JD, What’s your take on touching bait and tackle with bare hands when fishing for steelhead ? People wearing rubber gloves to wipes and sprays. Where really is the fine line at before being wasteful of the enjoyment and the time out fishing ?
–Wade
Wade,
I tried wearing rubber gloves one season…both in Alaska and back home in the Lower 48. All I can say is it was a miserable experience…my hands were a mess! They’d sweat like crazy on hot days and then I would get water in the gloves at some point. Between the sweat and H2O, my hands would end up super white and clammy at the end of the day…and smelling worse to the fish than had I just gone “el natural.”
Plus, tying knots and feathering a baitcaster with Latex on is a royal pain. Nope, not a big rubber glove fan here!
Instead, I will wash my hands in lemon dish soap prior to fishing and then, if the bite is really tough, I may wipe a little shrimp gel between my palms (the wife’s really happy about that one!) to get a little masking scent going. Just in case, you can carry some Hand Sanitizer with you too, if you really want to get clean between fish or if you get a cut or scratch. The shrimp gel overtop will mask the smell enough for the fish to keep biting, and it may sting a little, but it beats wearing the gloves that’s for sure. In conclusion,
I agree, if you get too caught up it it all, you start to miss the point…
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