Friday, June 21, 2013

8/3/14

Rule #53:  Learn how to keep your shoes/boots appropriately clean and polished.


Tinkering

One of the best things about fishing as a hobby is the opportunity it provides you to tinker.   It is especially fun to alter/improve lures you've purchased.  Every time I buy a package of jigs, especially 1/16 or 1/8 oz., I take a pair of needle-nose pliers and widen the hook gap.  I don't have any data, but I am certain that this alteration increases my catch when using these jigs alone, or when they're attached to a "safety-pin" type of spinner blade.  Speaking of jigs, only a few brands you can purchase come without hardened paint covering the hook eye; it's always best to deal with this at home rather than in the field!

I have whittled down the lips on crank-baits, added small or large red splotches on their sides with fingernail polish, trimmed the nylon weed guards on jigs that makes them not only weedless, but also virtually "fishless," as well!

My first day on the White River reinforced a lesson I'd learned long ago--White River fish, especially bass, key on baits that resemble (sometimes very loosely) crawdads.

So, laying in bed one night recently, I tried to fight off a nightmare I'd had earlier that was threatening to return each time I began to fall back to sleep.  Sometimes I can become sufficiently awake by creating fishing lures in my mind.  In the light of day, these have taken on some bizarre forms, but what the hell, if it beats back another "hospital dream," who am I to complain?

I have been trying to recreate a jig I fished successfully at Muncie-Tucky some years ago.  It was about a 1/4 oz., brown,  jig/twister-tail combination.  Like White River fish, those in the M-T key on crawdads.

As you can imagine, it is unfortunately large.  OK, it's about the size, and sadly, the shape, of a well-cooked bratwurst, but I tried.

Next, I took a stab a realism, and attempted to give my lure the same number of claws real crawfish possess--WO!  REVOLUTIONARY!!!

And the result?  Another bratwurst--but with ARMS!!  (Doesn't that sound like something with which Godzilla should tussle?)

In the enterprising spirit that made this great country what it is, I will throw these into the water a few times the next time I'm at the River.  Of course, a full report will follow, with photos.  Color even. And, in homage to Arlo,  a 4-part harmony sound file.







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