• Becoming a member is completely free!

    • Join the community and start contributing to a large source of sea angling information.
    • Become an active member and you can enter member exclusive competitions.

    REGISTER FOR FREE HERE

Skin reactions to bait

bacon

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 4, 2020
Messages
176
Reaction score
487
Points
63
Location
Somerset
Hi all, been a bit absent from sea fishing recently.

Back in summer 2019 I started getting skin reactions to bait, specifically Ragworm and squid, I never wore gloves, to be fair I also never cleaned them, just wiped them on a towel. To my detriment it seems!
But while out sole fishing with my ole mate Earwigsoup, my hands started getting very very itchy and uncomfortable, this led to immediate skin cracking and oozing, nice right! Ever since my hands now react to everything, most noticeably anything acidic (lemons etc during cooking), but also sea baits.

I started wearing nitrile gloves, but found that while the gloves protected me from the bait, the sweat in the glove also irritated my hands so it was a lose lose eventually, I started using cotton liners, which helped keep it at bay a little longer, but found that I need to constantly refresh the liners to keep them dry.
This was becoming a nightmare, my favourite hobby and I could not enjoy it due to my hands blowing up on every trip. The itchiness, cracking, oozing, red rash, pain/discomfort etc would last for weeks, with any small provocation it would go full blown again.

Docs diagnosed the condition as a form of Eczema, Pompholyx to be exact. No known solutions other than manage it the best you can. Some steroid creams which I haven't found works very well, or at all.

So where am I now? Well naturally I cannot stop fishing, so I have slowly reduced how much sea fishing I do with bait, I have been mixing it up with a lot of freshwater stuff, fly fishing (terribly) in the Bristol waters (Chew, Blagdon), coarse fishing my local rivers, lure fishing for Pike and Perch in the local rivers and Gloucester Canal, even visited a local commercial with my friend a few times recently trying to catch match carp, tench etc.

What I have found is that my giving my hands a break from gloves/irritating baits, they have recovered some what, rarely get a bad reaction any more, I am able to enjoy fishing, albeit not my beloved sea fishing as often as I would like. I still go lure fishing in salt water when I can, but that is limited here in the upper BC.
I did manage to get out on Saturday and bagged myself a couple of doggies around Clevedon, donj't get too manyt his far up!....Good to be back out, last proper bait session was last October, but I was taking gloves off after every bait, so they can avoid getting sweaty, changing liners when they no longer felt dry etc. best of all, no reactions! I will start to go sea fishing more often again now, I will just have to rein it in if my hands blow up at any point.

There wasn't any particular point to this post, other than to say hello, I will hopefully have some fish to post in the catch reports soon enough once we start sole fishing again.

Cheers all
Mike
 
That must be frustrating!! One thing that may help, or may not ,is to make some baits on traces ready at home with the gloves on in one sitting, then take them in a cool bag chilled or frozen to the shore and clip new hooklink on each cast.
Not ideal for worm and crab I know but squid etc perfect.
 
Hi all, been a bit absent from sea fishing recently.

Back in summer 2019 I started getting skin reactions to bait, specifically Ragworm and squid, I never wore gloves, to be fair I also never cleaned them, just wiped them on a towel. To my detriment it seems!
But while out sole fishing with my ole mate Earwigsoup, my hands started getting very very itchy and uncomfortable, this led to immediate skin cracking and oozing, nice right! Ever since my hands now react to everything, most noticeably anything acidic (lemons etc during cooking), but also sea baits.

I started wearing nitrile gloves, but found that while the gloves protected me from the bait, the sweat in the glove also irritated my hands so it was a lose lose eventually, I started using cotton liners, which helped keep it at bay a little longer, but found that I need to constantly refresh the liners to keep them dry.
This was becoming a nightmare, my favourite hobby and I could not enjoy it due to my hands blowing up on every trip. The itchiness, cracking, oozing, red rash, pain/discomfort etc would last for weeks, with any small provocation it would go full blown again.

Docs diagnosed the condition as a form of Eczema, Pompholyx to be exact. No known solutions other than manage it the best you can. Some steroid creams which I haven't found works very well, or at all.

So where am I now? Well naturally I cannot stop fishing, so I have slowly reduced how much sea fishing I do with bait, I have been mixing it up with a lot of freshwater stuff, fly fishing (terribly) in the Bristol waters (Chew, Blagdon), coarse fishing my local rivers, lure fishing for Pike and Perch in the local rivers and Gloucester Canal, even visited a local commercial with my friend a few times recently trying to catch match carp, tench etc.

What I have found is that my giving my hands a break from gloves/irritating baits, they have recovered some what, rarely get a bad reaction any more, I am able to enjoy fishing, albeit not my beloved sea fishing as often as I would like. I still go lure fishing in salt water when I can, but that is limited here in the upper BC.
I did manage to get out on Saturday and bagged myself a couple of doggies around Clevedon, donj't get too manyt his far up!....Good to be back out, last proper bait session was last October, but I was taking gloves off after every bait, so they can avoid getting sweaty, changing liners when they no longer felt dry etc. best of all, no reactions! I will start to go sea fishing more often again now, I will just have to rein it in if my hands blow up at any point.

There wasn't any particular point to this post, other than to say hello, I will hopefully have some fish to post in the catch reports soon enough once we start sole fishing again.

