This woman's muskie attack story is the craziest fish story you will ever hear.
It is safe to say that 2020 has been one of the wildest years on record for most people living today, but the weird headlines just keep coming. Perhaps none is stranger than the news of a Canadian woman being attacked and dragged underwater by large muskie in Ontario.
If this story sounds too crazy to be true, Winnipeg's Kim Driver has the scars to prove it. Ones that doctors think may be permanent.
According to CTV news, the attack happened on July 25. Kim and her husband Terry were swimming at North Star Village in Minaki, Ontario when the unbelievable happened.
In an interview with CTV, Driver recalled how she had been standing in chest-deep water when she felt something rub up against her leg. At first, she brushed it off as a hamless turtle or a weed brushing up against her. However, a second later she was rocked with pain in her left leg as the big muskie seized hold. Driver and her husband are avid anglers who have had encounters with muskie before, so she recognized the species immediately. What happened in the next few seconds was mostly a blur, but sounds like many a survivor's account of shark attacks.
"Honestly, I don't remember how it all happened - once it bit me it started flailing me through the water and then took me under," Driver told CTV. "I started kicking, and I guess obviously punching it, because I have cuts on my hands, and then it let go and I came back up screaming that I needed help - something had bit me."
When she surfaced, several bystanders came to her aid. The bite was severe and resulted in a trip to the hospital. Doctors have stated that it may require plastic surgery to heal the scarring left on her leg by the fish's big teeth.
Driver says she does not plan on going back in the water or even fishing again for a while. The experience proved to be quite traumatic.
"I can't sleep at night," Driver told reporters. "I have horrible nightmares and I wake up in a sweat and screaming - it was scary."
As wild as this story is, this is not the first time we have heard of a muskie attacking humans. While attacks are quite rare, there have been a few notable incidents. In 2017, a 22-year-old woman had a muskie strike her ankle. Authorities believed her flashy ankle bracelet may have helped incite that strike.
One year later, a 16-year-old boy was bitten by one while swimming in Canton, New York in 2018. Then, in 2019, in Wisconsin, a young boy had to have 16 stitches after being bitten in a muskie attack on Fox Lake.
We cannot say we had "muskie attack" on our 2020 bingo card, but at the same time, we are not surprised. We just wonder what strange story will happen next.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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