Let's all be safe: Part 1 :

[AndyS]

Taking the time to remind everyone to be safe when you are out fishing.

Our saltwater counter parts do not run into the dangers that we do when we are out enjoying our sport.

Just thinking of a few off the top off my head.

Ticks:
The best way to protect yourself against tickborne illness is to avoid tick bites. This includes avoiding known tick- infested areas. However, if you live in or visit wooded areas or areas with tall grass and weeds, follow these precautions to help prevent tick bites and decrease the risk of disease:
Wear protective clothing such as long-sleeved shirts, long trousers, boots or sturdy shoes and a head covering. (Ticks are easier to detect on light-colored clothing.) Tuck trouser cuffs in socks. Tape the area where pants and socks meet so ticks cannot crawl under clothing.

Apply insect repellent containing 10 percent to 30 percent DEET primarily to clothes. Apply sparingly to exposed skin. Do not spray directly to the face; spray the repellent onto hands and then apply to face. Avoid sensitive areas like the eyes, mouth and nasal membranes. Be sure to wash treated skin after coming indoors. Use repellents containing permethrin to treat clothes (especially pants, socks and shoes) but not skin. Always follow label directions; do not misuse or overuse repellents. Always supervise children in the use of repellents.

Walk in the center of trails so weeds do not brush against you. In camping areas, individuals who sit on the ground or disturb leaf litter on the forest floor may encounter ticks.

Check yourself, children and other family members every two to three hours for ticks. Most ticks seldom attach quickly and rarely transmit disease organisms until they have been attached four or more hours. If your pets spend time outdoors, check them for ticks, too.

If ticks are crawling on the outside of clothes, they can be removed with masking tape or cellophane tape. A ring of tape can be made around the hand by leaving the sticky side out and attaching the two ends. Ticks will stick to the tape which can then be folded over and then placed in the trash.

Remove any tick promptly. The mouthparts of a tick are barbed and may remain embedded and lead to infection at the bite site if not removed promptly. Do not burn the tick with a match or cover it with petroleum jelly or nail polish. Do not use bare hands to remove the tick because tick secretions may carry disease. The best way to remove a tick is to grasp it firmly with tweezers as close to the skin as possible and gently, but firmly, pull it straight out. Do not twist or jerk the tick. If tweezers are not available, grasp the tick with a piece of tissue or cloth or whatever can be used as a barrier between your fingers and the tick. Ticks can be safely disposed of by placing them in a container of soapy water or alcohol, sticking them to tape or flushing them down the toilet. If you want to have the tick identified, put it in a small vial of alcohol.

Wash the bite area and your hands thoroughly with soap and water and apply an antiseptic to the bite site.

If you have an unexplained illness with fever, contact a physician. Be sure to tell the physician if you have been outdoors in areas where ticks were present or traveled to areas where tickborne diseases are common.

Snake bites:

Snake bites can be deadly if not treated quickly. Children are at higher risk for death or serious complications due to snake bites because of their smaller body size.

The right antivenom can save a person's life. Getting to an emergency room as quickly as possible is very important. If properly treated, many snake bites will not have serious effects


Poisonous snake bites include bites by any of the following:

•Copperhead
•Cottonmouth (water moccasin)
•Rattlesnake

All snakes will bite when threatened or surprised, but most will usually avoid people if possible and only bite as a last resort.

Snakes found in and near water are often mistaken as being poisonous. Most species of snake are harmless and many bites are not life-threatening, but unless you are absolutely sure that you know the species, treat it seriously.

Bears:

Originally published by the National Park Service

A commonly asked question is "What do I do if I run into a bear and the bear attacks?" There is no easy answer. Like people, bears react differently to each situation.

The best thing you can do is to make sure you have read all the suggestions for hiking and camping in bear country and follow them. Avoid encounters by being alert and making noise.

Bears may appear tolerant of people and then attack without warning. A bear’s body language can help determine its mood. In general, bears show agitation by swaying their heads, huffing, and clacking their teeth. Lowered head and laid-back ears also indicate aggression.

Bears may stand on their hind legs or approach to get a better view, but these actions are not necessarily signs of aggression. The bear may not have identified you as a person and is unable to smell or hear you from a distance.

Bear Attacks

If you surprise a bear, here are a few guidelines to follow that may help prevent bear attacks:

• Talk quietly or not at all; the time to make loud noise is before you encounter a bear. Try to detour around the bear if possible.

• Do not run! Back away slowly, but stop if it seems to agitate the bear.

• Assume a nonthreatening posture. Turn sideways, or bend at the knees to appear smaller.

• Use peripheral vision. Bears appear to interpret direct eye contact as threatening.

• Drop something (not food) to distract the bear. Keep your pack on for protection in case of a bear attack.

• If a bear attacks and you have bear spray, use it!

• If the bear makes contact, protect your chest and abdomen by falling to the ground on your stomach, or assuming a fetal position to reduce the severity of an attack. Cover the back of your neck with your hands. Do not move until you are certain the bear has left.

• Report all attacks by bears to the nearest ranger or warden immediately if you are camping at a park.

In rare cases bears may attack at night or after stalking people.

This kind of attack is very rare but can be very serious because it often means the bear is looking for food and preying on you.

If you are attacked at night or if you feel you have been stalked and attacked as prey, try to escape. If you can not escape, or if the bear follows, use pepper spray, or shout and try to intimidate the bear with a branch or rock. Do whatever it takes to let the bear know you are not easy prey.

