Antiseptic ointment

Be honest here and say if you use antiseptic cream or ointment on a caught or maybe a damaged fish . I think obviously match fishing we can not include but i am sure you know what i mean. i hope the debate is treated as constructive.

In all honesty, I don't think it will make a great deal of difference to the natural healing power of a fish.

The stuff is developed to protect a human wound, the number of fish I've seen with wounds that have healed(predator attack) would suggest fish don't need human assistance.

You said a 'great deal' that implies it does something.The wound in its first few moments is when it is most likely to become infected as it does with us. So even if it's a little it's something in those first few moments.

I'm less than convinced that the commercially available fish care kits are anything more than a money spinner for the makers. I'm also concerned as to what the unknown effects of using normal commercial products, intended for human use, are when used on fish. Whether the aforementioned fish care kits are anything other than repackaged and rebadged human antiseptics sold for massively inflated prices, is another point of concern.

The manufacturers have managed to create a huge market for fish care products. Anglers have bought into it in a big way. Just look at the huge size and elaborate padding on modern unhooking mats and don't forget the suitably huge price tag to go with it. Woe betide anyone obviously not using or having such an item these days. I expect the same to happen with antiseptic kits. It's starting already, I know of a fishery that won't allow you to fish unless you have a specific branded fish care kit.

Yes I did use ''Gention Violet'' back in the mid sixties on the mouths of Pike. I was becoming a little concerned about mouth damage, after one or two examples of torn flesh on removing the trebles. Looking back that was a direct result of the trebles in use at the time, ''rank barbs''. It just didn't occur to us at the time to nip the barbs down, untill several years later.

Did it help, well I like to think it did. One thing's for sure, we were working in the right direction.

I do carry and occasionally use a Korda kit, but in truth I use it more in hope than expectation. But, having said that the waters I fish rarely throw up fish with damage.

The remark about natural recovery from predator attack is a good point well made.

I have caught fish that have old wounds that must have been horific when they happened....the fish were left with horrible scars but they healed.

I don't believe antiseptics do much for fish, they already have inbuilt survival or if nature deems they die.......i do not believe we will change that, at least not in the wild.

Many years ago when this topic first started to appear I carried some bonjela for a time but never had cause to use it and have rarely seen fish with hook damaged mouths anyway. In recent years I don't carry any antiseptics and am sceptical as to their effectiveness , as Paul states, fish can carry terrible injuries from predators that tend to heal up naturally. Nature is probably the best healer and on the bank I'm a fisherman, not a vet.
Jerry

Fair bit of pussyfooting going on around this.

I challenge anyone anywhere to provide satisfactory evidence that it does any good at all.

I wouldnt use anything. The last thing i would want to do is inhibit the healing of a wound by putting something into it that might lead to bacterial infection/fungus etc - which is how an open wound often ends up killing a fish. I have dabbed pet fish with fungus with cotton wool dipped in saline solution, but if it was a clean open wound i would leave it alone.