Shorties and Getting Bit by a Skate

One foggy dog day morning, Noah and I drifted around an Eastern CT bay, bottom fishing. It was a short fluke filled day, we caught them with consistency. Though most wouldn't be particularly thrilled, I don't fish for fluke often and that's the only way to get big ones in today's fishery. I'm just happy to catch any flat fish, because they're wicked cool animals.

Most of the time I was fishing with a strip of sea robin on my jigs, But I did make sure I fished without it enough to get a couple properly on the fly. I don't catch flatfish on the fly nearly as much as I'd like to.
Towards the end of one drift, as we started to come up into shallower water, I got some fluke like taps then set into a fairly heavy fish that bent my 5wt to the cork. It didn't feel at all fluke like. It was either a ray or a skate. Given that we'd been wade fishing the same flat the previous evening and had seen and fouled a bunch of clearnose skates, more than I'd seen my entire fishing career prior, I had a feeling it was one of those. And that's exactly what it was.

We netted it. This proved to be an ill advised move.

The skate bit down on the net and decided it didn't feel like letting go. I decided to flick in on the snout just above its mouth to try to get it to let go. I'd forgotten how protractile a skate's mouth is....

Before I'd realized what was occurring, I found my finger very firmly in the jaws of an unhappy and impressively strong skate. I gasped in utter shock at how strong this fish's jaws were. And how much my finger now hurt. I could not simply pull my finger out of the skate's mouth. I asked Noah for help... and to take a photo. The photo was prioritized over my finger... documentation and story telling over my own safety is the name of the game.

Photo courtesy Noah Johnson

I was convinced that if the fish decided to start thrashing I would at best have severe lacerations and at worst lose my finger. The latter seems pretty unlikely, but at the time I really felt like that was a possibility. It f****** hurt! Noah and I, using pliers, managed to open the mouth and remove my now damaged middle finger.

I don't recommend getting bit by a skate. It isn't fun. If you, for any reason, need to get a skate to let go of something, don't flick it about it's mouth, just grab the pliers.
Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

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