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View Full Version : What injuries have fish inflicted on you.



Dignity
16-04-2011, 04:29 PM
Just back from the hospital to remove a fish spine from my fingernail. Was removing the hook with a pair of those long nose pliers today from a sweetlip when the fish gave an almighty flick as the hook was removed and drove a 6mm piece of spine into my middle fingernail side on. It had to be removed by cutting out a section of the fingernail it was wedged in that tightly and the anaesthetic needle was worse than the initial injury.
Sorry forgot to take pics.
Was wondering what other injuries people have sustained while fishing.

nigelr
16-04-2011, 06:01 PM
Still got the scar from a bream spike in my finger from nearly 30 years ago!
Don't think I've ever eaten a bream that I've caught that hasn't drawn blood from me lol.........I hate cleaning bream but I love eating them!
Got a nice hit from an eagle ray that went straight through my waders like they weren't there, bled for hours despite my vigorously scrubbing it.....
I've learned the hard way to be very cautious, but the blood still runs hot when the fish are landed.....::)

Axl
16-04-2011, 10:27 PM
I recieved a sting from a Happy Moment (Black Trevaly) about 20 years ago fishing of a rock wall at Amity Point. Still to this day the worst pain I have ever experienced.

sleepygreg
16-04-2011, 11:24 PM
Used to take weeks to recover from our annual family holiday when i was a young tacker (12yo - 16yo)......fingers would be covered in cuts, scratches, punctures, abrasions...from flathead, bream, niggers, leatherjackets (ripping the skin off em really leaves YOUR skin like sandpaper once it dries out), jewies (gill rakers are severe if ya get ya fingers behind em), drummer..............and we were bloody proud of em...kinda like battle trophies. Though i have a nasty scar on the inside of my thigh from a st of trebles that came out of a spanyiard that was in the boat already...bloody idiot on the rod still had drag cranked up and full load on fish (idiot would be ME) when trebles came out at a gazillion miles an hour and ripped six inches of flesh. Have had a number of broken fingers from jigging for kings at the Peak off Sydney......have since changed the way I build rods and place foregrips. Dunno if it counts as a fish inflicted injury ......but have twice had a bee sting on the sole of my foot while fishing......and i gotta tell ya....this is bloody painfull when ya dont know what has happened (ya put your foot down trying to rid yourself of the 'foreign object'..but only manage to pump more poison into the wound). Once on Lake Burrinjuck when trolling for Murray cod, and once when trolling for mack tuna (for bait) on the way to the Peak for a kingie and tuna sesh. Still trying to figure out what a bee was doing that far from shore.

Greg

Axl
17-04-2011, 12:39 AM
Used to take weeks to recover from our annual family holiday when i was a young tacker (12yo - 16yo)......fingers would be covered in cuts, scratches, punctures, abrasions...from flathead, bream, niggers, leatherjackets (ripping the skin off em really leaves YOUR skin like sandpaper once it dries out), jewies (gill rakers are severe if ya get ya fingers behind em), drummer..............and we were bloody proud of em...kinda like battle trophies. Though i have a nasty scar on the inside of my thigh from a st of trebles that came out of a spanyiard that was in the boat already...bloody idiot on the rod still had drag cranked up and full load on fish (idiot would be ME) when trebles came out at a gazillion miles an hour and ripped six inches of flesh. Have had a number of broken fingers from jigging for kings at the Peak off Sydney......have since changed the way I build rods and place foregrips. Dunno if it counts as a fish inflicted injury ......but have twice had a bee sting on the sole of my foot while fishing......and i gotta tell ya....this is bloody painfull when ya dont know what has happened (ya put your foot down trying to rid yourself of the 'foreign object'..but only manage to pump more poison into the wound). Once on Lake Burrinjuck when trolling for Murray cod, and once when trolling for mack tuna (for bait) on the way to the Peak for a kingie and tuna sesh. Still trying to figure out what a bee was doing that far from shore.

Greg

Sheees Greg you wanna give it away whilst your still able to.

