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McMillan had eventful opener

The FLW Tour season opener at Lake Okeechobee was a full-contact affair for Brandon McMillan.

After needing five stitches to close a gash on his chin Friday evening after he was struck by his co-angler's errant tungsten weight, he had to go into the water Saturday to retrieve a fish as part of a memorable fish catch that was captured by an in-boat camera.

The video had more than 300,000 views on FLW's Facebook page as of Monday morning.

"My neck is a little sore," he joked Sunday night. "I don't know if it was the tungsten to the face or falling in the lake. I've never been so happy to go back to work on a Monday."

He said he's not one to watch video footage of himself in the boat. He admitted to having not watched the Potomac River recap episode from last season until last week - he made the top-10 cut there - but his desperate lunge to retrieve the fish that had come unhooked next to the boat Saturday was something he wanted to see again.

Here's the video in case you haven't seen it yet:

"I don't get big on seeing myself on TV, but I watched that like 100 times (Saturday) night," he said.

The catch occurred while he was fishing in South Bay, flipping a heavy weight into some matted vegetation. After setting the hook, McMillan works to control the boat with his trolling motor while fighting the fish on port side of his front deck.

Just as he was about to lift the fish over the side and into the boat, the hook came loose and the fish was about to escape. That's when McMillan sprung into action. He immediately dropped to his stomach and reached down toward the fish, which was laying on top of the mat.

With his left hand still holding onto the boat, his momentum carried him slowly over the side and into the water. Video footage shows McMillan's left hand never losing contact with the boat. As he rolled into the lake one of his other rods went in with him (more on that later).

After a couple seconds, McMillan's head reappears and he slings what appears to be a 3-pound bass into the boat. His marshal then helped pull him back into the boat.

"In a perfect world, I stick it and I pull and she pulls and then I get her to the top and as long as her face covered with grass, they're fine. They don't go nuts," he said. "I got her close enough to flip her and the hook pulled out. She just laid on top of hyacinth mat. I could see her there. I reached and was 6 to 8 inches from her. I reached as far as I could and just went in."

He said he didn't touch bottom when he fell in and all he was concerned about was getting the fish in the boat and then getting himself back in the boat.

"I don't like snakes and moccasins sit on those mats," he added. "I have to have my wife get them out of our garage when they get in there. I don't like them."

As for the rod that went overboard, McMillan was unaware he'd lost it, but in the process of getting dry clothes, he found it near his outboard.

"I threw my wet clothes in the back and in the process of doing that I popped a fuse so my poles didn't work," he said. "I got stuck and couldn't get anything going. Then I looked in the back and saw it stuck in the outboard, still in one piece. I actually caught three on it Sunday."

One item he did lose was a flip flop. He thought he found it Sunday when he went back to the same area.

"I went back to the same mat (Sunday) about 20 times and never had a bite," he said. "I looked over and said, 'Hey, there's my sandal.' As I got closer, I saw it wasn't my sandal. It was a cottonmouth."

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