Wet Wading Dangerous?

[albatross]

I just got home from 3 lovely days in the hospital to treat an infection in my leg with IV antibiotics.

My wife (the nurse) thinks its from walking in "all that dirty water". I, on the other hand, think any place trout live can't be all bad.

As a compromise, I'm probably gonna get a pair of hip waders. See http://www.paflyfish.com/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=206&post_id=813#forumpost813 for more on this point.

I tend to fish a lot of smaller streams in the summer and its no fun doing that in chest waders.

What are your thoughts on the dangers of wet wading...

 

[sandfly]

She might be right, the waterways are not pure as they used to be...I read of some surf fishermen on padre island area getting an infection through a scratch and getting a bacteria like the flesh eating disease..some have even died. imagine if you get a cut on a rock then wet wade into water where someone else is relieving themselves upstream of you.

 

[DaveKile]

Wow, never thought about that problem before. Beaver attacks, but not that. I guess that could be be a problem. What kind of waterways had you been in?

Dave

 

[live2fish]

Use to wet wade all the time until about 15 years ago. That's when they had a couple news stories about some type of parasite that was getting into the urinary tract of swimmers in the area lakes. Crooked creek was one of the lakes that they mentioned and that's where I fished at below the dam. Besides that you have to be careful of all that goose waste that they put in the water, especially E. coli. Just look how many times they closed the beach at Crooked creek because of the goose crap in the water.

 

[tomgamber]

sandfly wrote:
imagine if you get a cut on a rock then wet wade into water where someone else is relieving themselves upstream of you.

Actually, for the most part, urine is sterile. Now, fecal matter, be it from human or any other mammal can be some bad...well, uh..stuff.

Anyway, its not uncommon after heavy rain for the health dept to issue a swimming advisory since our rivers are where our municipalities like to dump treated or partially treated or even sometimes untreated sewerage.

I wet wade whenever its not too freaking cold. Trout like cold water so unless i'm just getting in to cross over here and there, I like my waders for trout.

With that said, its highly probable you got that infection from something in the water or mud coming in contact with an open scratch. Should you never wet wade again? Hell no! Wet wading is fun cooling and sometimes the only option in a pinch. Its no more dangerous than say, wading chest deep into a cold river who's bottom is covered in basketball sized slippery rocks. Can you say drowning and hypothermia. If you want the waders, get them. If it makes you wife feel better and therefore you get to fish more often, definitely get them.

But don't give into fear mongering and flesh eating bacteria. Leave that to the campaign comercial writers.

 

[albatross]

I've wet waded the Laurel Hill and Indian Creek DHALO Projects recently. I was actually surprized at the lack of silt and muck in Indian Creek.

 

[Fishidiot]

I have wet waded for years and never had a problem but I do tend to stick to trout waters that are probably fairly clean. I do spend some time in the Susquehanna which may be another story. I think kids swimming might be fairly vulnerable to ear infections. I usually wear pretty tough wading shoes to protect my feet from cuts which is likely where we're most vulnerable to infection. After wet wading I try to shower or at least rinse off my legs with some soapy water. I did pick up a leech once this summer and I carefully cleaned the very small bite spot with hydrogen peroxide. I agree that falls, drowning, and hypothermia are more serious threats but wet wading infections are something to consider.

 

[bigjohn58]

Hum I don't know if I'm buying it that the water caused the infection. The stuff my brother and I used to wade in and sometimes still do but not as often was probably some of the worst stuff you could find. Lower Bald Eagle Creek down around Mill Hall/Flemington has to be some of the dingiest water you can find in regards to decaying matter and dead carp and the canal betweeen Mill Hall and Flemington is also horrible water but it never got us sick. When we were kids we were swimming in the West Branch Susquehanna River before the fish even were (a little mine acid never hurt us lol). A trout stream, if thats what you were wading, is cleaner cooler water...it has to be for the trout to survive. I wear waders only when fishing for trout (which is 90% of the time now) or in real cool water situations. When I'm bass fishing or fishing for other things I usually never wear waders. If you did get the infection from the water I wonder how I never got such a thing, glad I never did, and I hope it never happens. Wow the risks of fishing!

 

[RLeeP]

There are other issues besides waterborne infectious agents that caution against wet wading. Bob Q, who some of you might remember from a number of years ago on these boards had a fairly close brush with the Reaper on Hickory Run when he was wet wading in shorts and fell and ripped an artery in his thigh on a branch or something. He was a mile or more from the car and the nearest road and had he not tied himself off with a headband (I think it was...) he may have bled out right then and there.

If I wet wade small trout water in a wooded setting, I never wear shorts. Jeans, IMO, at least give you some degree of protection.

 

[RLeeP]

>>imagine if you get a cut on a rock then wet wade into water where someone else is relieving themselves upstream of you.>>

This reminds me of an old Jonathan Winters routine where he is playing an indian scout in the old west. He bends over and sticks his finger in an imaginary river and then touches it to his tongue. Then he says: "Herd of buffalo upstream about a mile..."

 

[schrec]

Someone I know got a severe infection several years ago while wading in flood waters. But the water was definitely heavily laden with sewage. It was a staph in fection that quite literally ate his muscle tissue. He has a nasty scar on his calf from the tissue they had to remove. Ugly and dangerous stuff.

But as far as wet wading in creeks and lakes, I think it's OK. You probably have a better chance of drowning that getting an infection. Especially the waters I fish in. I never wear waders past late June when I fish (except for the Yough). I've been doing it for 25 years and have never gotten an infection.
Every now and again on the news I see warning concerning high bacteria count in the rivers or lakes due to waste water flooding or goose droppings, etc. I stay away then or definitely wear waders. .

 

[ryanh]

I had a friend who works all of the time in Panama. He got some funk on his hand and the next thing you know dr's were telling him that they might have to amputate the finger to save the hand....hand to save the arm, arm to save the body. For quite a while they though that is was some flesh eating jungle #OOPS# in panama. Turned out that he was home a few weeks before he noticed symptoms. Playing with his nephews he scratched him self in the good old schukyl county dirt.

you place your bets and you takes your chances.

 

[Chaz]

I only wet wade in the most pristine streams, and none of them are in SE PA. You can get all kinds of stuff that's ba for you from the #OOPS# that's in the water, literally. Mercury can be absorbed through the skin, wading in water the has acid mine drainage in it can cause it's own set of problems. What we could do safely in the past we can no longer do in many places. It's kind of like going to your favorite stream and find your honey hole is posted.
You won't find me wet wading in either of the Susquehanna's branches. I wouldn't do it in Neshaminy Creek either. Even sone great brookie streams can be polluted even though the brookies are there in good numbers.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Board,

No wonder anti-biotics don't work anymore? Jeez, didn't any of you people eat dirt when you were kids?

I wet wade from the beginning of May to the middle of September and the worst thing I have to show for it is a couple of bouts with poison ivy. Of course, each Spring when the frost leaves the ground I eat a big old handful of dirt from my backyard, it helps keep troubles away. :-D

Seriously, I'll wet wade anywhere there aren't leeches.

Regards,
Tim Murphy

 

[Wulff-Man]

I jusy saw a report this weekend about how the number of people with serious allergies is skyrocketing........ because we are too clean!