Fishing Injuries

Millions of people fish on a recreational or competitive level. This includes fly fishing; angling; salt water fishing; noodling, or hand fishing; bow fishing; ice fishing, and so forth. Most people imagine calm waters, sun, and good times when they think of fishing, not dangers. However, fishermen of all sorts are at risk for a number of overuse and traumatic injuries.

What Are Some Common Fishing Injuries?

Fractures And Contusions

Aside from penetration injuries, such as from a fishing hook, most traumatic fishing injuries are related to pinch points between landing surfaces and boats. A finger, hand, arm, foot, or leg between a boat and its landing surface can be pinched or smashed. Such an incident can result in a contusion or fracture to the affected body part. Alternatively, hand fishing, which involves the fisherman using their bare hands to catch a fish, is commonly associated with the risk of finger and hand fractures and contusions from the force of the fish bite.

1. Contusions

Contusions are bruises caused by blunt force trauma. Depending on the force of the impact, the contusion may be at the subcutaneous tissue, muscle tissue, or even bone level. Muscle contusions account for around 1/3 of all sport-related injuries. As the area is pinched or smashed, the force compresses and crushes the muscle tissue into underlying bone. The capillaries in the area are damaged and begin to leak blood into nearby interstitial tissues. The accumulating blood is what causes the swelling and black-and-blue appearance of a bruise. The throbbing pain of a contusion occurs when nerve endings detect the blood accumulating.

2. Fractures

A fracture occurs when the force of the impact is substantial enough to make the bone lose its normal continuity. Bones can fracture a number of different ways, including:

* Closed/simple fracture - the skin surface above the fractured bone remains fully-intact.

* Open/compound fracture - the fractured bone is exposed either by being situated underneath an open wound or as it protrudes through the skin.

* Complete fracture - the fragments of the fractured bone separate completely.

* Incomplete fracture - the crack in the bone doesn’t transverse the entire width of the bone.

* Comminuted fracture - the fractured bone was broken into multiple segments.

* Spiral fracture - at least one portion of the bone was twisted during the impact.

The general symptoms of a fracture include:

* mild to significant pain, swelling, bruising, and tenderness

* possible immobility of the affected bone

* possible obvious deformity or protruding bone

Muscle Strains

Muscle strains are the most common sport-related injuries treated by emergency room and clinic physicians.
Fishermen, especially those using a rod and reel, are at risk for a number of muscle strains - lower back, rotator cuff, biceps, and forearm.

A muscle strain occurs when the muscle and/or associated tendon becomes abnormally stretched or torn. The injury often results from a combination of muscle fatigue or poor muscle conditioning and reeling in a big catch. All strains are graded based on the degree of injury to the muscle and/or tendon:

Grade 1 - stretching or microscopic tearing that may produce mild pain, but that doesn’t interfere with normal functioning of the affected muscle/tendon.

Grade 2- moderate tearing involving less than 90% of the muscle/tendon fibers. There may be mild to moderate pain, swelling, tenderness, and warmth.

Grade 3 - significant tearing involving 90% or more of the muscle/tendon fibers. There is usually swelling, pain, tenderness, warmth, and significant weakness. There may be an inability to use the affected muscle, or at least not without significant pain.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal tunnel syndrome is an overuse hand injury that’s common among professional or frequent anglers. It involves compression of the median nerve. This is the nerve supplying sensation and movement to the thumb and index, middle, and thumb-side of the ring fingers. It, along with the wrist flexor tendons, travels through a tunnel of bones and ligament called the carpal tunnel. The nerve can become compressed and irritated within the tunnel from overuse of the wrist or compressing the wrist against a hard surface. The symptoms are numbness and stinging in the thumb, index finger, ring finger, and middle finger -and- shooting pains into the forearm.