Juice, Slime, Stink and Dirt

[Maceo]

There's no getting away from the fact that fishing is a pretty "earthy" business.

Your hands get caked and crusty with groundbait and slimy and stinky from handling fish, maggots, hemp and corn in water etc.

I often take my lad fishing and he refuses to touch maggots or fish, so I have to do it for him.

It's not something that particularly bothers me, but these days I do have a little bottle of hand washing/sterilising gel stuff that I use before getting my sandwiches out.

When I get home, I have to have a good shower or bath to get rid of the stink and all the clothes (especially the jeans!) have to go straight into the wash. Sometimes there's even a slight fishy smell left to them even when they've been through the wash. For that reason I have one particular pair of "fishing jeans" that I use just for that purpose.

What do other people do about this? Do you just accept it as an integral part of fishing, or do you wear gloves or something?

[chris.oldgit]

lol you must be catching a lot of bream, some anglers dont agree on this, but I take 2 towels with me, 1 i soak in the water and wring it out loosely, which i use to hold the fish while unhooking, being wet it does not remove their protective slime or scales, the second towel is used to wipe my hands on afterwards, instead of my trousers.
I also carry an extra g/bait bowl which i fill with water, to rinse my hands after mixing g/bait.

hope this helps

[fullcreel]

Swarfega is very good at getting rid of fishy smells,esp mackeral after a sea trip.

[LittleFish]

I find that if you keep rinsing your hands whilst fishing the smell is much easier to get rid of when you get home.

As for washing clothes,I suggest using a bio detergent on a longer than normal wash cycle.

[saladdodger]

i take a bottle of water to rinse my hands and baby wipes, also 2 large cloths

i got 1 pair black camo bottoms and a hoody/t shirt - ive not caught enough smelly fish to get covered

[chazyboi]

i dont use any wipes i think if you handle bait the cent from the wipes passes on to the bait,,,,always take hand sanitizer i nic from school as i had a dose of food poisoning from some dead bait once after passing it to my lunch not washing hands properly not nice i can tell you ,,i wear light weight over trousers and jacket to keep smell off ,,i can rem coming back from anglesea we stopped for a burger and were told to leave after an allnighter sea fishing lol

[northern eye]

Just deal with the stinky clothes, all part of fishing if your using things like groundbaits, deadbaits etc. I stick em' straight in the hot wash and then they go in the cellar with my kit, out the way of the Mrs. I also take a couple of towels for drying hands and these go in the wash with the clothes too. Un-scented, anti bacterial wipes in my bag at all times too, in case I'm having a sandwich or cooking.
My old man manages to stay immaculately clean during every fishing trip and wears those thin rubber surgical gloves when groundbaiting and even when handling fish even all his kit is sparkling, like brand new - Just don't know how he does it. Alternatively, get a bib n' brace set - the smells tend not to absorb into the material like they would with jeans/combats etc.

[fullcreel]

About 10 yrs ago, I had a serious cut on the palm of my left hand, after surgery, I still fished, and like the above post wore surgical gloves, worked fine. No smell on heands/
I also learned something, fingerless gloves worn under surgical gloves area great way to keep hands clean and warm, the gloves prevent water cooling you're skin down.
Also, although I may be wrong, but I don't think that the gloves will strip away mucas form the fish the way dry skins can. But i also avoid bream like the plague.

[chris.oldgit]

as a precautionary always wear surgical type of glove if you have damage to your hands, weil's disease is contracted from infected water.

[Baz T]

I tend to have one set of clothes I use for fishing (a camo tshirt, camo trousers, fleece, camo jacket etc) so it doesnt matter how smelly, dirty or tatty they get as I just chuck em in the washing machine on returning home. Did used to just wear normal jeans and tshirt, but missus complained they still had a "slight aroma" after washing, (particularly when sea fishing) so I sorted out a fishing set of clothes instead. Plus I got some of the camo stuff cheap from bootsale and its more hardwearing than normal jeans/jackets, plus I do a lot of stalking/margin fishing over summer.
If on a long session I have fresh water and clean towel, plus anti bacterial gel, so I can clean my hands before cooking the bacon n burgers etc, but sometimes worry if the anti bacterial smell goes on the bait, so I dont go overboard with the stuff. If its just a day trip, I sometimes hold my sandwiches using the cling film I wrap them in, particularly as Chazyboi says when using deadbaits etc - however I reckon over the years I must have accidentally eaten all sorts of grubs, bugs, maggots by accident (as a kid when freelining maggots for trout in a small stream I used to hold a couple between my lips, ready to use straight away which meant I didnt have to keep going into the bait tub)