Dignity
17-04-2011, 08:17 AM
Used to take weeks to recover from our annual family holiday when i was a young tacker (12yo - 16yo)......fingers would be covered in cuts, scratches, punctures, abrasions...from flathead, bream, niggers, leatherjackets (ripping the skin off em really leaves YOUR skin like sandpaper once it dries out), jewies (gill rakers are severe if ya get ya fingers behind em), drummer..............and we were bloody proud of em...kinda like battle trophies. Though i have a nasty scar on the inside of my thigh from a st of trebles that came out of a spanyiard that was in the boat already...bloody idiot on the rod still had drag cranked up and full load on fish (idiot would be ME) when trebles came out at a gazillion miles an hour and ripped six inches of flesh. Have had a number of broken fingers from jigging for kings at the Peak off Sydney......have since changed the way I build rods and place foregrips. Dunno if it counts as a fish inflicted injury ......but have twice had a bee sting on the sole of my foot while fishing......and i gotta tell ya....this is bloody painfull when ya dont know what has happened (ya put your foot down trying to rid yourself of the 'foreign object'..but only manage to pump more poison into the wound). Once on Lake Burrinjuck when trolling for Murray cod, and once when trolling for mack tuna (for bait) on the way to the Peak for a kingie and tuna sesh. Still trying to figure out what a bee was doing that far from shore.

Greg
Greg, are you sure you go fishing for the enjoyment. Yesterday my crew also had a spike from a fish in his thumb, didn't realise it was still in there till he got home and prodded around a bit to pull a 1 cm spike out. Must have been weird to watch both of us cursing every time we bumped our thumbs/fingers out there on the water.

wayno60
17-04-2011, 08:19 AM
Got stuck by a catty right on the end of my middle finger. I could feel the pain slowy working its way up my arm so the ol girl drove to the hospital at mullumbimby, two shots in the rump, one for the pain and a tetanus shot.
Didnt get much sleep that night as the pain was all the way up to my shoulder but by the next morning it was all good.

Dignity
17-04-2011, 06:11 PM
Got stuck by a catty right on the end of my middle finger. I could feel the pain slowy working its way up my arm so the ol girl drove to the hospital at mullumbimby, two shots in the rump, one for the pain and a tetanus shot.
Didnt get much sleep that night as the pain was all the way up to my shoulder but by the next morning it was all good.

Hopefully there was a shot of rum for you when you got home

jtpython
17-04-2011, 06:13 PM
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/oo159/jtpython/16052009009.jpg
That had a spano attached while in my inner thigh

nigelr
17-04-2011, 06:17 PM
That is definitely NOT a good look JT.
Let alone how it must have felt, at least it didn't bite you as well.........

URAGANGI
17-04-2011, 06:19 PM
JT that looks more than friggin sore. I bet your english was at it's best when that happened.!!

URAGANGI
17-04-2011, 06:25 PM
Fishing off the banks at the Coomera river. The rod starts to scream. It's now bounced free from the rod holder. I've launched myself in aid of the rod from going into the drink. I Failed big time. I sliped and caught my leg in a mud hole. My hand connected with the anchore cleat. My little finger made first contact on the plunge downward. Here's the result...,snap than OUCH!!

Dignity
17-04-2011, 06:54 PM
JT - ouch and ouch again getting it out

Viper Fish - ouch again.

I found that the original injury wasn't even close to being as painful as the remedy.

Si
17-04-2011, 07:21 PM
i fell down the breakwall at Forster trying to cast when i was a kid. broke my wrist and cut my head. still have the scar on my noggin. sorry no photos.

Jono_SS
17-04-2011, 07:41 PM
I've had my share of minor slicings and spikings like the majority of fishers out there. I've also inflicted a few minor injuries on myself, including a treble in the chin when a mackerel spat the lure next to the boat.

However, the most interesting was back in the 90's when I was holding onto the tail of a decent little halibut in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It reached around and latched onto my pinky. If you are wondering what the problem is, do a google search for images of Psettodes erumei.

My reaction was to give my hand a big shake to flick it off. That worked, though left some good little gouges on the finger. Plus, 12 months later I squeezed an annoying little lump on my finger and eventually a little harpoon-like tooth popped out! I've still got the tooth somewhere....

More interesting than spectacular.

