I've never exactly been bitten by a pike, but I've had "raker rash" on the backs of my fingers countless times. And as someone who used to have to take Warfarin (no longer, thank goodness) the double hit of medicinal coagulant and natural coagulant in the pikes' mouths I can tell you that I used to bleed for ages! Worse for me though was the occasion when a pike shook its head while I was unhooking it and a second "flying" barbed treble on the lure embedded itself in both a finger and thumb of my left hand at the same time. I had to cut the hook with my wire snips just to be able to hold the steering wheel of my car so I could drive to my local A&E department. As an aside, the doctor there had to be persuaded to push the cut hooks through rather than just yank them out! Despite his experience he'd never come across this kind of injury before, so if it ever happens to you be ready to assert yourself with the doctors about the best way forward. I've been an adherent to semi barbed hooks ever since.
As a frequent pike angler I do think that cuts and grazes on hands are inevitable, but I also think that the macho "I never wear gloves" merchants are wrong. So long as the gloves don't make your hands so clumsy as to make the job impossible or harmful to the fish I say protect your skin.
Any small wound in a "dirty" environment can have devastating consequences!
When I was fishing off the north of Shetland I was holding a good sized cod for unhooking. The sea was rough and a large wave hit the boat, instinctively I let go of the cod to grab a handrail. My right hand was still holding the lure and was just inside the cods mouth, the fish kicked and spun with its teeth raking my knuckles.
The teeth were long enough to cut deep and draw blood, I have had many scratches like that, no big deal! So I washed my hand in cold Atlantic sea water, we were far away from possible pollution, and carried on fishing. The wound bled quite a bit but there was no danger (I thought!)
The next day I flew back to Edinburgh and prepared for the next days travel to the SW Scottish coast for a holiday with my wife.
On the drive my hand was starting to hurt! The following morning I was running a fever and Sally drove me to hospital........blood poisoning!
Two lengthy stays in hospital with sepsis that would not respond to antibiotics. It took over 18 months, several changes of antibiotics, an operation to clean out my wrist-joint and a lot of prolonged pain, before the infection was halted. I still have some pain and a wrist with limited movement, but I did not lose the arm to the infection.
After several blood tests the bacteria responsible was found to be a deep sea type. After catching and eating so many sea fish I guess the fishy world almost got its revenge!
I can still cast a fishing rod, but probably best I stick to "gummy" fish and avoid pike and similar predators.
