Re: Fishing elbow

Hi John,

Please read within your message for my replies. Look for the ***


"johnval1" <johnval1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eW3Xh.897$im2.389@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I took 4 months off from casting over the coldest period of winter up here
in Michigan, and when I returned to the water this month, I instantly
developed a severe case of tennis/fishing elbow. As I write this, I am
wearing my new elbow wrap I just picked up from Wally's earlier today.

My questions to the group are:

1) has this happened to any of you,

***I had it happen to me, only it was both elbows. The pain was bad during
casting, worse trying to retrieve a deep diving crank or a big muskie
bucktail, excruciating when I set the hook!

2) did you get over the condition,

***Eventually I did, but it wasn't overnight.

3) how long did it take,

***It took almost an entire year.

4) what treatment did you use,

***I wore "BandIt" hard plastic armbands which alleviated the symptoms
somewhat. I also would alternate ice and hot packs at night and took
anti-inflammatories. Also, get a small dumbbell weight, less than five
pounds and while you're watching television at night, do curls to build up
the joint and muscles. But use lightweight items. Start with a can of
beans or something. In this case, 12 ounce curls really do help. And no,
beer cans won't work, they constantly get lighter as you "exercise." :-)

and finally, 5) did you begin casting with your opposing arm?

***I'm kind of odd in that I use both arms for casting. Much of my
baitcasting is done using my left hand, but I do a lot of two-handed
casting. Plus, when I use spinning gear, I cast right handed. Which
explained how I ended up with tennis elbow in both arms.

Sorry for the laundry list of questions, but this thing is killing me and
I have absolutely no experience with this injury. I have read up on it
over the net, and all the sites say the same thing, namely rest, exercise
and behavior modification. Behavior modification is usually cited as
cessation of the causal activity. Fat chance on that, eh?

***Oh, I don't know about that. What you have to do is change the mechanics
of your cast and retrieve. What's doing the damage is the constant
repetition of the same motion. First of all, you don't have to cast a mile
on each cast. Take it easy, let the rod do the work and don't try to
"muscle it" out there. Rotate your hand more to change the stress angles on
your joints and muscles. If you cast primarily overhead, learn to cast
sidearm, or visa-versa. Learn to do a roll cast and do it two handed to
take up some of the strain. What you want to do is use different motions to
avoid the constant aggravation.

Change the way you grip the rod. If you palm the reel, try holding behind
the reel, and again, visa-versa, if you don't, then palm the reel. And for
God's Sake, don't have a death grip on the rod all the time! You don't have
to hold a rod that hard, but I've watched many of the people that have this
problem, and they just about white-knuckle the rod/reel while fishing. You
DON'T have to hang on for dear life.

If you do fish lures that have a lot of drag, point the rod directly at the
lure. Holding the rod off to one side or the other causes the rod to act
like a lever, increasing the amount of pressure you're resisting on each
cast. By pointing the rod at the lure, you're reducing that pressure. With
a bit of practice, you'll learn to "hold on loosely."

So, I am strongly considering switching exclusively to spinning gear for
the season and switching the reels around to cast left handed. Since I am
only moderately coordinated, this will be a challenge to say the least.
Still, it will be better than not fishing at all. I would be very
interested to hear if this is something from which I can eventually
recover.

***Oh, don't worry about it, you'll eventually recover. I've known guys
that did change to the other arm, but because the mechanics of their casting
sucked, they just transferred the problem to the less developed side, in
less time! Using lightweight tackle will help, but learning better casting
technique and different casts to change things up will do far more.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com


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