Newbie Tip: Making Good Choices About Footwear is Critical

This article is *graphic* and contains vivid pictures of an injury and may not be suitable for all readers!!!

So, I'm fishing this wonderful creek somewhere in the Sequoia National Forest when I flip a hopper pattern under a log.  There's a splash, I set the hook, and this fiesty Brown takes off for the under-cut bank on the other side of the log.  "NOT SO FAST!", I yell while giving chase down the bank to try and turn him.  My eyes are on the water as my line goes loose, then tight again.  Only now the feel is wrong - I suspect he hung up my leader.  I am still rushing for a better angle, when *BAM* I stub my toe on an old semi-petrified tree trunk.  I'm down on the bank...

Spoiler: Toe split on an ex-branch shaped like a railroad spike and just as hard.  I bled (a lot) and I will never fish in sandles again.  Now, if you click the link to read more it's on you.  I have told the whole story, and all that's really left is the evidence and this: the Brown spit the hook and I was snagged on the log - as it turns out.

Day 1 - After hiking back to camp with a bit of t-shirt tied around the wound.

Day 2 - Back home.  Blood has dried and looks black, really making it look worse than it is.

Seriously, open-toed shoes are bad.  Don't wear them.  This is a newbie site - look what this newbie did.

Smartest thing I ever did was to marry a nurse!  She almost puked looking at it right after the accident.  She was bent over at the waist getting ready to revisit lunch, but pulled it together.

I also turned my ankle (MRI in two days) because I was wearing wading boots a size too big and slipped walking down a rocky slope.  The moral of the story: footwear for fishing is under-rated.  Nobody ever told me, but believe me, I know now!  Do yourself a favor and get closed-toe wading shoes/boots and never fish without them.  I'm going to Cabelas right now to pick out a pair.