[duckman1911]

Originally Posted by MathGeek

Eating the fish is safe, especially if good handling procedures, refrigeration, and cooking procedures are used. Bacteria will multiply quickly if there is insufficient ice in your ice chest. We use 40 lbs of ice in a 100-120 qt cooler and get more on the way home if needed.

An old person, young child, person with open injuries, or compromised immune system should probably stay out of the water. This is a situation where you want to have read the "side effects" of all your medications and stay out of the water if the side effects include compromised immune system or being more prone to infections.

We won't change our fishing activities at all. I stay out of the water anyway all year around, due to personal preference and not liking sharks and sting rays and vibrio and all that. I let my teenage children make their own informed decisions, unless they have some heightened risk factor (open sore, medication that reduces immunity, already sick, etc.) in which case their mother and I insist they stay out of the water. A parent may give a bit more consideration to a child prone to ear infections or conjunctivitis or something like that.

I recall our last trip to Holly Beach, there was a family including little children happily swimming and playing in the water a bit down from where we were fishing. Of course, the first thing we caught was a shark.

You'll go knee deep to net a bull red. Seen it with my own eyes. Thanks for the help buddy