Is being keeping clean ok for fish

[gozzer]

Use alcohol wipes and/or soap and water if it makes you feel better, but don't get too hung up on the risks.

In nearly 50 yrs of angling the only things I've known, (other than electricity cables, and drowning), to effect anglers is, certain maggot dyes that were deemed responsible for the death of two anglers I knew, (both tackle dealers and handled them daily). The other was two friends that used fly killer when digging up a wasps nest. They thought I was mad not to take any, but realised my fears were well founded, when they both suffered sickness and diarrhea after using it.

 

John.

[Steve Burke]

Whilst Weil's Disease is rare we anglers are at higher risk than most of the population. A trout fishing friend of mine caught it and, whilst he survived, he had a very long spell in hospital indeed.

 

Like most here I'd not bothered too much about catching such nasties and considered myself pretty indestructible. Since my friend's flirt with death I've been a lot more careful.

[Dick Dastardly]

For years I regarded an unhooking glove for pike as totally unecessary.In fact many used actually caused damage to the pioke all for the avoidance of a few scratchs! During the winter months my left hand always has small grazes and cuts on it....the "badge" of a real piker!

 

However after a construction worker contracted Weils whilst working on a local water I regularly pike fish I have been forced to change my mind.Maybe these miriad of tiny scratchs and cuts could leave me open to a greater risk of catching Weils? Well for a couple of years now I have had a pair of Muskie Armour gloves.Not only are these safe for the pike but also give newcomers a bit of confidence and most importantly stop all the potentially problematic cuts and grazes.I now reccomend them on all my teach ins but personally old habits die hard! Whilst I carry one at all times I never wear it!

[Andy Macfarlane]

Ye can buy alcohol gel bottles from pound shops and it's handy for lighting stoves when yer lighter won't catch a light.

[Anderoo]

If it's a 1-day or less session, I brave it like the devil-may-care, hardened marine-type chap I am. If it's more than a day, I take a pack of anti-bacterial baby wipes to keep my hands clean for eating, like the...erm...well, never mind.

[ayjay]

Weils' is still fairly rare but definitely not to be taken lightly.

 

I posted (on here) a few years back this precis of an account by someone who had had it and wrote an article about the experience in the Specialist Angler mag.

 

I think it's worth a repeat airing.

 

The guy in question was a builder and an angler and he had a couple of minor scratches on his hand,He had got his hands wet whilst fishing a lake for carp.

 

"Day one.

About a week later I started to feel unwell,a bit like flu.

 

Day two.

Couldn't get out of bed,sweat was running out of me and temp. rose to 102.

 

Day three.

Now the fun begins, "rigals" they are called, a cross between shivers and convulsions caused because your blood temperature is so high your brain swells and can't cope.You're semi-conscious and think you're in the arctic in swimming shorts at 40 below with some smartarse spraying you with water in a force 10 gale.Your temp. is now 104 but you are pleading for more blankets.During a brief respite I said to my wife there may be a chance I've got Weil's disease.I explained to her that it starts like flu but then your temp goes through the roof followed by major organ failure and then you die. My wife got a doctor and I was very soon in hospital.

 

Day four.

Antibiotics by mouth, rapidly returned to sender,so massive doses by drip.By now what you know about the likely outcome doesn't matter.It's the pain throughout your body,the pulse normally only felt at your wrist is hammering through your head.The rigals come and go regularly.For me it was just a battle to get through the temperature rises.At a low about 102 rising to 105 and back again.Each time the rise starts, you feel it coming,after each fall back you know there is less of you to fight the next rise.

 

Day five.

Very little left,you know if it doesn't break tonight you are finished.The people who come to see you can't hide from you what you already know.They come in,you see them through a haze, they don't tell you but you know ...

 

Day six.

The doctors know the antibiotics can't kill the virus, it just has to run it's course, you know when it has you will either be here or not.It's the high temp that's getting to me .My wife hasn't left for 24 hours,the staff provide bowls of iced water "J" cloths and electric fans.My temp. rises to 105 again but I feel like I'm in the coldest place on earth.My wife is soaking the J cloths in iced water and placing them all over me.This goes on all night, no more science,just...

 

Day seven.

Come the morning I'm still there.My temp. has fallen below 100 for the first time. I've lost a stone in weight.

 

In the weeks that follow I slowly regain my strength, but I was forgetting peoples names,and words that used to come readily to my tongue I now have to search for.

 

I tried working on building sites again but couldn't physically do it.Before Weil's I was 40 and felt 28, now I'm 41 and feel 50.

 

Four years later I am two stone lighter but feel otherwise recovered, and I still go fishing.

[T1Cybernetic]

<SNIP>

i would work out why i'm hooking myself "at least 3 times a session" (are you blind?) before worrying about how shiny your hands are

 

I suffer from hooking myself way too much per session

 

Also one of the first things i do when i get to a fishery is wash my hands in the water i am fishing it's almost a *good luck charm* of mine to wash away any homely smells that might taint my bait or something.

 

But on the other hand i am very self concious about eating while fishing, i cover with foil /cling film or a bag etc around my sandwiches or buns and after having a few sores on my hands over the years i am ever careful of covering them up with plasters before fishing...

[lyn]

Firstly and most important, make sure you wet your hands before you touch the fish as dry hands will do it more harm than any disinfectant! As mentioned you can get antiseptic 'dry' gel. I tend to carry this, wash my hands in the river/lake, dry them and then use the gel. I only do that to eat.

 

As has been said, if you do have cuts and are fishing a water where weils is known then be sensible. I carry some surgical gloves in my bag just in case I do cut myself. As with anything just be careful but as someone else said you do need to build up some resistance to all of the bugs etc that go round.

 

Finally and most important just enjoy your fishing!

 

lyn