It's All About the Fish... (pt 1)

It's taken me a while to get to this post because I've been trying to figure out how to get the pics up from an old camera. Anyway:

A month or so ago, I headed out to an SNP stream that's stocked below and has native brookies up above. I planned to fish both sections, and of course was more optimistic than was reasonable.

Just a few casts into my outing, I hooked into a trout. I thought it was a small one, and even though I got it on the reel, I worked it in like it was a minnow. When I got him to my feet, I was shocked at how big he was (not huge, maybe 9 inches) and he was shocked that some human was reaching his hand in the water to pick him up. I'd left my net at home -- not a necessity in this area -- and it possibly cost me a fish, because once he saw he was in real danger, he took off downstream, over a little piece of rapids (if you can call it that) and the hook popped free.

I fished hard the rest of the day, with only a little luck, a tiny native brookie that I dropped before I could get a pic (and I have a friend who would say the camera was my whole problem -- I was certainly thinking about snapping on of that first fish while I was bringing him in).

I also fished this pool pretty thoroughly (and if you know the stream, you know where this is):



It's tricky to fish, because it's on a stream crossing, and unless you're the first person there, it's likely someone's fished it, splashed in it, or is currently swimming in it. I'm sure there are fish there, so I always take a few casts. This morning, like others, nothing happened. Then I had a perfect drift on my final cast and started bringing in my line. Suddenly a monster brookie rose up and hit a ... stick.

Really? My perfect cast and drift and proper fly and nothing. But a stick?

Eventually I went back to the stocked section where I had hooked the first trout, and this guy was in my way:



Even though it's just a garter snake (I'm relatively sure), I gave him some room and fished downstream a little. I quickly had a hit, set the hook and turned the fish, a typical-sized brookie. I got a look at him, but he immediately came loose. I was amazed at how this fish just materialized.

All in all, not a wasted day: I'd hooked three trout and landed one, and I'd seen a snake, and, at the very least, I'd spent a nice day outdoors, doing something I love in place that looks like this:




So why was I so bummed?

Well, sometimes it's all about the fish. I'd wanted to catch something that day, and felt like I hadn't. Any fishing writer worth his salt talks about how it isn't really about catching fish, but, for me, some days it is. Not all days, but sometimes the other stuff just isn't completely fulfilling.

Of course, in my defense, the other days can be pretty nice to... (to be continued)

"Cane" Pole Fishing

I decided this spring to try something a little different. I regularly fish from the bank of a local lake in which lilypads quickly take over the first few feet of water. I've seen some decent bass in these area, and while I've been able to coax hits on floating worms cast past the pads and brought back over them, I've never been able to hook up. I'd also be glad to have an extra method to pull out bream and crappie from such areas.

My solution? A cane pole. And by "cane," I mean a 13-foot piece of telescoping graphite. But it's still the basic rig. I've never tried to do this before (though I wanted to years ago at The Pond), so I read up on it online and figured that was enough. I tied a 13-foot piece of 10-pond monofilament to the end, grabbed a couple bobbers and some worms and headed off.

It's a little late in the year for my purposes (and let's blame this on the backordering and shipping practices of a certain large retailer). The fish here have been starting to move deeper and the spawn, at least for most species, has happened and the fish are out a little more. Still, I figured I could have some fun.

Well, yes and no. It's hard than I thought it would be. I hadn't considered the amount of overheard clearance I'd need to "cast" in some situations, nor how heavy the pole would be after a few hours. I also thought I'd be able to get my bait and bobber into the water both more precisely and more quietly (although I think I can improve on both counts with practice).

In the end, I caught six very small 'gills, but not that I couldn't have caught with conventional tackle and a bobber. I think the real experiment will have to wait for next spring.

Interestingly, though, I tried circle hooks again. My hook-up ratio was far worse than on previous outings, but I blame this on the minuscule fish involved, apparently just pecking at the crawler pieces without inhaling the hook. On the upside, I didn't have any bad hooks, any difficult unhookings, or any blood.

One last thing: this sort of fishing, I suspect, won't match conventional or fly options for excitement, but there is something adrenaline-inducing when you realize you're swinging a spiny fish, with biggish hook directly at your face from 15 feet away. So at least there's that drama.

Howell Raines -- Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis

Fly Fishing Through The Midlife Crisis by Howell Raines

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

This turned out much better than I expected. Raines knows, importantly, what not to talk about, and he avoids heavy musings on the sorts of questions you associate with midlife crises, yet he's revealing at the same time.

In what I expected to be clunky insertions, he includes sections on famous anglers he's spent time with (such as Ray Scott and Bob Clouser) and presidents who fished. These chapters serve to further explorations about some of his key themes, and rather than being simple biographical snapshots, they're fascinating looks into the psyches, fishing habits, and the relationships between the two.

This is a fine read, worth it for fishing stories and historical overviews, but also for the autobiographical slant.

