He ran up river to a dam to catch some smallies. He had made but a few casts when he hooked what he at first thought was a monster smallie, but he soon realized the fish was much bigger than any smallie. Turned out he had hooked a 50-inch musky.
Having worked the fish to the boat, he suddenly realized he didn't have a net big enough to handle it, and lipping this toothy critter certainly wasn't an option. He also knew that muskies have sharp gill plates, but given the situation, he didn't have any other choice. Taking his rod in one hand, he grabbed the fish by the gill plates with the other and immediately sliced his hand open.
Subsequently, the teenager dropped his rod, then tripped over a tie-off cleat, and took an unexpected tumble overboard, landing on top of the musky. In the process, he managed to hook the 6-inch Bagley tailspin topwater bait hanging from the musky's mouth in his arm. He finally managed to wrestle the fish into the boat, simultaneously ripping the hook from his arm. Thankfully, the current pushed him and the boat to shore.
The young man climbed back in the boat and wrapped an old shirt around his arm. He then removed the hooks from the fish, measured it, and was getting in position to release it when he heard a sharp C-R-A-A-C-K. He just had stepped on his rod.
While inspecting the damaged rod, a barge passed, and the subsequent wake spun the boat around, causing the youth to drop his rod in the river. His efforts to recover it were futile.
He just sat there for a while, drying out and nursing the pain in his arm. He was more than a little upset about losing the rod, too, because a local bass pro had given it to him. Eventually, though, he regained his composure, pulled out another rod, and went back to fishing.
By the time he got home that evening, he had blood everywhere, so his mom took him to the doctor, who put seven stitches in his arm.
Said the youth, "I may be accident prone, but I don't give up."
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