I saw a picture recently of a man with a fish hook buried in his eye.
Ouch!!! Who wants to go through that? Now tell the truth, how many close calls have you had? I know I have had a few.
One that involved a utility knife and me balancing on top of a chain link fence but that's a whole different level of stupid.
Maybe we'll discuss that another time, right now I want to talk about fishing and one of our most valuable assets, eyesight.
How many times did your mom tell you "don't run with scissors, you'll poke your eye out"? But you kept on doing it.
What are the chances that you would actually fall and happen to poke yourself right in the eye? Probably about the same chances as hooking yourself in the eye.
I bet the guy in the picture was thinking "Man, how could I be so stupid?" His situation could have been a close call that he and his fishing buddy laughed about years down the road if he had used a little caution and the proper protective gear.
I had two close calls last summer.
The first one happened during a tournament.
I had found a "honey hole" and I was catching 2 to 3 pounders like crazy.
I set the hook on one like I was Kevin VanDam only to get a face-full of bass slime.
The 83 bass was yanked clean out of the water, skipped off my face, almost knocking me out of the boat, and landed 102 on the opposite side.
After I looked around to make sure nobody saw what happened, I had to laugh.
After I started fishing again I thought how bad that could have been.
On another occasion I set the hook like a champ but missed the fish.
There was nothing I could do as I watched and listened to the lure hissing through the air directly at my son.
It smacked him in the forehead and continued on for another 20-302.
He was not wearing glasses and could have been seriously injured.
Thankfully mine have only been close calls but they could have just as easily been life changing events.
These close calls happen so fast that there is no time to react.
I have decided to always wear glasses when fishing and always make sure everyone in my boat follows suit.
I carry 4-5 pair of glasses in my boat for a couple reasons...
one is if my fishing partner forgets theirs or doesn't have any and the other is so I have different glasses for the changing conditions.
During low light it is easy to remove your glasses or it's just as easy and much safer to switch to a clear or light tint lens.
Your eyesight and that of others in your boat can not be replaced.
Use glasses to guard against injury and enjoy many more days on the water.