Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Rule #11:  Never promise something you even suspect you might not be able to do.  Keeping promises is keeping your word--as such it is a key quality of a person's character.  Save promises for important things; don't promise to take out the trash, just say you will.  

When writing about my Bass Tournament experience, January 15, I referred to that feeling fishermen always get now and then wherein something goes wrong at the beginning of your outing and from that point on, everything just continues to spin out of control.  Today, as I was setting out:

I thought I'd get a coke at the Marathon, but of course, had no money or the Marathon card in my wallet.  I had to drive back to the house and start over.

When I got to the spillway by the Treatment Center, and parked the truck, it started to rain.

The first cast I took snagged a "Wacky Worm" rim I was fishing, and I had to break the line.  Though I'd stuffed the pack of worms in my front pocket, I had forgotten to bring anymore hooks, so that made that rod pretty much ineffective.

Ignoring the rain, I fished on and caught a smallmouth--only about a pound--but unfortunately, he swallowed the Panther Martin 1/16 oz spinner I was using, and to get it out, I had to kill the fish. Great.

After I caught a couple more very small bass, all on the Panther Martin, the rain began to come down in earnest, and so I called it a day.

That being said . . .

CONDITIONS

Temperature:  I mowed the yard yesterday and the sky was high and blue.  A storm cell moved through to our north last night, and this morning it was again looking clear and warm.  About 1:00, however, clouds moved in and it became more humid, and hotter, about 85 degrees.

Water Clarity:  I fished just above the "dam" across the river from the Treatment Center, because John Craddock told me that the smallmouth were thick there when the water officials had electro-shocked the White while making a species count.  The water today was that dark green color we get sometimes when the river is going down from being high and brown.   When I was retrieving the spinner, I could see it ten feet out at about 6" below the surface (the water is very shallow at this place on the river.)

Depth and Flow:  Just above 5', and flow rate, just above 0.4.   (I found a National Weather Service web-page that keeps record of this data.  It's measured close to the Elm Street Bridge, but still, this could be profitable information to keep an eye on!)

Bottom/Vegetation: Vegetation was marginal, really.   (Just "vegetation" isn't as big a category in the river, at least at this time of year.    So, I'll expand this to include "bottom," which is more important.)
The bottom in this area is very rocky, with even some gravel bottom closer to shore.  The river runs hard here, it's shallow, with some large stones beneath the surface that create eddies.  Those eddie areas were where I received the majority of my bites.  Snags too!

Cloud Cover:  Cloudy, rainy.

Wind Speed: 2 MPH, Maximum 12.

Pressure:  30.13


LURES/METHODS

Because I lost that Wacky Worm on my first cast, I used the other outfit I brought, which was my new ultralight reel on an old floppy fiberglass rod, designed for 6-10 pound test.  I used the Panther Martin 1/16th oz. spinner in bronze with a black body with little yellow dots on it.

I always take a pair of needle-nosed pliers to the treble hook on these lures to open the curve of each of the hooks just a bit, and I think it makes a huge difference.

I switched to a chartreuse Road Runner late in the outing, made maybe 12 casts with it, got one hit, though it's hard to tell with that fiberglass rod whether it was a hit or a snag.


I only fished about an hour today.  I think I'll start making my way down the river, starting where I ended up last year.  So, I'll begin at the lone sycamore tree upstream from the large concrete pad on the shore.  I might return to this spot, however, for a while, the bite was pretty heavy.

Rule #37:  Don't try to kick your attacker in the balls, he is hard-wired to defend against that.  Instead, fake that move and then punch or elbow him as hard as you can in the throat.  If he can't breathe, he can't fight.

CHANGES:  This week has been a week of dramatic changes around our house.  The Young Lady is moving to Bowling Green to enter a Master's Program for a year and a half.  The Boy has decided to join the Navy after he graduates in a year.  Girl 1 is, thank God, living with us again, working, and soon will take on another summer job in addition to her summer college courses.  Girl 2 is taking a math class at the local Junior College in preparation for classes at the university in the fall.

The 1st Girl is coordinating all of these changes while working hard for summer money from the university.