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Big Day

Saturday was Jasper's birthday, so we headed out for what a friend accurately described as an "epic" day. The day involved a picnic; feeding ducks, geese, and koi; a very exciting train ride; and, of course, fishing.

We were using nightcrawlers on circle hooks. My dad was helping Ava, and they were fishing theirs under a bobber. I initially was throwing mine with split shot and getting it on the bottom. I got heavily outfished, so I switched to the bobber and got my only hit of the day.

Ava dominated the day, landing 2 bluegill, which would have been fun enough. The first treasure was that fish number one was a catfish. She said weeks ago she really wanted to catch a catfish, so I was thrilled when I saw the silvery form coming in. It was maybe 10 inches or so, hefty for a 2-foot-long Dora rod, and Ava was thrilled to touch its whiskers (and she's now caught the same number of channel catfish in her life as I have). Unfortunately, the camera was busy taking Jasper and his mom for a walk that day.

Ava's other fish was a legitimate trophy, all things considered, a largemouth bass that, measured against my rod, went between 12 and 12.5 inches. It was all Ava and Pappy could do to reel it in. Here's the monster fish:



And here's Ava, unprompted, doing her best Jimmy Houston impression:



All in all, a pretty amazing day. And it may be that the kid is outfishing me already...

The Circle Hook Experiment

The last two outings that we've taken the kids on (more on the second in a later post), I've experimented with circle hooks. I've had two issues with kid fishing (and with my own, for that matter) that I thought circle hooks might resolve:

1) Ava, at less than 4, isn't really able to set the hook. Not only is her age a factor, but using a 2-foot rod with curly, cheap line isn't ideal.

2) Setting the hook when using a bobber is hard. This sounds stupid, but for those of us who have spent years learning to feel the line with a sinker or with a lure, it's hard to tell when to set the hook when the bobber's dipping, and how to keep the slack out of it.

The circle hook, I reasoned, would resolve this issues by eliminating the need to set the hook. I used the slightly different Gamakatsu octupus circle hooks, in either size 4 or 6. So here are the results of my experiments:

On my own rod, I had a total of 7 bites over about 90 minutes (all but one while not using a bobber). Without ever setting the hook myself, I hooked and landed 4 fish (I think 1 bass and 4 bluegill). I missed two (which I chalk up to little 'gills nibbling at the tips of worms), and it one instance I lost the whole hook. I'd blame it on a bad knot, except I'd already landed 3 fish on it. I'm not sure what happened. All four of my fish were hooked perfectly in the corner of the jaw.

Ava, with the assistance of first my stepdad and then her dad, caught 5 fish. There were a few bites that resulted in hook-set attempts, all of which failed. I'll save some of the details on the fish for my next post, but you've already seen the trout Ava caught. Unfortunately, this one was hooked in the bottom of the mouth. After the bobber started running, my stepdad gave a little hookset here, so I don't know if that's too blame. The fish bled a little, and its revival was questionable.

Of the other 4 fish, 3 were hooked in the corner of the jaw, but one little gill was hooked through the top of the mouth, coming out between its eyes. The good news is that nearly all the hooks were exactly where they should be. The bad news is that the hooks are very thick, which led to a couple bleeding fish, and noticeable wounds. The other bad news is that with the thick wire and big barbs, hook removal was a little difficult, esp. on one fish where the hook had gone through the lip and re-entered the lip from the outside. Fortunately, all the fish except the trout were released with no noticeable trauma and swam off quickly.

One other note: I had a terrible time keeping vienna sausages on the hook, largely, I think, because the hook was too thick (even trying to use enough weight to cast with just a gentle lob).

My conclusions (obv. drawn after not a whole lot of research):

1) This is definitely an aid for helping kids catch fish. Ava landed all her fish without once needing a hookset (the trout being a strange case).

2) This is an aid for catching fish on a bobber. There's no question when the fish is on. When the bobber seems to be moving on its own, gently reel tight and the fish, if it's mouthed the hook, will be there.

3) The hooks are too thick for small freshwater purposes. I'd like a lighter wire hook for our target species, although that might change the effectiveness. I won't be using these hooks for my general fishing for that reason, although I might use them for catfish.

4) I'm not sure how to get around the thick-hook-fragile-bait issue, and am not sure how something like chicken livers would hold up. It may be that there are lighter wire circle hooks available.

As always, I'd be interested to hear other people's thoughts.

First Trout!

About a week and a half ago, we got the kids back out fishing, this time with my mom and stepdad. I brought along some circle hooks (more on that in my next post), as much for an experiment as for anything else. In the length of time it took Ava to get to the potty and back, I was convinced they'd help her catch fish, so I tied one on for her (the idea being that she wouldn't have to set the hook).

A short time later, she's reeling frantically, and I catch just a flash of silver, enough to tell that it's something elongated. She reels it in, and it's this:



Ava's first trout! And a brookie no, less (significant only for being my favorite kind). A fish is a fish to Ava, of course, but I'm pretty excited by it. The whole event was overshadowed by worms and a picnic and some playground activity, but that's probably as it should be.