Cheers all
Mike
Hi try some butter and sugar mixed and work into hands it's natural and hands get the vitamins from the butter
 
I used to get sore hands right in the v between my fingers after fishing weirdly this stopped when I changed bait diggers..
I put it donw to how the the worms where strored.
I used to put some vasoline into the v before I started which helped a lot.
Also barrier cream could be an option although I never got round to trying that.
 
Welcome back bacon.
I'm in a similar boat to you, if I use ragworm and don't clean my hands immediately after baiting up, by the end of the session they're getting sore and the next day they'll start to crack and become very sore. So I totally feel your pain with this.
 
Sorry to hear about your hands mate, that’s very frustrating.

As RaM says, have you tried barrier cream? Many years ago, I worked in a factory with various oils as coolants and they would irritate my hands and arms.
The company did supply barrier cream and after the reactions became worse I began to apply it religiously before every shift and it certainly worked.
 
Good to hear from you Bacon, and sorry about your paws. I've suffered a bit from Eczema on my hands since I was a kid. It seems to still flare up for no reason at times now I'm an old Git (!) but I've not noticed it when handling baits. The Doc has given me some Betamethasone for when it does flare up, which seems to work well as long as you hit it quickly. Hope your hands continue to improve.
 
I feel your pain and annoyance Bacon as I've similar issues. Some good advice above and barrier creams certainly help me, as does a lifestyle of continually avoiding strong detergents like washing up liquids (on pumped lug RaM?), hand wash, shower gels, laundry powders etc. Plain unscented natural soap and sensitive skin detergents are all I can use. Gloves go on for any task that involves grease, chemicals, irritants or anything dirty enough to potentially require strong cleaning after. It's a massive PITA but I've found if I don't trigger an outbreak I seem to buy a bit more resistance to the next one if that makes sense? A pinch of prevention and all that. Once triggered the cracking, blistering and sores remain for weeks despite 5 decades of changes in topical prescriptions and seeing several eminent dermatologists. Another thing to consider is to your diet..... I'll stop there as I'm not a Dr!

One thing that definitely helps me whilst bait fishing is having seawater to pre wet my hands before baiting up, and then to immediately wash off with once its done, followed quickly by thorough use of dry and clean towels - I carry a bundle of clean microfiber cloths and will rinse then hang them on my tripod and find this far better than one bulky damp standard towel. I avoid rag and squid completely - fortunately I don't need it for my own local fishing. On very occasional away trips where it has to be used my mate/s will bait up for me before proceeding to rip the sh1te out of me as a soap dodging, shandy drinking, fairy handed softie?
 
Cheers all for the suggestions of how to make this better. Not sure on the butter...haha.

Barrier cream sounds like a good approach, as do the pre-baited traces. My mate did suggest the traces and I do intend on giving it a go. Just need to find the prep time. Could be worth it in the long run, plus, super fast bait changes!

Not tried baby wipes, can prob steal a pack from the kids bag...

Seems rag worm is a common irritant to everyone, that's not even factoring in the new £20/lb price tag up here now, but less about that... It's a real shame as rag is my favourite bait....
 
Sorry to hear about your problem,my other half is a carer & she suggest that you talk to your local pharmacist,they might be able to help you mate .Hope you get it sorted
 
I feel your pain and annoyance Bacon as I've similar issues. Some good advice above and barrier creams certainly help me, as does a lifestyle of continually avoiding strong detergents like washing up liquids (on pumped lug RaM?), hand wash, shower gels, laundry powders etc. Plain unscented natural soap and sensitive skin detergents are all I can use. Gloves go on for any task that involves grease, chemicals, irritants or anything dirty enough to potentially require strong cleaning after. It's a massive PITA but I've found if I don't trigger an outbreak I seem to buy a bit more resistance to the next one if that makes sense? A pinch of prevention and all that. Once triggered the cracking, blistering and sores remain for weeks despite 5 decades of changes in topical prescriptions and seeing several eminent dermatologists. Another thing to consider is to your diet..... I'll stop there as I'm not a Dr!

One thing that definitely helps me whilst bait fishing is having seawater to pre wet my hands before baiting up, and then to immediately wash off with once its done, followed quickly by thorough use of dry and clean towels - I carry a bundle of clean microfiber cloths and will rinse then hang them on my tripod and find this far better than one bulky damp standard towel. I avoid rag and squid completely - fortunately I don't need it for my own local fishing. On very occasional away trips where it has to be used my mate/s will bait up for me before proceeding to rip the sh1te out of me as a soap dodging, shandy drinking, fairy handed softie?

Yeh lifestyle changes have been my main tactic so far, reducing exposure to known irritating things etc, unfortunately sea fishing was in there too. Do you find wetting hands and touching baits better than wearing gloves and dealing with the inevitible (though delayed) sweat induced reaction?
Your reactions sound similar to mine. Painfully sore hands for weeks and weeks, with it being very sensitive to another flare up until it's fully gone.

You have probably tried this but washing striaght off with salty water and drying off properly works for me..... I only react to peelers or prawns.

I have, but I doubt I have had enough dry towels to make the plan work properly. I'll take several next time.

Sorry to hear about your problem,my other half is a carer & she suggest that you talk to your local pharmacist,they might be able to help you mate .Hope you get it sorted

I spoke to my GP and they prescribed me something with steroids. But I don't find it that effective. The best thing for it appears to be bepanthen, nappy rash cream! So I lather my buggered hands in it and sleep with greased up paws by my side like Dracula....

Will get out this weekend hopefully and give a few ideas a go
 
Back
Top