10-01-2009, 07:47 PM
Guess I've got tendonitus, first hurting one arm then inflaming the other by overcompensating. But that wasn't going to stop me last Saturday morning. I was hurting but still casting, trying hard not to notice how the outsides of both elbows were throbbing. I'd been having luck lately atop weed beds at Shenandoah Lake beside the Virginia Blue Ridge and was in position for another lunker when I felt the bite of something sizeable. I hauled off for a great hook set, confident in my braided line. Then something strange happened -- the lunker hauled back! Darn near yanked the rod from my grasp! And I felt something give in my left elbow just as excruciating pain shot up and down my rod-holding arm. It was all I could do to hold on, let alone reel. Feeling the fish begin to fight, I raised the rod high and back, mostly on the strength of my other arm, as the fish turn toward me. Unable to take up line to keep the pressure on, I felt the lure, that triple-jointed ugly Japanese monstrousity I've previously posted about, come loose. You know, while disappointed, I wasn't all that unhappy because, my arm didn't hurt near as much with him off the hook. Probably was a Muskie, who caught me by surprise.
Serves me right for teasing some boat-ramp hogs by pointing to six stitches on my forearm, where skin cancer had been removed, and saying, "Gotta watch those Muskie in this lake!" One wide-eyed guy asked: "You fish for Muskie?" And I answered, "No, that's just it!" and carried my gear around their boat over to my SUV. Come to think of it, that heavy load is probably what started my tendonitus.
Anyway, that was it for me that morning. I tried to cast, but the pain was just too much to enjoy, so I kicked for home holding my arm and trailing a stick bait. Apparently the fish weren't through with their revenge. Nearing the dock, I got a strike and painfully reeled in a decent size largemouth, only to have him get off at the last second. Could almost hear him laughing.
So does anybody suffer from tendonitus and know what might help lessen its effect?
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Serves me right for teasing some boat-ramp hogs by pointing to six stitches on my forearm, where skin cancer had been removed, and saying, "Gotta watch those Muskie in this lake!" One wide-eyed guy asked: "You fish for Muskie?" And I answered, "No, that's just it!" and carried my gear around their boat over to my SUV. Come to think of it, that heavy load is probably what started my tendonitus.
Anyway, that was it for me that morning. I tried to cast, but the pain was just too much to enjoy, so I kicked for home holding my arm and trailing a stick bait. Apparently the fish weren't through with their revenge. Nearing the dock, I got a strike and painfully reeled in a decent size largemouth, only to have him get off at the last second. Could almost hear him laughing.
So does anybody suffer from tendonitus and know what might help lessen its effect?
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