Jono.

nathank
17-04-2011, 10:12 PM
some bad ones there make ya wince a bit... Ive had two that i can remember, first one was when i was about 6yrs old holding up a leatherjacket proud as punch while mum took a pic and it flicked and somehow managed to bite me on the hand.. bad enough to leave a scar that i still have 30years later. Another one i had flicked a hard body lure to close to the bank and it got caught in a tree. I started pulling the line back and forth and it flew out of the tree and straight at my face.. i put my arm up just in the nick of time and one of the trebles lodged well past the barb into my arm.. Made my mate very queezy by pushing it out my arm past the barb then snipping off the barb and taking it back out... and yep i continued fishing for another hour lol :)

The-easyrider
17-04-2011, 10:29 PM
I took my brother in law prawing out from shorncliff, all was going well getting some good prawns but also getting a heap of small cat fish. After a while watching the B in law manned up and started to help clear the net, first cat fish he picks up pricks his finger and he flicks his hand, which sends the catty flying and lodges into my neck. Hurt like a bitch, dont take him fishing any more

URAGANGI
17-04-2011, 10:37 PM
Here's one that might give you a laugh. When I was a fair bit younger and still very silly. I was fishing in the rain near some mangrove trees. I've gone too cast out, the rain had gotten into my eyes. I've miss qued the cast and landed my rig right into the trees. So what did I do? I started to tug and streach the line, trying to bust off the snag. WRONG move. That line was under so much tention, the sinker has come back at me like a bullet. That ball sinker punched a hole right through my rain coat pants and lodged itself inside the pants leg. The site of impact was left off center from the family jewles. I was left with a nasty blue lump inside the groin area. I guess you could this lucky to be unlucky. The whole deal could've been far worse!

theoldlegend
18-04-2011, 07:18 AM
Was fishing the front of the Bluff at Iluka some years ago. Got snagged which is easy to do there and put a bit of hurt on the rig when something smacked me right on the left eyebrow.

Didn't know where I was for a little while and there was blood pouring out of my eyebrow. The sinker had hit me with tremendous force. When I realised that about one centimetre lower I would have lost my left eye, I felt pretty crook as to what might have been.

Needless to say I don't do that anymore.

About ten days before that I'd had my gall bladder removed. Two days after the sinker episode we were packing up to come home and I started to get this really bad pain in my gut. By the time we got to Ballina I was in agony, so my mate dropped me at the hospital there.

They shipped me off to Lismore Hospital where I spent three days while they stabilised things. When my surgeon in Brisbane found out he got the poops pretty bad and I was flown back here in a RFDS plane and had another operation that night.

Turns out there was a stone somewhere that the xrays didn't pick up initially.

That was a trip that I won't forget in a hurry.


TOL

Camhawk88
18-04-2011, 08:48 AM
2 that stand out from the usual spinings, gill rakings and nibbles both happened when I was a kid.

First one was actually while surfing as a 9 year old at Mullaloo Beach in Perth when I trod on a cobbler (silver catfish). Learnt a valuable lesson about the medicinal uses of hot water that day and dad learnt that his little boy could turn the air blue.

Second one I was about 13 fishing at Cooktown and into the doggie macks. We had quiet a few sharked or eaten by biggers macks. I pulled in a half a doggie and when to retrieve my hooks, thinking it was dead. The mack goes into the shudders and slices my hand open withthose teeth. I thought it was pretty cool getting stitches from half a mackeral.

rynosaurus
18-04-2011, 09:45 AM
CIGUTERA - from a 12kg coral trout!!!! took 3 months to recover with 4 weeks off work. Everything was so cold to touch and i itched all over not to mention the vomiting and diaheroa and constant gut aches but worst of all wasa no alchol or caffine for 2 months

my advise - dont eat anything over 5kg if its anywhere close to a ciga region

all good now though ;)

odes20
18-04-2011, 09:57 AM
CIGUTERA - from a 12kg coral trout!!!! took 3 months to recover with 4 weeks off work. Everything was so cold to touch and i itched all over not to mention the vomiting and diaheroa and constant gut aches but worst of all wasa no alchol or caffine for 2 months

my advise - dont eat anything over 5kg if its anywhere close to a ciga region

all good now though ;)

Ohhh Thats bad! I would hate to go thru that mate!