Me?  Cooking mostly.  And fishing.  And foot modeling, of course.

Rule #29:  You don't get to choose your own nickname.



FISH AND ANTS AND CATS, OH MY!

Girl 2 and I went fishing at the old Fisher Pond Saturday.  It was an odd day, a day brought to you by the makers of Slim Jim, makers of fine grease- and spice-laden meat products.

We got there about noon and fished for a couple of hours.  We looked all over for a styrofoam cooler to put ice in, because Carly wants badly to eat some of the fish we catch.  After 45 minutes, it became obvious that we weren't going to exactly slay them, so it wasn't an issue after all.  I've decided, though to start keeping all fish I catch in that pond, and maybe the Keep-Out Lake, cleaning them, and freezing them until we gather enough for a meal.




Anyway, the CONDITIONS:

Temperature:  We'd had a few hot days, higher humidity, and Saturday was a break from the heat. The high was probably 70 degrees, but while we were fishing, it was mid-60's.  I didn't take temperature readings of the water, but the bluegills and bass were largely in post-spawn pattern, so it's not as warm as it will be in the summer, but still, pretty warm.

Water Clarity:  The current owners of the pond dyed the water sometime in the last two months--as they do every spring.  The water, therefore, was that artificial-looking blue-green color.  Most of the water drops off steeply, so you can see maybe 3' of bottom, on average.

Vegetation:  Between the dye and the MANY grass carp, there is no vegetation to speak of--on top or on bottom.  The first lure I used was a Bitsy Jig with a salt-infused Tiny Paca Craw plastic grub.

Dragging and twitching it across the bottom, I snagged two small sticks, but never had to clean vegetation from my lure.

Cloud Cover:  It "felt" fishy--cool, with some humidity, and constant cloud cover, a grayish sky all day.

Wind:  Wind speed, 10 MPH, (ENE); max wind speed, 16 MPH; max gust speed, 20MPH.  Casting wasn't difficult, but then I wasn't using anything too light.  The only problem posed by the wind was that it was hard to "line watch" for strikes.  This is the first time I've tried to teach Girl 2 how to fish a plastic worm--by the end, we were both using a salt-infused, light brown, two-toned YUM 4" worm, wacky-rigged.  When the wind picks up and creates turbulence on the surface, it's more difficult to detect strikes, especially light ones.

[The worm I was fishing looked a lot like the brown and yellow one second from the bottom, "salt-infused and covered with it too.]

Pressure:  The whole time we fished, we were under a rapidly falling barometer.  On Saturday, the pressure fell from 30.2 to 29.6.


LURES/METHODS:

We forgot to get worms, so Carly started bobber/bait fishing with a hunk of Slim Jim she bought at the gas station!  It didn't work, but she stuck with it a while.  Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes not.  I think there's a lot to be said for getting some bites immediately, it boosts the confidence--especially of a young person.  Next, I let her use my outfit with the Bitsy Jig and Tiny Paca.  Again, this dragging and twitching method is new to her.  Then, she tried a 1/4 oz. white Mister Twister jig and she got a couple of nibbles there.

Finally, she switched to the YUM rig I mentioned above, and I told her this time, to simply reel it in slowly and steadily.  This got her away from trying to keep the slack out of her line and at the same time, hopefully, kept the lure down low.
And, she finally hooked one well.

             [That's her fish below the catfish.  I had a good hold on my fish, so,              though it would've made a better picture if my big ugly hand
             weren't in it, I wasn't about to risk getting "barbed" by getting                        another hold on it!]













I only used three different lures:

• the Bitsy-Jig/Tiny Paca package
• a Kelly's fire-tail.
• and the YUM worm set-up

I caught one bass on the jig and grub, about a 1.5 --2.5 pound largemouth--nothing on the Kelly's, but I had some good bites.  Then on the YUM wacky-worm, I caught three very small bass, maybe .5--1 pounds.

Then, as Carly was reeling in her fish, I cast the wacky-worm and the instant it hit the water, the lure was snatched up and driven to the bottom of the pond.  I couldn't believe the fight!   Carly got her fish in, and then I handed the pole to her to fight mine in the rest of the way.  I was using the Pfleuger/Micro-Lite combination, and it worked great.  Carly and I both pointed the pole straight up to let the rod do the work, but still, the fish was stripping line off the Pflueger, the drag operating extremely smoothly!