Camping and Bears

Odors attract bears. Here are some more tips to prevent bear attacks:

• Keep a clean camp!

• Inspect campsites for bear sign and for careless campers nearby. Notify a ranger or warden of potential problems if you are camping in a National Park or State Park.

• Place all trash in bearproof containers.

• Pets, especially dogs, must be kept under physical restraint.

• Report all bear sightings to the nearest ranger or warden immediately.

Snapping turtles:

Aggressive Nature of Snapping Turtles
Snapping turtles are not aggressive predators, but they will become aggressive when provoked. When they bite humans, it is out of self-defense.

Bite Reach
Snapping turtles have very long necks that give them a long bite reach. In many species, their necks are just slightly shorter than the length of their shell.

Damage
The amount of damage done by a snapping turtle bite depends largely on the species and size of the turtle. Smaller turtles might just break the skin or leave a bruise, while larger turtles such as the alligator turtle can sever a finger.

Holding On
It is not uncommon for a snapping turtle to hold its grip for a period of time after it has bitten down. This might be a few seconds or a full minute, but in most cases, the best thing to do is wait for the turtle to release. Attempting to pry the mouth open can cause the turtle to clamp down harder.

Caring for a Bite
If the bite only leaves a shallow laceration, then it can be cleaned and cared for as you would any other cut. But deeper cuts or anything more serious should be looked at by a doctor.

[Flukemeister1]

" If the bear makes contact, protect your chest and abdomen by falling to the ground on your stomach, or assuming a fetal position to reduce the severity of an attack. Cover the back of your neck with your hands. Do not move until you are certain the bear has left."

If you do this with a Black Bear you will get yourself killed. This reoprt was for people that are going to encounter Grizzly or Brown bears and is correct for them. Black Bears are a whole different story and should be fought with everything you have. If you are fishing in bear country and do not have bear repelant spray you are a fool because the stuff will save your life.

Thanks for the post hopefully it will keep people safe.

[shrimpman steve]

I don't think we have to worry about cotton mouths, we are out of their range. However we do have copperheads and timber rattlers.

All sage advice!

[Capt. Lou]

Bear country, I'm convinced that if they hear you first they will move away. Years of fishing western bear country some infested with griz& blk, I always carried a whistle & sounded off peroidically to annouce my movements well in advance.
Funny in BC going to my fav steelhead strem for the eve bite several times I walked in bear paths to access strreeam ,many times freaash prints ahead.

[Tommy]

Well, in my experiance, black bear attacks are VERY rare, but after 50 years of running up and down streams chasing trout, last year I slipped, broke my ankle, No one around, had to crawl to the road, hours pasted before a cop drove by and called the ambulance, my phone was a mile away in the car,
Lesson, put the phone in something waterproof and carry it. Would have saved me a lot of pain, also some other noise device would have been nice.

[TAB95]

Good advice.. Here are 2 more

Ticks, alot of times they craw up pant legs, check waist line, arm pits and hair when in an area that they may be. CHECK YOUR KIDS REPEATEDLY IN THESE AREAS!! I always have a tick remover on me in the woods, it is a cheap tool designed to remove a tick. Good advice from 1 that was treated for Lyme's disease.

Let some one know where you are going. People fall, become incapacitated and or just require help, give the 1st responders a heads up by leaving an itinerary with someone, particularly when alone.
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[Flemington_Fisher]

Good tips, Andy- just one thing about the ticks. I wouldn't throw them in the garbage can still stuck to tape- they are resilient and might work their way off the sticky side, then settle elsewhere in the house. These little b#stards are tough critters. Better to pull them off the tape with tweezers and drop them in the toilet and flush 'em down.

Also if you've pulled an engorged deer tick off yourself, kill it by dipping in rubbing alchol or lighter fluid. If you have Lyme symptoms the tick is easier to test for the virus than human blood, and more accurate. I pulled one off after turkey hunting last year and sent it to the lab- already had Lyme as a teenager and not eager to repeat the experience

Luckily it came back negative.

BTW re: snapping turtles, be careful if you keep your trout on a stringer. 2 yrs ago a buddy & me were fishing the D&R Canal near Lambertville. He caught a nice fat rainbow and the hook shredded one of the gills, so it was bleeding pretty bad. We threw 'em on the stringer and weighed it down with a big rock to keep him from thrashing away.

A few minutes later the stringer starts rattling and the rock rolled off the chain- I couldn't believe a wounded trout could be THAT strong. Like a moron I ran down the bank to grab the stringer, which was almost entirely underwater by then (and the water was very stained and muddy per usual in the canal).

SNAP! A HUGE (and I mean HUGE) snapper had hold of the trout and was grabbing a free snack! It missed chomping my finger by about 6 inches. That thing has a head half the size of an alligator!

Needless to say, we never saw that trout or stringer again! Lesson learned.

[shucker]

Snakes are out in force now,stumbled upon 2 in watchung resevation today scared the crap out of me they didnt move until I was on top of them

[Wilson]

Ran into a guy at the "Club" one day while fishing and he sent me this link for Tick repellent. Deet has no effect on Ticks.

http://www.scs-mall.com/insect-repel...ts.asp?dept=41
Click on the Green & Yellow spray can.


When l fished in Alaska Bears where a dime a dozen. It was like spotting Canadian Geese while fishing in NJ. This sign sez it all

[shrimpman steve]

funny sign! But don't let the black bears fool you, they can be quite dangerous.