I recently got a fish spine of a Stripey buried in the end of my index finger while cleaning fish on the Islands south of Cairns.
I couldnt get it out so after going to a doc and then an xray to see where it was the dopey doc cut me open trying to find it and dug so deep i could feel him scraping the bone!
And he didnt find it! Did a real doctor patel. So it flares up again and I go to a lady doc with a fresh xray and she in great care studied the exray, went in with the smallest incision, found it and removed it!

End result of Dr Patels excavation is lost some of the feeling in the end of my finger as he obviously damaged the nerve.

Dont have the same feel now when I pick my nose!

Cheers
John

Defore
18-04-2011, 09:58 AM
I stepped barefooted onto the back of a small stingray, it then struck like a scorpion and stabbed 2 cm of barb straight into the heel of my foot. When I lifted my foot the stingray was hanging there. Would not recommend catching stingrays this way.
My brother grabbed the ray and pulled the barb out, then off to the nearest doctors for the dreaded injection.
The foot still got infected and I couldn't walk on it for 2 weeks.

Ian

Dignity
18-04-2011, 10:05 AM
Here's one that might give you a laugh. When I was a fair bit younger and still very silly. I was fishing in the rain near some mangrove trees. I've gone too cast out, the rain had gotten into my eyes. I've miss qued the cast and landed my rig right into the trees. So what did I do? I started to tug and streach the line, trying to bust off the snag. WRONG move. That line was under so much tention, the sinker has come back at me like a bullet. That ball sinker punched a hole right through my rain coat pants and lodged itself inside the pants leg. The site of impact was left off center from the family jewles. I was left with a nasty blue lump inside the groin area. I guess you could this lucky to be unlucky. The whole deal could've been far worse!

Be interesting to hear what your girlfriend/partner at the time said about it.

Dignity
18-04-2011, 10:09 AM
CIGUTERA - from a 12kg coral trout!!!! took 3 months to recover with 4 weeks off work. Everything was so cold to touch and i itched all over not to mention the vomiting and diaheroa and constant gut aches but worst of all wasa no alchol or caffine for 2 months

my advise - dont eat anything over 5kg if its anywhere close to a ciga region

all good now though ;)

Did you see the huge coral trout in the Sunday Mail, I hope he threw it back because you could write a written guarantee that it would have cigutera.

Cheech
18-04-2011, 01:07 PM
Another catfish victim. I still have the scar on the end of my thumb where the spike went in. I think it would have hurt less if I had of cut my arm off.

I still extract revenge against their family members!!:hanged::behead::rifle::smash::smash:

They say that to be happier you should not hold grudges. There are always exceptions.

rynosaurus
18-04-2011, 02:18 PM
Did you see the huge coral trout in the Sunday Mail, I hope he threw it back because you could write a written guarantee that it would have cigutera.

nah but i just looked it up then - id be skeptical having already got cigutera as i only need the slightest bit to start it all off again but if youve never had it then you should be fine
that trout looks a prime eat - we have eaten plenty around the 3-4 kg with no dramas - we just got a little greedy and excited when we pulled in the 12kg monster

Noelm
18-04-2011, 02:58 PM
hhmm lets me see now, stung by a small sand ray between the thumb and pointer finger, had a 10/0 hook through my hand with a wild Dolphin fish on the other hook, had a Snapper spine under my finger nail that snapped off (the spine that is) countless Flathead "stabs" a knife half through my foot after my mate sort of dropped it into the fish box, but missed and it stabbed straight into the top of my foot, a few Red Rock Cod stings, that just about covers it I think. NUH, hang on, I forgot the Blue Bottle that was wrapped around the anchor line one night, got some on my fore arms, and some down my shorts leg as well, yeeouch!

