“I’m fine, everything is fine!”

By Paul Tollefson

Contributor

As an avid fisherman, hunter, and sportsman, I often meet and talk “shop” with other likeminded individuals in Bluffton and Hilton Head. One name that always seems to come up at some point is Craig Everett. Although I have not met Craig in person, I knew that someone with so much experience was sure to have a few good stories under his belt, and boy was I right!

It was the early 2000s, and it was a Saturday night at the Boathouse on Hilton Head. Craig, out with his buddies, ended up overhearing a conversation from a group of tourist girls that went as simple as, “I want to catch a shark.” Well, of course, Craig’s ears perked up, and he offers to take them out the next morning on his boat, The Boss Hogg.

Well, as Jimmy Buffett once said, “There is a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning!” A partly cloudy Craig met the co-eds at the dock the next morning, and with cooler in tow, hopped on Boss Hogg. They headed out Port Royal Sound to a spot Craig knew would be an easy place to hook a shark.

Before long, “Fish on,” Craig yells! The girls, giddy with excitement, each get their turn feeling the fight of the fish before Captain Craig brings it aboard.

“It was about a good 45-50 lb. blacktip, and as soon as I got it on board, I was able to hold it and let the girls gather round and get a picture with it. As I was nearly holding it eye level, the fish was of course getting heavy, and my arms were getting tired. There was one girl who still needed a picture with it, but I wanted to set it down just for a second.

“The whole time I held it, it was as calm as could be, but as soon as I put it down, it started flapping and snapping everywhere. Well, I had flipflops on and as I was motioning the last girl to come to the back of the boat, the girls all started screaming!”

“I looked down, and I could see blood on the deck. One of the girls screamed ‘it bit your toe off!’ I looked at my big toe and sure enough, it was hanging on by a flap,” Craig said to me laughing.

“One of the girls took off her white tank and wrapped my foot up while I radioed back to the Boathouse and let them know I was ‘coming in hot.’ As we pulled up, there was a large group of probably 50 people already waiting at the dock. The coconut telegraph was in full force and news had traveled that a shark had bitten the bottom half of my leg off!”

“When I finally got to the hospital, the doctor unwrapped my foot and kind of flipped my toe back to where it was supposed to be,” said Craig. “Kinda like flipping a bottle cap off a bottle. The doc simply said he’d stich me right up, no problem!”

Although Craig can’t remember quite how many stitches he needed, his feet to this day still fit perfectly into his pair of flip flops, which to a fisherman is quite important!

He went on to tell me at least three more stories of him winding up in the hospital with fishhooks inside his head, shin and feet, but with each story he just kind of laughed it off as if, “Hey, no biggie!”

Paul Tollefson is the Director of Tennis at Hampton Hall Club. He is a 20+ year resident of Hilton Head and Bluffton and enjoys researching and writing about the people, places, and things that have made the area what it is today. Paul is the co-creator of the Facebook page Bluffton Then and Now. He enjoys giving Bluffton history presentations to communities and in local schools and is on the board of the Historic Bluffton Foundation.