We finally got it close enough to the bank to see that it was a large Channel Catfish: 16" long and somewhere between 2.5--3.5 pounds.  A beautiful fish.

EPILOGUE:  As I was re-rigging our poles over on the pier, I heard Carly yell ad saw her running towards me.  Somehow, during our battle with the two fish, we had stirred up some seriously pissed-off biting ants.   Shedding her shoes as she ran, Carly got to me and I used our bottled water to rinse them off of her legs.  Frantic patting ensued. Finally, we got them controlled and we decided that that moment would be a good time to end our day.

Lots of emotional content--Channel Cat and biting ants!  Top that!

Rule # 35.  Know the words to our national anthem and sing it loudly at every opportunity.

SO, IT'S SPRINGTIME.

The forsythia have bloomed, and that means the bluegill and bass have started nesting.  I told my late Great-Aunt Wilma that I could smell bluegill nesting, and she was certain I was continuing the family tradition of stretching the truth!  But I really can.  Really.  I can also smell Garter Snakes--but that one she just flat out refused to believe!!

I miss her so much.  Everyone needs someone who'll call them for bull shit--not that I was lying or exaggerating.

Not only do the forsythia signal the beginning of my heaviest fishing period, but because June 15 is Father's Day, and July 3 is my birthday, I'm looking forward to a new rod and reel this year!  Each year, for the last few, I have asked for a Pflueger reel and a Bass Pro Micro-Lite rod--one for Father's Day and the other for my birthday.  For Father's Day, I also ask if the kids and Peggy and I can go out for dinner--there's nothing I like more!!!

Last year, I asked for and received the Pflueger President Model 6925.  I've described this in previous entries, suffice it to say that I remain so very positive about this reel.  Today, as I was trying to wrestle in a 2-3 pound Channel Catfish, the drag actually engaged, and smoothly!

I paired this reel with a Bass Pro Micro-Lite rod: ML70LS2, a seven-foot Light weight rod, very sensitive and will cast a light weight lure a country mile!

The way I see it, that reel and rod constitute my mostly everyday, LIGHT WEIGHT, outfit.  I run 4 pound test on it, or the equivalent in different lines, and can cast lures weighing from 1/16 oz to 1/4 oz.  The catfish Carly and I wrestled in today give good evidence that the combination can take a large fish pretty easily.

This Father's Day/Birthday cycle, I'm working on creating an ULTRA-LIGHT outfit.  I looked throughout the Bass Pro Shops catalog for different makers of rods and reels, but in the end, I chose the lightest weight Pfleuger President reel, and the lightest weight Bass Pro Shops Micro-Lite 6' 6" rod.  I'll mostly use this outfit for river fishing, as I catch mostly smaller fish on the White.  I plan on spooling it with 2 pound test--probably braid.

I already have the makings of a MEDIUM-HEAVY rig, and I don't really want to spend much money on what will be my final outfit.  There are just so few times that I need to use more than 10 pound test.  The rod Peggy got for me from our bank's "Annual Value Points" is a wonderful MH weight rod, and I can slap just about any one of my extra reels on that and call it done.

I'm more interested in giving Carly some of my "hand me downs."  I want her to have a good rod and reel, because nothing is so frustrating as using inferior equipment when you know you could be catching fish!!

Rule #32:  Never answer the phone or text at the dinner table.


"CABIN FEVER" THOUGHTS


I've been reading how to catch winter smallmouth.

I think that's a bad sign.

Anyway, today, to keep myself from going down to the White and cast grubs across ice floes looking for a "fishy" looking area, I thought I would list the places I want to hit this spring with a vengeance:
And, once the season starts, I will take them one-by-one to present the way(s) I want to approach these waters this year:

1.  Fisher Pond
2.  "Keep Out" Lake
3.  Little Kentucky
4.  "Keep Out" Lake #2
5.  White River, upstream, from Treatment Center dam
6.  Mississinewa River
7.  Horse Pond
8.  Shamrock Lakes
9.  Buck Creek
10. The Rez
11. Small creeks, north-west of here, running under road bridges
12. Big Dirt
13. Doc's New Pond

I've got thirteen places to fish, at least.  As with the places I intend to fish, I'll tackle (haha!) each of these separately in a post.

