Please Don’t Kiss the Catch of the Day

I have not given the practice of kissing fish an inordinate level of thought.  Not that I don’t find some fish attractive.  Trout are downright pretty.  I have pulled some beautiful trout from small streams and rivers in Montana—some easily as colorful as a midsummer flower garden—but I have never felt an urge to smack one on the mouth.

Not so Sam Quilliam, a man of 28 from Dorset, England.  Earlier this month, Sam managed to catch a Dover sole while fishing along Boscombe pier with a few of his chums.  The sole is not a particularly beautiful fish.  They are something of a bottom-feeder and look rather like the slimy stuff that catches in the drain basket of your sink after you clean-out the insides of a squash.

This particular sole measured a bit under six inches in length.

That may not be the “marrying kind,” but that size is a definitely a “keeper” when you are fishing for brook trout in the tiny streams bounding down mountainsides from the high snowfields of the Northern Rockies.

All of this aside, Sam Quilliam intended to “kiss the fish,” an angling tradition where you thank the fish by kissing it before you toss it back. 

Note: fish are slippery.

When Sam brought the fish up to his lips, the fish shot right into his mouth and immediately wriggled down his throat, seeking the bottom, and blocking his airway.  Sam Quilliam flailed a bit and then went lights out.

After his collapse, Sam’s fishing pals called paramedics and began performing CPR on him.  By the time paramedics arrived, Sam was flat on the ground and had an inadequate pulse.  After his friends finally convinced one of the paramedics that a fish swam down Sam’s throat, the paramedic (after several attempts) retrieved the fish with a pair of forceps, saving his life.

Sam Quilliam recalls little of his near fatal experience today.  Only one thing is certain, Sam and his friends are not likely to be found molesting fish anytime soon.

Mitchell Hegman

Original story: news.sky.com