Teen’s horror injury in fishing contest "The fish Won!"

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/8269919.Teen___s_horror_injury_in_fishing_contest/

A TEENAGER was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung after a freak fishing accident.

Keen fisherman Tom Mitchenall, aged 17, was hurt while he was taking part in a competition last Thursday evening.

The line to the fishing pole had rebounded towards him when a fish took a bite, resulting in the float sticking into his chest.

His father, Graham, who has been fishing or more than 30 years, said it was a “freak accident” and while he didn’t want to discourage people from taking part in the sport, he wished to encourage them to be careful.

Tom, who has been fishing for more than 10 years, was just 15 minutes into the competition being held at a lake in Rushwick when the incident happened.

“We had to take him to the Worcestershire Royal Hospital where his lung started collapsing so it had to be drained. I have never known anything like it before, it’s just a freak accident,” said Mr Mitchenall, of Rydal Close, Warndon.

“Pole fishing is a specialised form of float fishing, where a pole is used instead of a fishing rod. The accident happened when the fish bit the hook, which is attached to elastic and a float then rebounded out of the water and hit Tom in the chest.”

Tom said: “I felt a fish on the end and I was ‘playing’ the fish. But the fish shot off and the hook pulled out, and the float catapulted out and hit me in the chest. But I didn’t realise and was looking behind me to find it. It’s only when I looked down and saw it sticking out of my chest that I realised, and just instinctively I just tried to pull it off and the end, which is a few inches long, snapped off and stayed in me.”

The teenager was struggling to breath when his father took him to the hospital, but they both praised and thanked the staff for their quick action.

Tom, who has just finished a construction course at Pershore College and wants to join the RAF, had to have three x-rays, a CT scan and his chest drained before they could then operate.

He was finally released from hospital on Sunday.

“I am still going to carry on fishing and this hasn’t put me off, I’m just going to have to be a lot more careful next time,” he said.

Mr Mitchenall added: “I want to just let people know this, especially youngsters, to let them know to not just go pulling the pole out the water too fast. Just be aware that this is what can happen and be careful.”

Ouch! Collapsed lungs are no joke. Scary stuff when you cant catch your breath. It happened to a friend...Twice. :shock:

Dang, that is a freak accident. We always think about getting stuck with the hooks, but never the lure itself.

The accident happened when the fish bit the hook, which is attached to elastic and a float then rebounded out of the water and hit Tom in the chest.”


WTF were they doing

Captain Ahab said:

WTF were they doing

Click to expand...

They're British.

They don't know any better. :lol:

Captain Ahab said:

The accident happened when the fish bit the hook, which is attached to elastic and a float then rebounded out of the water and hit Tom in the chest.”


WTF were they doing

Click to expand...

“Pole fishing is a specialised form of float fishing, where a pole is used instead of a fishing rod. The accident happened when the fish bit the hook, which is attached to elastic and a float then rebounded out of the water and hit Tom in the chest.”

Just did some research into "pole fishing". It's kinda like fishing with a cane pole on steriods. They use a ridiculosly long pole with at length of line attached on the end. The floats quite large are very light and slender. I can see how this happend with the shape of their floats and the length of the poles. That thing looks like it could create some serious leverage.

Daughter in law was fishing with my then 1 year old granddaughter and got line hung in tree.She naturally gave it a yank and split shot about twice the size of a bb hit my grandaughter in back of head.She spent a week in hospital,and a month under observation for a brain bleed.And the weight never even broke the skin! Dr said that weight was likely traveling as fast as a 22 bullet..be careful!

The Pole!


The Float!

crazy brits

those floats look like needle darts

How long is the pole? The picture does not even show the whole thing.

Those floats look like blow gun darts.

Looks like that can be 470cm or 15' 5" Telescopic from 10 sections.

I may be wrong though.

I just want to know what size fish. I can't imagine a bluegill giving that much pull to leverage the float - even on a rubber band - that much speed. Must have been one of those tasty 25lb carp!