Boat bat safety folly

[Dave B.]

Seems like everytime I take guys from work, we always come back with a story.

Anywhoo, thought I'd pass this on as it came up in conversation this weekend.

Was out offshore, doin the group-ah thing. We used to keep a small Louisville slugger hand bat on board to "tame" rowdy fish. Well, it worked ok, but we needed more "oomph", so a bud brought a small kid's T-ball aluminum bat to use.

Thing work'd great on a couple fish, and we got thinkin, hey, this is a good deal.

Well, this one trip out, everything was the same, pretty normal to catch small sharks. Usually we just grab them behind the head and de-hook them and send them on their way. Well, we hook'd a larger shark and he was fairly rowdy, enough to have to give him a smack with the bat as he was goin to be a keeper for the grill.

Well, my bud had fought him to the boat and we brought him up broad side on the starboard midship side. So I came around from the back to hand grab the leader to hold the fish until someone could get the gaff out. So my bud has this shark to my left still in the water on the rod, I now have the leader and have the head out of the water keepin an eye on him while another bud is grabbin the gaff. Well bud 1 said, just grab the bat to bud 2 to stun him before gaffin him aboard. So bud 2 grab'd the bat and gave it to bud 2, then bud 2 took the rod with the shark on it and stood to bud 1 left.

So bud one on my left say's, can ya hold his head up so I can get a good swat at it? I said yeah, hold on.

So I pulled up on the leader to get the sharks head up out of the water for a clean shot, and bud 1 did a back hand tennis swing from his left to his right with the bat.

Next thing I know is I felt this 'WALLOP' right below my belly button... drop'd me immediately to my knees... man ya want to talk about take yer breath away.... Anyhow I dont remember whether or not we kept the fish or what happend after that... all I do know is, we dont keep a bat on the boat no more!