Bass thumb (kind of)

[stk44]

At the end of August I was really on the fish. I caught 3, 5+ lb bass in that 2-week period (which for me is really good). Not only was I stumbling across good fish, but I was catching good numbers of fish too.
 

One of those fish was a dinky little 10” bass. I caught him on a shad rap 04. I grabbed the top of him but he weaseled out of my grip and stuck me in the thumb with the spines of his pathetic little dorsal fin. 
 

I noticed that it hurt more than usual, but didn’t think anything of it. I waited several weeks for it to fully heal. There was no sign of infection but it kept giving me issues while doing yard work and was becoming increasingly more painful.
 

I finally got an exploratory surgery 3 weeks ago, and they ended up pulling out two tiny bass spines from my left thumb(shown below). I had to keep it wrapped until yesterday and that pic is shown below as well. 

 
After the surgery, I was again reminded by my wife that this is why I shouldn’t fish. Unfortunately for her I got the itch to fish the next day and hit the pond with a large waterproof mitten over my left hand to keep it from getting wet. 
 

I’m assuming that spines breaking off is not common issue in bass fishing, but does anyone have any similar stories? 

[scaleface]

Its never happened to me . 

[GaryH]

Ouch...

[stk44]

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

Its never happened to me . 

Well that’s good news. I am looking forward to this never happening again. 

[Michigander]

I never heard of that. Glad you're ok!

[12poundbass]

Didn’t Brandon Palaniuk get a couple spines broken off in his foot a year or two ago? 

[stk44]

1 hour ago, 12poundbass said:

Didn’t Brandon Palaniuk get a couple spines broken off in his foot a year or two ago? 

That sounds familiar. Was that one of the incidents he had to go the ER for?

[12poundbass]

22 minutes ago, stk44 said:

That sounds familiar. Was that one of the incidents he had to go the ER for?

I believe so. 

[GreenPig]

One more reason not to catch little fish. ?

[throttleplate]

darn i thought i was unlucky, i have been stabbed many times by sunnies and gills but no break offs into the skn.

[Way north bass guy]

When I was a kid, my buddy went to toss a rockbass back in the lake and one of its spines from the dorsal fin ( big and nasty in a rockbass), broke off in his palm. It was caught up in a nerve bundle and he had to get a plastic surgeon to remove it. 

[Bankbeater]

I've never heard of the spines breaking off.  Usually they go in and out like an ice pick.

[stk44]

1 hour ago, Bankbeater said:

I've never heard of the spines breaking off.  Usually they go in and out like an ice pick.

Neither did my thumb ? Now I’m a 33 year old with the thumb of a 90 year old. 

[slater]

Heres a story!

My son 8 at the time bumped his hand into a pigmy date palm tree & he thought nothing of it,  finger bled for a second & that was that.

Over time it was infected, we would soak & squeeze puss out of it.

I took him to the doctor months later to have it checked out explaining my hunch that there was possibly a long spine / thorn from a palm tree laying lengthwise in the top of his finger.

Doctor said were not going to do exploratory surgery, 

he said keep soaking it & the body has a way of ejecting foreign objects over time....

Thought this doc was crazzy & that was  a waste of time.

We did  as we were told & one day while pushing the discharge from his finger a 2" thorn came flying out of his finger.....

[stk44]

9 hours ago, slater said:

Heres a story!

My son 8 at the time bumped his hand into a pigmy date palm tree & he thought nothing of it,  finger bled for a second & that was that.

Over time it was infected, we would soak & squeeze puss out of it.

I took him to the doctor months later to have it checked out explaining my hunch that there was possibly a long spine / thorn from a palm tree laying lengthwise in the top of his finger.

Doctor said were not going to do exploratory surgery, 

he said keep soaking it & the body has a way of ejecting foreign objects over time....

Thought this doc was crazzy & that was  a waste of time.

We did  as we were told & one day while pushing the discharge from his finger a 2" thorn came flying out of his finger.....

That is pretty bizarre. I asked my surgeon post surgery if the spines would have worked their way out eventually and he told me that it’s hard to say. Especially considering that it was not infected, there was nothing to squeeze out, and over a period of 4 months, it only got worse. 
 

did the doctor give your son anything for the infection at least??

