This is great, thanks for posting. I find that I get stabbed with the pectoral fins more frequently than the dorsal. I've also found that small channels and flatties don't bite too hard if you try to lip them but blues will really clamp down if you put your finger in their mouth

 

Two summers ago i was fishing a friends pond with a crank bait and i hooked a five and a half pound channel. The situation was bad to begin with because i was using a crankbait and the channel got both treble hooks in his mouth. Like an idiot i try to take the treble hooks out while holding the fish with one hand. One wrong pull with the pliers and he spears me in my left hand. The fin went in really deep right under my thumb. At this point i had a five and a half pound channel dangling from my had, i tried everything to get it out, but eventually the fish wiggled around a little and fell to the ground. I rinsed the wound and bandaged it up. Kept fishing for a couple hours, didnt think too much about my hand. Went home and to bed, woke up the next morning and my hand was the size of a softball. To make a long story short, i ended up going the the nearest hospital. All they could offer where fever reducers (to stop the swelling) and pain medicine.

 

Similar story, just not a cat. Last year I was wading for smallmouth and after catching a few I reached down to thumb one and not paying attention, thumbed a 17inch sauger. OUCH! This is why I always keep a small first aid kit in my box.

 

Thats pretty funny! Had many a stabbing from the fins. I tried a version of noodling or wrestling however you want to look @ it when I was in jr. high....I was out getting soft craws and I came upon a 47 lber p kidding!) Anyway it was a really big on so I turned off my light and decided to jump on him and grab him as I wasnt ready to stick my hand in his mouth so I made my leap and he was startled and tore outta there ripping a line all the way down my chest! Thank god for the bones in your chest or it mighta got really ugly. I usually try to carry a glove for the bigger ones but when I forget I just do it and sometimes pay the price. My advice would be when lipping a big one is commit and dont try to let go once the fish has bit down or it will skin your hand pretty bad.

 

All the funny aside, try holding the smaller channels from the underside rather than from the top.

 

Dang, that's funny. Thankfully, I've only been stung once, so far. I was about 9 or so and my father said, "Be careful, grab him from underneath and put his fins in between your fingers." What did I do? I grabbed him from the top, the fish flopped and cut a semi-circle from the back of my thumb to my palm. Stung for hours, hurt for a few days. Lesson learned.

 

After getting stabbed by a catfish fin and having my hand swell up I went to the ER room. It seems the people in the ER thought that ALL catfish contain toxins and started this process to remove the toxins from my hand. (I did not know better and went along) This was an hour long process that involved needles and solutions to rid my body of the toxins. After this was done the doctor came back and told me that ONLY saltwater catfish have toxins. So I could have left the ER with an antibiotic and a bandage and could have skipped the "Toxin Removal Process".
So remember only Saltwater catfish are toxic (says the ER staff) and there are no saltwater areas in Ohio that I know of.

 

The worst time I ever got stung was when I caught a little bullhead, and I mean tiny, seining for minnows. I put him in my fish tank. One day I took him out and showed my sister and got stabbed. It infected and the pain was one of the worst finger pains I had ever had.

 

Never been really stuck, have been poked a few times, very minor. I get more tore up from the barbs on the back of the spines.

As one person said above, regardless your tatic, if your gonna grab one, commit, flinchin and jerking away will normally get ya cut worse.

HB

 

Here is a quick cure for a catfish sting it doesnt sound righgt but it does work. When you get stung rub the slime of the cat into the wound it will stop the stinging and it wont get infected. It works on all cats even saltwater ones. Laugh all you want but it has never failed me in over forty years,

 

Icky as it sounds, I guarantee you nothing else will help. The MINUTE you get finned, rub the wound up and down on the catfish's belly. I heard an expert explain: the fish's skin and body is immune to the stinging, of course, or it would sting THEM--so their skin cover has a natural neutralizer. The stinging and burning (which is the worst 'sting' or 'burn' you'll ever feel!) will cease immediately--I mean not a twinge. Leave it on for a bit, but when you get home, WASH AND SCRUB THE WOUND. It will not start stinging again--then put some type of good antiseptic on it. Don't wrap or bandage it. Trust me, you'll have no pain and you will not get an infection, if you do this. The guys on here who got infections did not get infected from the cat--they just got sliced open in a very hostile (germ-wise) environment and "opportunistic" bacteria (and there's plenty of that in a lake) immediately got in the wound. Take it from someone who is a clumsy dork, and has been 'stung' many times--this works.

 

 

I've used the slime trick as well, it works.

To control any fish, turn them upside down. They'll relax.

Of course to do that, you have to grab them first, right? So the way I grab a cat is my thumb up against one pectoral fin (back of the fish to the front), take my palm across the back up to the the dorsal fin, and run my fingers up to the other pectoral. That way you've got the fish, and you know just where all the nasty stuff is!

(Now if I could just catch one to show you, lol)