welcome to the forum hevkev...

I got stung by a hardhead a couple years ago, that's a pain your not going to forget for a while.

I hurt for about a week, then someone told me "you should have rubbed it down with the slime from it's body"

Hey - do not mess around with these guys - hardheads are just plain painful. Meat tenderizer does work for the initial pain, but a Dr can give you some antibotics to keep the long term pain away.

While fishing offshore in Louisiana, a friend of mine caught a medium sized hardhead. When he landed it, the fish fell off the hook and on to the deck of the boat, my pal went to kick the fish over the side and took a spine under his big toe's nail. The spine broke off and my friend eventually had to have surgery to remove it. That was 10 years ago and he still tells the story like it was yesterday due to the painful lesson learned! be careful with these guys!!!

I'll second... no third... well something like eighth the slime from the body. It also works well with freshwater cats.

THE SLIME ON THE UNDERBELLY OF THE HARDHEAD SHOULD BE APPLIED TO THE AFFECTED AREA,REALLY WORKS.I HAVE BEEN HIT A COUPLE OF TIMES,BEST OF LUCK.

Years of Catfishing in Florida with my Dad taught me to use Cig. tobacco. Remove paper and get wet and make a poltoce.This must be done right away. Dont know if it will work days later.
Its always worked for me.

I am a pharmacist by trade. Skip the home remedies, some of which could possibly do more harm than good.
********* SEE A DOCTOR **********
He can examine your injury for signs of infection or anything serious. If it's needed he can prescribe some antibiotics and something for the pain. He can also tell you what to do to get this injury healed.
This is money well spent, might help prevent having persistent problems from this injury.

That way you will buy the scrips that the doc prescribes from the pharmacist right?!?!?

snap snap grin grin wink wink nudge nudge say no more

Yeah rubbing the slime on it is supposed to work, but your first reaction is to get that freaking pain as far away as possible from you, not play around with it and rub in on you.

There is an old joke about why dr's handwriting is so hard to read.
It's really a secret code to the pharmacist.
It means I got a hundred dollars off of this pigeon, now see what you can get.
OK, now getting real.
********* SEE A BONAFIDE DR **********
The thought of rubbing catfish slime into an open wound sends chills down my spine.
There is no telling what all harmfull microbes you could be introducing into your bloodstream.
By the way, when did you last have a tetanus shot?

Add me to the list of those who believe in using the slim off the belly of a hardhead to treat a wound from a hardhead "hit'. I've fished the coast from N.C. to Tx and have had a "few" hits. My worse encounter was when a good size hardhead flopped off my hook before I could get hold of it, it hit me in my right leg (right above my knee) and embedded it's dorsel sticker deep into my flesh. My first reaction was to grab it and pull it out of my leg and toss it into the water. As soon as it hit the water I realized I had thrown away the "anti-toxin". In a matter of a few seconds, my whole right thigh was hurting so badly I actually thought I was going to pass out. I was fishing at the RED DOT pier and there were a lot of hardheads being caught, as soon as I saw the next one being pulled in, I asked that the hardhead be brought over to me because my leg hurt too much to walk over to get it. Once I got the hardhead, I rubbed the slim from it's belly onto my hands and then rubbed a lot of it over my wound. In less thsn 15-20 seconds the pain was GONE. I mean totally GONE. I've had other much less serious "hits" and the first thing I do is rub the slim into the cut/wound. Take it from an ole salty, the slim works, but I recommend you rub the slim onto your hands and then apply it to the wound, instead of rubbing the belly against your skin, and as an added precaution, thoroughly clean and cover the wound/cut as soon as you can.

I'm not really really smart so my wife bought me a catfish(hardhead ) flipper ( $1.99). It works great on the smaller hard to hold hardheads and gafttops .

Hey, guys thanks for all the info. Its been 4 days now and the swelling is pretty much gone. It took about 4 or 5 hours for it to stop hurting but after that it was fine. I've been hit before but that one hurt like hell. I guess it was just a bad spot to get hit right between the knuckels.

I was hit saturday between the thumb and pointer finger. I tore the fish off. My hand bled freely. It was swollen and had a dull ache for the rest of the weekend. Only slightly swollen to day. I called a relative who is a nurse after I got off the water. She cautioned about getting bay water in the cut because possibilty of flesh eating bacteria in the Pot Oconner area.

My son had a hard head fin to break off in his hand just thought that it was a puncture,finger stayed swollen and red, several weeks later we noticed a item coming through the top of his finger made a small incision and pulled a piece of the fin out. If you look at there fins they have a saw tooth look to them and will remain in your hand or finger(His worked it way to the top). took him to the doctor later along with the piece that came out of his finger Dr. Layed it beside his hand a did a Xray (he was not sure the bone had enough density to show on the xray) but it did and there was another fin in his hand into the joint that had to be removed. if this stays sore or swollen go to the Dr. My daughter steped on one at the beach had to have the fin surgery to removed it.

Tom H.