Monday, February 8, 2016

Side Effects

I have a love/hate relationship with winter fishing.  I pretty much hate winter and love fishing.  However, this year I’m loving winter.  Mostly because winter thinks it’s spring.  Instead of freezing cold temperatures and sluggish bites, it’s been warm and the bite has been insane.  Some days the big bass are biting and on other days the numbers are out to play.  It’s been awesome but there are some side effects I wasn’t expecting.





Instead of sitting around in my kayak with popsicles for fingers I’m seriously wondering if I’ll have a sun burn at the end of the day.  That’s my kind of winter fishing.  Also frozen digits have been replaced with bass arm and bass hand.  I explain these conditions for those not familiar. 






Bass arm is the pain associated with the handling of large bass.  It’s an overuse injury resulting from the stress placed on the arm.  Bass arm can have some pain associated but is usually not life threatening.  It can happen to anyone but usually found in those that normally only catch small bass…this guy!   Other than these few symptoms, not much is known about bass arm because no one ever complains about the pain caused from handling large bass. 




Warm enough for these guys to come out

Bass hand, on the other hand, is much more common.  It’s the scaring that happens to the hand from lip gripping large quantities of bass.  Common signs of bass hand include, minor scraping near the thump, slight pain, bragging and showing off of the scared hand to anyone that will make eye contact with the angler.  It’s generally the result of a great day of catching and prized among the angling community.




The remainder of winter I hope to continue experiencing bass arm and bass hand on a regular basis.   I’m sure it’ll get back to normal and I’ll have to hate it again.  Until then, I’m fishing hard and dealing with the side effects of winter fishing

12 comments:

  1. I must contend that the bass hand one experiences from a night of striper fishing is much more destructive... but far better than pike hand or bluefish hand!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha, pike hand would be no joke. Something I need to experience to appreciate.

      Delete
  2. Nice man, you caught some toads! Did you catch any big ones on the fly rod?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No my winter fly outings don't involve bass. Not productive at all. I have a few fly trips coming up, can't wait to break out the fly rod again?

      Delete
    2. I'm not judging. I've found fly fishing for bass to be difficult no matter what season it is. If they are looking up flies are great. If they're feeding deep and are lethargic nothing beats spinning gear.

      Delete
    3. I didn't think you were. Just don't want to mislead anyone. I mostly said it for me to keep my hopes up for a cold water trip or something salty soon. I miss my fly!

      Delete
  3. Drew
    Back in the day when I fished for the big bass; I found out really quick that the jig was a killer to land really big bass in brush and high water. You are using one of the best lures when it comes to landing super size bass!!-----awesome bass-----enjoyed the post

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great! Just rub it in for those of us who can't get on the water!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol, sorry Kevin. Sure hope you get out and enjoy this warm winter. The fish miss ya!

      Delete
  5. Kevin, complain all you want, I know you're having a ball. Enjoy your bass hand.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thx Howard. Yep...it has been a blast. March is looking pretty fly. Got a sweet trip planned!

      Delete