Over the many years that I have enjoyed fishing , both professional fishing and recreational fishing , and diving , from boat and beach I have come across a few hazards and I hoped that I have learned from the painful lessons that comes from incorrect or maybe careless handling of theses species ,
I refer to stingrays , gurnard and flathead , although there are many more dangerous fish in Victorian waters , but these are the most likely you will encounter fishing from a boat ,
My first main run in with flathead was at a young age of 15 on a local San Remo trawler working for Ray Dickie .
When we especially fished for shot of flathead , the results were amazing,
I learnt that because flathead had no swim bladder then they won’t show up on a regular fish finder at all , Ray used a paper chart to locate the school of fish and then we would set our gear and catch them ,
The deck would be so full of flathead and we had to sort them into sizes onto fish boxes ready for market , it was during the sorting I would get many flathead spikes in my hands even through the thick gloves , it was painful but actually sorer two days later when all the little spikes would fester up with puss by then and I could squeeze them out ,
I guess this sort of made me slightly immune to them , as from then on when I get spiked they still hurt but not a lot .
One strange piece of information that if you or someone that’s with you get a flattie spike or a bleeding gash , the antidote is right in front of you ,
You take a dead flattie and rub the slime and juice off its belly directly on to the wound , it will take most of the pain away and allow your blood to clot.
On the boat I also had to throw the trash fish back and sometimes there would be quite a few small stingrays They have a venomous barb on their tail , and one day as I was scooping up these stingrays I accidentally touched my wrist on one that was laying underneath and it drew a small amount of blood
I thought it was no big deal as it wasn’t that bad on the pain scale
I continued to work until five minutes later I went to pick up a fish box and I couldn’t, my arm was so numb that I lost all use and all feeling of it for probably half an hour and then I went back to work and it was just really sore ,
My thoughts were what if it were a big one , how bad could that be .
In my private fishing I have come across gurnard quite often , you catch more of them offshore than inshore
They aren’t that pretty and look like a bit of a prehistoric monster ,
But over the years I have heard the warnings about gurnard from fishing friends and I know that they taste great but you need a really big one to get a decent fillet if you are willing to take the risk cleaning them as even dead ones are just as dangerous.
Most fisherman I know will never bring one aboard and will simply cut their line every time ,
Over the years I have had I guess about five gurnard accidents where I have been stung , you don’t even need a big sting just the tiniest softest spike will open you up a whole lot of pain .
I would think that it would actually result in putting a lot of people in hospital as the pain can last days ,
The first time I got a gurnard spike it’s so hard to describe the pain as it’s unlike any other sort of pain as it’s from a toxin , but I guess like anything the more you have it the more you build an immunity.
So here’s the story
I have taken my boys Ben and Dylan fishing since they were young until now,
More so with Ben for the last few years , I have always given him the gurnard lecture but he always persists and wants to keep them I think just to annoy me .
On our last trip out offshore we started catching some flatties when Ben caught a gurnard and it wasn’t really big enough but of course he wanted to keep it ,
somehow he had it suspended on a de hooker wire , and it twisted in the line and he dropped it ,
I asked him if it got him and he said yes so I guess I would have said to him that this is going to test you mate and I went to clean up the fish off the deck and I it accidentally spiked me on the end of my thumb
So one fish got us both , my thumb was an instant throbbing pain shooting up my arm a bit . We we’re packed up and
we were heading home , and I looked at Ben and his face said it all,
I asked him if he was ok
He shook his head and looked at me and said
This is not just pain but
This is just an indescribable World of pain ,
So by the time we got back to the jetty there was a new declaration from Ben , that we don’t ever bring any more gurnard on board.
It will be interesting next time I get a big one and go to put it in the box
So at home I cleaned it and wondered was that fillet worth it?
Ps my thumb was so sore I felt the sting for the next two days.
Cheers
Curlyg