Mr Squiggles
18-04-2011, 05:42 PM
Like Defore I stood on a dinner plate sized ray while flicking for lizzies along Western side of Moreton.
The barb went in just below the ankle bone & snapped when it got about 60mm in.
I said to my beloved " Honey, I've just been hit by a ray." or words to that effect.
My wife, being a caring registered nurse replied "Well are'nt you lucky. I've just boiled the billy for a cuppa so there's plenty of hot water. Stick your foot in this!"
Don't tell me that 3rd degree burns won't stop the pain of a barb!
But seriously, hot water is the go & secondly, when removing the barb make sure the tip is still attached as apparently it's quite common for the tip to break off when the barb is lodged (thank you, dear).
Cheers Steve
P.S. When fishing in Vanuatu our resident bloke would cut a bit of meat off the cheek of the fish & put it near an ants nest. Go back a while later & if the ants were taking meat to the nest OK to eat if not the ants would drag it to one side & leave it if it had Cigatuerra.

Vitamin Sea
18-04-2011, 07:03 PM
Snapper spine left to long

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=49908&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1249874005 (http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/attachment.php?attachmentid=49908&d=1249874005)

URAGANGI
18-04-2011, 07:27 PM
Be interesting to hear what your girlfriend/partner at the time said about it.

Well at that time, I was out playing the field....And loveing it..Pardon the pun.
The only bummer with the narsty lump and unsightly bruise was, it side lined me on the back bench for a few weeks untill the injury site cleared.

If their was any action turning into a promise, my look alike S.T.D shut things down pretty quickly.

Dignity
18-04-2011, 07:50 PM
I still have scars and painful reminders from 42 years ago when I was searching around the rocks at Tallebudgerra headland and slipped cutting the insides of both feet badly. Beld like a stuck pig and I get cramps still in the the feet as the blood vessels prbably never healed properly.

Timfishin4fun
18-04-2011, 09:29 PM
I'm surprised no one has come up with fire weed incidents.

Mate of mine got bad burns on his old fella from having a leak after washing his hands in fire weed infested waters.

Timbo

Blythy
19-04-2011, 12:32 AM
Ah lets see,
Box jellyfish sting while picking up a floating crab off t'ville,
just about lost my fingers while trying to untangle a hand line and having a GT take the bare hook while my fingers were inside the knot,
showing my brother how to fish when i was 10 grabbed a 45cm catty, was in so much pain I don't even remember going to the hospital,
and tried to land a reef jack by the gill rakers, didn't end well.
Considering the things that I have done, I've come away pretty much unscathed.

SgBFish
19-04-2011, 12:15 PM
Never felt it...very sharp hook.

murf
19-04-2011, 12:22 PM
Never felt it...very sharp hook.

sweet looking xray :)

cheers murf

Dignity
19-04-2011, 06:50 PM
Never felt it...very sharp hook.

so when did you realise it was in there

murf
19-04-2011, 07:05 PM
so when did you realise it was in there

off topic but put a 3" HDG nail gun nail in my groin (just missed the important parts) and never felt it go in ::) I just heard the sound of the gun go off, felt the tetanus shot though

had catfish spike as a young 12yo, had a treble through my cheek and countless bites and spikes over the years

cheers Murf

ifishcq1
19-04-2011, 08:11 PM
Had pretty well all of the above and you get over the pain fairly quick
a broken heart when the nearest decky grabs the leader on a 20kg red instead of the gaff, now that takes some getting over (years even)

cheers

Dignity
20-04-2011, 06:54 AM
ouch, ouch ouch I know that feeling well, the deckie fast asleep and a 20 lb snapper coming up, couldn't reach either the gaff or net (my fault) but couldn't wake the bugger either and eventually lost the fish.

SgBFish
20-04-2011, 08:52 AM
so when did you realise it was in there

Saw it go in. But it missed the bone and felt like a mossie bite. Only hurt when I pushed the barb right through. Kept fishing of course.