[TOXIC]

Luckily no broken off spines but I have been horned by a catfish and had a long recovery period.  I could have sworn the dang thing had venom in its fins.  After long guide trips in the winter and handling a lot of fish, my hands used to swell up to the point I couldn’t make a fist.  Not every time but a lot.  

[Dirtyeggroll]

53 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

Luckily no broken off spines but I have been horned by a catfish and had a long recovery period.  I could have sworn the dang thing had venom in its fins.  After long guide trips in the winter and handling a lot of fish, my hands used to swell up to the point I couldn’t make a fist.  Not every time but a lot.  

Some catfish are venomous!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/10615-1-000-catfish-species-venomous.html

[Sphynx]

Wow, that's certainly something to keep an eye on for the future, never had any bass spines in me, but I still have enough shrapnel and bullet fragments in me that every so often a bit of metal pops out of nowhere when an odd little bump/itch shows up in the locations the metal is (hands/throat) so I can confirm that the body does eventually find a way of pushing foreign objects out of it...been poked plenty of times by bass, I'll be sure in future to keep a closer eye on instances of this!

[cheezyridr]

i get metal or fiberglass  splinters in my fingers and hands all the time. i always do my own surgery.  there reason for this is, an incident that happened when i was an apprentice. a metal splinter went into my palm.  it traveled around my hand, and then across the top of my middle finger, eventually coming out of the tip, almost a year later.  now i take them out, no matter how much digging i have to do

[slater]

9 hours ago, stk44 said:

That is pretty bizarre. I asked my surgeon post surgery if the spines would have worked their way out eventually and he told me that it’s hard to say. Especially considering that it was not infected, there was nothing to squeeze out, and over a period of 4 months, it only got worse. 
 

did the doctor give your son anything for the infection at least??

i dont remember if doc gave jr antibiotics or not.

Deff bizzare!!!

Was causing issues between my other half & I, they kid with me & tell me im a hypochondriac...

"Ough his finger fine they kept telling me"

3+ months of soaking & squeezing puss out doesnt sound fine or normal to me...

Apparently it common for the body to eject items but who knows if it would have ever came out if we werent pushing to get the discharge out..

Glad that scenario is behind us! lol

[DitchPanda]

Had a buddy in high school whose step dad had gone thru the windshield of his jeep as a young man. When we were seniors....25 years after the accident...his stepdad was brushing his hair and his scalp started bleeding. He reached up to see what the problem was and a piece of glass fell out into the sink .

[stk44]

3 hours ago, Sphynx said:

Wow, that's certainly something to keep an eye on for the future, never had any bass spines in me, but I still have enough shrapnel and bullet fragments in me that every so often a bit of metal pops out of nowhere when an odd little bump/itch shows up in the locations the metal is (hands/throat) so I can confirm that the body does eventually find a way of pushing foreign objects out of it...been poked plenty of times by bass, I'll be sure in future to keep a closer eye on instances of this!

Which war? 

20 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Had a buddy in high school whose step dad had gone thru the windshield of his jeep as a young man. When we were seniors....25 years after the accident...his stepdad was brushing his hair and his scalp started bleeding. He reached up to see what the problem was and a piece of glass fell out into the sink .

Some things are worth waiting for I guess

[stk44]

8 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Luckily no broken off spines but I have been horned by a catfish and had a long recovery period.  I could have sworn the dang thing had venom in its fins.  After long guide trips in the winter and handling a lot of fish, my hands used to swell up to the point I couldn’t make a fist.  Not every time but a lot.  

I haven’t caught a ton of catfish in my life. I caught a 20+ lb flathead this summer and was like, yeah I’m using my fish grips. They are definitely not to be messed with. Can you imagine noodling for those things?! 

[Sphynx]

1 hour ago, stk44 said:

Which war? 

Some things are worth waiting for I guess

Afghanistan, I consider it a constant reminder that temperance is a good thing, and that rash decisions have consequences lol.

[stk44]

17 minutes ago, Sphynx said:

Afghanistan, I consider it a constant reminder that temperance is a good thing, and that rash decisions have consequences lol.

That sucks, sorry that happened. I was there in the 11-1 rotation.