Holoholo writer Hunter shares a too-close encounter with an eel.

Hunter: I was out fishing Kaiser Bowls with my friend Issey on Labor Day. I was dunking dead oama while Issey was whipping with grubs. Right off the bat I had my oama followed by a 4 pound omilu which just didn’t want to bite. A few minutes later Issey hooked up to a lai which we released. Then, a while after that my pole with dead oama went off but didn’t hook up. Issey threw out his pole and hooked up to a nice 11 inch omilu. We debated on keeping it or not. Eventually we just kept it because Issey had not eaten omilu in a long time.

We decided to clean it so I jumped in the water while Issey cut open the fish. I was holding the fish while Issey pulled out the guts when all of a sudden what felt like a knife cutting pretty deep and my hand was pulled under a rock. I pulled it out and saw my fingers bleeding rapidly. Issey’s hand had also gotten cut but his was nothing compared to my cut. I applied pressure and headed back in while Issey cleaned up. The eel got a 2-fer: a piece of me and the whole omilu. Initially I thought the papio bit me, not realizing there was an eel in the water. A group of people were kind enough to help me with my injury.

Afterwards, I headed to the hospital and ended up having my wounds glued shut.

Lesson learned: Never clean a fish while in the water with its guts and blood coming out. Especially near a rock wall which is most likely housing eels. I wasn’t thinking and I paid the prices for it. Be careful and if you are near a rock wall which you think could be home to eels do not go in the water with open wounds or anything that might attract eels.