Dignity
20-04-2011, 06:48 PM
so when did you get the xray of it

The-easyrider
20-04-2011, 09:58 PM
This thread reminded me of a fishing trip I went on with my cousin when we were about 15, fishing was slow and we were bored. We started playing that game where you start off doing the splits facing each other, and your mate throws a knife between your feet and where ever it lands you bring the closest foot to the knife untill your feet get too close and you blouse up and give in. Well I threw the knife when Brians feet wer about 12 inches apart and it landed between his toes ;D He grabbed the knife and we started having a muck around wrestling knife fight, stabbing the sand beside each other when ever you got the chance. It ended badly when as Brian went to stab i moved suddenly and got a rusty fishing Knife just above the knee.:o Took some quick taking when our mums came to pick us up:-X

Mr Squiggles
21-04-2011, 01:27 PM
Not to me but a 9 or 10 year old nephew. He was swimming the oceon beach on Bribie when a small tailor speared down the front of his speedos. Kid panicks, grabs the fish's tail & pulls. Fish spikes straight into his little jatz crackers! Poor kid then had to endure a female doctor.

winfurn
27-04-2011, 09:38 AM
one time at mondy with a mate at night wosh from a boat hit us as i was casting i fell my foot landed in my mates tackle tray it open so did his foot . so two of us plus one b52. would have been good to watch i was back wards big tows each treble he ripped mine out but would not let me return the favor

theangryangler
27-04-2011, 03:57 PM
I got done by a small yellow striped catty in the foot while netting in redcliffe reached down to pull it out and got the spike from the other side of the head in the fingers.
I lasted 4 hours in agony at home b4 bitin the bullet and drivin to hospital, now i wear shoes when netting. :)

dww13
27-04-2011, 04:10 PM
a few years ago now we had about a 50kg black come over the transom. brushed the arm of the tagmen and its bill went through his cheek and down into his throat. as he got hit he was knocked backwards and opened his head on the opposite side on the light tackle table rod holder. had entry and exit wounds as if he had been speared right through the head. The hardest thing for him and his wife was convincing the staff at the hospital that he had been speared by a fish they had to be shown a picture on a shirt to understand the fish had a bill etc.

timddo
27-04-2011, 04:11 PM
on the weekend while castnetting for live bait, i hit a school of Scad and managed to prick my fingers. Gee's it was a painfull 2 hours i suffered while my deckie and boy laughed all nite. I was temped to throw them off the boat at one time ::) .

wayno60
27-04-2011, 04:14 PM
Why are people so unkind?

fishfeeder
27-04-2011, 05:05 PM
My uncle was out fishing for bass with his 5-6 yr old daughter well they were getting a few, and he hooked a small one so he handed the rod to the daughter to bring in and she started winding flatout as kids do....... we all was good to the fish got off next to the boat and the lurer flys out of the water and a treble goes straight through his footy shorts and into his nut sack, with the kid still winding like crazy !!!!

He had to drive back to the car and put the boat on and drive home before heading to the hospital, he said the worst part was listening to the kid cry all the way home as she wanted to stay and fish more ......

I can still see the look on his face when his wife made him tell us the story !!

wayno60
28-04-2011, 02:08 PM
I guess you have all seen this email going around.
the father made her hang around for some happy snaps before she went off to the hospital for 51 stitchs.
66913

66914

66915

66916

snapperbasher
13-05-2011, 03:04 PM
Not exactly from a fish but It was from the boat trailer while getting ready to go!!!!
In short while hooking the trailer up to the car the trailer ran away and smashed into the back of the ute while i still had my hand in the handle of the coupling, which happened to be the exact same height as the underside of the ute tray.... didnt get my fingers out in time and it cut them off like a guillotine!!!!

murf
13-05-2011, 05:05 PM
Not exactly from a fish but It was from the boat trailer while getting ready to go!!!!
In short while hooking the trailer up to the car the trailer ran away and smashed into the back of the ute while i still had my hand in the handle of the coupling, which happened to be the exact same height as the underside of the ute tray.... didnt get my fingers out in time and it cut them off like a guillotine!!!!

Fnnnnnnn Fnnnnn Fnnnnnn ouch

I had one finger all but cut off at the same length as yours at work (yep the bird finger) they stitched it back on but it was years before the nerves settled down so I feel for ya

cheers Murf

Salad Fingers
19-05-2011, 01:48 PM
Just back from this years Barra Classic, this happened to me on the day before the comp.
92cm Barra, full weight of it crashed into my foot - anal spine first.
...not pleasant and still quite sore a week+ on.

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu285/SaladFingers/BarraClassic%202011/DSC_0107JPG_s.jpg