Fishing fun

Last night I went fishing with Matt again. It was a perfect evening for it once the sun went down a bit. It was very calm, and the fish were swirling and jumping all around us. Note, I did not say they were biting. Matt did get a little striper on a worm, and I did manage to get a bass in the boat. This is where the story begins. As I am reeling it in Matt notices that the fish is barely hooked and tells me to swing it in the boat. I did. I go to grab the fish by the lip, and my Awesome knot skills were called in to question and the lure broke free from my line. Note, the fish was still on the lure, both of which accelerated towards the bottom of the boat at 9.8 m/s/s. Unfortunately my thumb got in their way, and one of the hooks went entirely in to my thumb. I use a quick profanity and ask Matt for help. We spend a couple seconds deciding if we unhook me, or the fish first. We decided it would be easier to take a picture of the fish if we unhook me first. :) (priorities) Dr. Matt tugs on it a bit and realizes it is going nowhere. He grabs his surgical needle nose pliers out of his tackle box and I try to hold my hand still while he makes the first attempt at removal. He offers a comforting "You know this is going to hurt right?" I confirm this knowledge. Dr. Matt pulls once, noting that something popped, but that the hook was still firmly pulling on my skin. He yanked one more time and it was free. I unhooked the fish, posed for a picture, and recalled some profanity that I had learned at a previous date. Amazingly it did not bleed, but it is definitely tender today. Thank you Dr. Matt for your mad skills and for not laughing at me. :) Feel free to laugh now. I am. I will be posting pictures of all two of the fish soon.