Pay Attention

Just a quick one tonight, but more Anglenook coming soon (with pictures! with first trout! with circle hook experiments!):

About a month or so I went out to the nearest lake and took 8 or 9 fish, including some nice crappie. For once, I convinced myself to do something I'd read about but never tried, which is to switch tactics when you're catching fish (as opposed to when you're not). The idea is that you might be on to something good, but that could be causing you to miss out on the best (yes, there are some theological implications here -- I'll save that for another forum).

So I was catching them on topwater. I knew that at that time of year, under those conditions, I could do that. I had done it last year, and I was doing it right then. So I started switching, trying different lures and different retrieves. I had a variety of results, but I also gathered some information for future use.

The following weekend I had just a couple hours, but I zipped out to a pond about 25 minutes away. Here's where I should have paid attention. When the Fish Commission notes that there's a "Kids Fishing Day" coming up, remember what day it is, and don't go to any of those locations. [That's "Pay Attention" #1.]

Having wasted about 50 minutes in a car, I finally got to somewhere I could fish. I stepped out of the car, and half the sole on one of my shoes peeled off. I'm not especially hard on clothes, gear, etc., but this is the third pair of shoes I've ruined while fishing in less than 12 months. Since I was stuck with clopping around the lake, of course it was crowded.

And of course, the fishing was slow. I tried to duplicate the previous week's action but only caught a few. It doesn't meant the day was a waste. I always talk to other anglers I see, partly because I'm friendly (usually) and partly because I'm curious. While there's a stereotype of the tight-lipped fisher hiding his holes and tactics, that's rarely the reality. Most people are more than willing to share their tricks, maybe because they're kind or maybe because they like to show off, or maybe it's just neighborly.

[Note: I'm a little bit tight-lipped.]

I talked briefly with a guy on my way in, and we crossed paths later, so he squatted down next to me and went over some of his gear. He's been catching some big bass, and he let me in on some access points to the local river that he's had good action at. Totally unnecessary to share, but very much appreciated. That info + Google Maps = more fish. [There's "Pay Attention" #2 for you.]

Of course, maybe it's just me. I've been told that there's something about my face that encourages people to open up to me, so maybe I should be a teacher or a preacher or a counselor. I suspect it's more that when I'm on the water, I sometimes carry a vague expression of incompetence. Throw in a funny-looking hat and a half-broken pair of shoes and I'm practically a charity case. When the guy using the surf rod for 5-lb bass looks at my little ultralight*, how can there not be a lesson to follow.


*It's a new one; a review of L.L. Bean's hot new combo coming soon, too.

Help a Vet

Through the joys of Freecycle, I met an interesting guy recently. "Big John" Miska, as it turns out, seems to be generally up to some interesting stuff, as a quick Google will show you.

What's relevant here is that John is gathering up fly fishing donations to use to take wounded veterans out on outings. John is affiliated with Project Healing Waters, but this project isn't (though it's not dissimilar in theory). Basically, he wants to start doing a little more for some of the vets in the area, and needs some gear to make it happen (and maybe eventually start a PHW group closer to this area).

In particular, he's interested in old bamboo fly rods, as he knows a guy who can fix them up at a reasonable price.

If you're interested in learning more about the project or in donating, you can reach John at bigjohn@cstone.net.

Lefty Kreh's Longer Fly Casting

Lefty Kreh's Longer Fly Casting, New and Revised: The Compact, Practical Handbook That Will Add Ten Feet--Or More--To Your Cast by Lefty Kreh

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars

This one's fine. It's a not-too-detailed look at how to improve your fly casting. It's mostly straightforward, but it's very brief, with drawings that are usually clear and useful. If you wanted to learn to (or improve) your fly casting, you'd want to go somewhere else.

Kreh teaches a different style of casting than I've seen elsewhere. I saw him demonstrate it at an outdoor show in Denver (where I couldn't hear him that well), so the sections on basic casting in this book made sense to me. However, I'm not sure how clear they'd be to someone who hadn't seen it in practice, especially since it goes against much of what we're typically taught.

There's not enough "why" in this book -- even if you learn the technique, I think it's always good to have a fuller understanding of why something works.


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Bob Clouser -- Clouser's Flies

Clouser's Flies: Tying And Fishing the Fly Patterns of Bob Clouser by Bob Clouser

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was going to wait to review this one until I had tied and fished more of the patterns in the book, but it's not necessary.

The book's strengths are obvious: clear descriptions, and big, colorful pictures. I've been tying Clousers for years, but one night with the book immediately improved them. Clouser gives detailed instructions even down to the level of how to properly anchor your eyes, how to epoxy, etc.

This one does have advice on how to fish the patterns. While it's certainly enough to get you started, I think it works best as a partner to his Fly-Fishing for Smallmouth Bass book, which goes into far more detail.

So, yeah, if you're tying for smallies, this one's probably essential.


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