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Back in college I used to spend the summers working and fishing on the Cape. Somewhere between fishing and my job as a fish-packer I stuck myself with a striped bass spine which I didn't even notice and got the fish poisoning infection. The infection like #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^& says hurts like hell and on me after it festered on one of my fingers for a couple of days, a red line and the pain traveled in a short time from my finger all the way up my arm and to my torso. I could not even lift my arm. I went to the local health clinic and the doctor said I was about an hour or two away from needing a blood transfusion. He gave me a prescription for penicillin and told me to immediately walk right across the street to the pharmacy and get it filled and take the prescribed dosage.
The penicillin worked and about two days later I was back to what passes for normal. But this is what I learned.
- The slime on the striped bass is one of the more infectious of all the fishes that we handle in the normal course of fishing around here. (That may be a little anecdotal but it is what I have been told by people in the fish business)
-Like Flap says you should clean and disinfect your hands after every time you do a lot of fish handling. Make the cuts and punctures bleed and clean them is what we used to say in the packing room. It's common practice amoungst fish cutters and packers. I learned the hard way.
-Keep an eye on any infection that may crop up. They do hurt so there tough to ignore, but when fish poisoning starts to spread it happens fast so watch them.
- When your catching and unhooking fish it is better to take a little extra time and control what your doing than to be going nuts trying to go fast and count how many fish you can catch.
- Most importantly, the most essential piece of gear in my plug bag is a heavy leather work glove.
Ed
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