrab...Great story, I've got to save it. That's why I visit over her on the Virginia boards. We need some of that excitement on the MD/DE boards. Thanks again.

Catman.


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## Surf_Pier_Guy (Jun 9, 2000)

Saw the doctor again today. Except for minor swelling and a little rash-Doc said that I'm gonna make it!!! I'm ready to fish again this weekend. Some things learned from this experience:

-Be aware of your surrounding, especially when you are on a crowded pier. 

-don't be afraid to say something if a fellow fisherman is too careless

-have a fun and "SAFE" fishing this upcoming spring and summer

~SPG


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