Spinal Tap....

[Seafever]

We all know there are spines on Dogfish,Skate, Rockfish and others........

I have experienced being punctured in the hands/fingers on many an occasion by varieties of Rockfish.....and depending where they get you it can be agonizingly teeth-gritting painful.

Anybody here experienced a Dogfish or Skate puncture? And if so , how bad was it compared to Rockfish or anything else?

 

[Tyeefisher]

Many a time I've held a Dogfish while it was squirming around trying its level best to puncture or at least slash me with that fearsome barb near its tail but so far I've been lucky. I have however seen some horrible cuts and punctures on others who haven't been quite so lucky. I remember one time where an extremely drunk, very husky man tried kicking a large Dogfish off a wharf in Rivers Inlet and unfortunately for him the barb penetrated through the toe of the rubber boots he was wearing and slashed his big toe. He didn't pay much attention to it for a half an hour or so but then he started rolling around the deck screaming in pain, his foot had swollen so large that the boot had to be cut off. He was put on a plane an hour later and flown to Port Hardy where days later they eventually amputated the toe. Now I don't believe there is any poison in the barb but any cut is very likely to turn septic through the simple fact that dogfish pump a lot of uric acid out through their skin and a dead one out in the air is probably more dangerous than one in the water.

 

[hambone]

I've heard the stinger on a ratfish is actually pretty dangerous.... A rare catch but something to look out for when you get one.

 

[salty-dog]

I've been unlucky enough to get the business dealing of a dogfish. It was painful for a couple days and itched for very long time- even after it healed.

As for a skate around here, no or least not yet.

But, I was fishing off the Florida coast and as the tide moved in, I also went inshore chasing redfish and trout. In about 4ft of water, I hooked up with something very heavy. Turns out the weight was a stingray with about 3.5ft wingspan that had buried itself in the thick marsh mud. I could see the ray and it wasn't going to give up the fight so I jumped out of the boat I could just use my hands to unearth the thing. I stepped on another ray that I did not see andthe barb went into my ankle and up {inside} my lower leg. It was paralyzing.

So, there I was, in water halfway up my torso with that barb stuck in one leg, the other leg sinking into marsh mud on an incoming tide. I left my rod on the boat as the plan was to use a flounder gig to get the ray. The ray that had injured me suddenly took off, breaking the barb off.

After struggling to get in the boat, I finally managed it and noticed my rod was gone. Through the blood stained water, I could see the ray had left the area, too.

I spent the next two weeks in the hospital with a leg and foot so swollen, it looked like an amputation would be required. My foot had turned a deep purple. The swelling finally goes down after massive doses of antibiotics and I had been geeked up on demerol. It took a three hour surgery to get the barb out.

I still have numb zones inthat foot and sections of my ankle and lower leg. I've decided that after 18 years, ain't nothing going to change.