I think I know where you are at since I have the same problem. I ice fish almost every day commercially since I am retired and have lots of time on my hands and live on the western shores of Lake Champlain in VT. The fish I go for are perch, bluegills, sunnies and crappie. When I fish perch I use a bare bibbit and don't have much problem. When I fish flat fish (gills, sunnies and crappie) I use small ice jigs tipped with either wax worms or maggots/ AKA spikes. These live critters are packed in sawdust or wood shavings. When I fish for flats my hands get all irritated, my eyes burn and itch and my breathing gets labored and wheezy. In addition I would often sneeze uncontrollably for long periods of time. I went to the doc and he said it could be cold weather asthma but I hunt all over the US in cold weather and never have a problem. I suspected that it could be a reaction from the spikes. I suffered so bad some years that I couldn't fish every day and often needed a day off every 3 days just to recover. My new doc prescribed an inhaler called flovent to be used once a day during the ice season and gave me a prescription for an antihistamine. In addition he gave me a slip for a nasal inhaler. I took all 3 and found relief in a big way. I hate taking meds and finally decided to lay off them one at a time to see which ones were really helping. The flovent is the one that keeps me feeling and breathing right and all the eye itching and nose running doesn't seem to come.Somehow when I do that every day my eyes don't itch and my nose doesn't run. It is like it keeps my body from going over the edge too far. My hands still get irritated but I often wear a rubber glove on my fish handling hand to keep from getting irritated. I love to ice fish but was considering moving to a warm climate in the winter if I couldn't ice fish and feel good. Now I fish almost every day and am glad I chose to stay here in the winter. Today was a great perch day with a 135 pound day of large and very large perch. $144.00 goes towards my Colorado Elk hunt
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Anyone Else Allergic to fishing?ha
