Course Fish Attack?

[MDB1056]

Anyone else ever have anything like this happen? Yesterday afternoon on set #3 I'm pulling my ski buddy through the course, he just rounds one ball and is at center line when something jumps up out of the water and hits him his LEFT hip. He drops the handle. I thought he'd just lost the handle so I come back and he's in a lot of pain. Proceeds to tell me something hit him hard right on his left hip bone. Get him on the platform and he can barely get in the boat. He didn't hit anything with the ski or that would have been obvious to detect. The boat didn't hit anything, I was right in the lane at 34.2. We went back to see if we could see anything in the water or near proximity and nothing. He can barely walk when we get back to shore, and today tells me it's like he has a fanny pack on his left hip. Bruised & swollen from impact. I mean turtle hits are one thing but the skier goes down very differently and it's an obvious hit of something in the water. In this case something came up out of the water. As there was no debris, we'd been skiing for 2 hrs already, nothing found afterwards anywhere, the only conclusion is that a big fish jumped at exactly the wrong time and he hit it. Seems almost impossible as the boat had just passed there moments before but nothing else makes any sense. He didn't really see "it" other than something came up and hit him. I suppose a 10 pound fish impacting a skier at estimated 40 mph across the wakes could have a heck of an impact. Location here is N central Arkansas, but no gators have ever been seen in my lake nor this one we were on yesterday which is even further north. It's just a really freak thing. Or maybe it's not as rare as I think.... which is why I'm asking ballers. All I know is he's hurting.

[oldjeep]

[The_MS]

Bass

[skihacker]

Asian carp? Where do you ski?

[Than_Bogan]

Silver carp are an invasive species that jump when exposed to engine noise. Probably not that because there are usually tons of them. But a rogue fish is certainly possible.

[MDB1056]

@skihacker - this was on lake Dardenelle- Russellville

[B_S]

Sure sounds like Asian carp.

[lpskier]

I think you need a bigger boat…