Had a big surprise picking up decoys

It's been a crazy year and I never got a day to pick up my decoys after season. My bride went down around February with hip nerve problems and time got away from me. She had surgery in May and then another surgery in July on her knee so I've been mom and dad.

Anyway, I decided if one of the boys goes to work with me that I could probably get them all rounded up on my lunch break. So Nate and I paddle out to a few that I thought had just blown together in some wind. When I grab the wad of decoys I notice a rope tied to one and I start pulling on it but it didn't dawn on me what it was until I felt the sharp pain. Im pretty sure it was one of the migrant vineyard workers who decided to run trot lines and use my decoys as a tie off point. They made an absolute mess out of my decoy lines and defiantly caused me some serious pain. It didn't appear that they ever checked the line. I had to push the big hook on through my skin and then cut the barb off.

I'm so glad I didn't hunt it without knowing and send my dog into that death trap. Nate sitting there in the boat with me helped remind me to keep my composure and set a good example but i was torked off just a bit. I had to just cut all the lines. They are hooks all in them anyway. It will be much easier to just restring them and salvage the weights. The blue and white line was the trot line.