1.  Fish at least once a week.
2.  Be on the lookout for a cheap john-boat.
3.  Check trolling motor or get new one.
4.  Make some new milk jug anchors.
5.  Buy/put together one more outfit:  This will be the ultra-light version of my last outfit:
     6' 6" Bass Pro Shops Micro Lite Rod
     Ultra-Light with the lightest weight Pfleuger President reel, model 6920.
6.  Put together a Medium--Medium Heavy outfit from the equipment I now have.  The rod Peg got          me from "points" at our bank is exactly what I need for this outfit.  I'll pick out the best reel for            heavier line, good drag, and load it with some heavier line.
7.  Become more proficient at cleaning fish, and subsequently eat more fish.  Also, when I'm fishing        cleaner water, I'm going to bring a cooler with ice each time, and kill some keepers, even if there        are only a few.  I'll clean those and freeze them so that I can build up enough for a meal.
8.  Buy cheap fly rod and learn to fly fish with new reel.  I got both at a rummage sale.  Now, I'm            going to try to find a store where I can buy backing, line, leader, and tippet, and have an employee     help me load it up.

There never seems to be enough writing about different gear and how to use it.  Though I'll treat these individually later, I will also try to identify the few ('cause I can't afford a $20 Rapala!!!) baits, lures, and gear that I will employ this season:

1.  Strike King Grub with Tiny Paca Chunk
2,  Larger beetle spin on White for Smallies
3.  [With Carly} Live bait on Fisher Pond
4.  Fly rod and automatic reel
5.  Wading the river with football cleets.
6.  White River bait fishing; standing in the river and casting upstream.
7.  Seining the river for crawdads, etc. to use as live bait.

+from Water Treatment Center, upstream
+shallow run just above falls across stream from Water Treatment Center--wading
+West Side Park and water down stream
+Between West Side Park and the High Street Bridge
+area around High Street Bridge
+shallow water around the Whiteley neighborhood
+area around the old wire factory

My Bass Tournament Experience

Rule #64:  When a politician utters the words, "the American people," you can be sure of two things:  first, the next words out of his or her mouth will be a bold-faced lie; and second, you should really grab onto your wallet as fast as you can.


MY BASS TOURNAMENT EXPERIENCE


As a graduate student, I was in a strange world.

I was, as I had always been, a Muncie hillbilly.  On the other hand, I was also a graduate student in English and American Literature, and my colleagues were NPR-loving, brie-eating, Volvo-driving, WONDERFUL folk.

Misguided, sure, but still wonderful.  I loved them, and they put up with me.

My best friend in grad school was of the "brie-eating" tribe, but he was a great guy nevertheless!  We were tipped off  by one of the secretaries that there was a local bass tournament at our newest reservoir about 25 miles south of my home.  Since it was a "local" tournament, my friend and I decided that we could maybe enter and have a chance, even though we only had my 12' jon-boat that was held together with a distressing amount of Bond-O.  We wrangled a small outboard motor from the Department Chair and figured we were ready.

My wife made me some bologna, mayo, and cheese sandwiches and threw in a couple of V-8's and three Budweisers.   I was thrilled!!

We showed up well before the starting time, yanked that boat out of the back of my truck, drug it--scraping Bond-O all the way down the ramp to the water, and "launched" her!  Well, actually, we pulled it over to the single wooden pier beside the ramp and tried for the first time to attach our motor to our boat.

Wrestling with the ancient outboard, we couldn't help but notice that the ramp was filling up with ENORMOUS bass boats that no doubt cost ten times our combined annual salary!  Were there any other boats requiring the pier?  No.  Were there any other boats made (mostly) of aluminum? No.

. . . and, could we get the engine started, well, no.  An air horn signaled the start and what seemed like thousands of huge Mercury's flared into action as fiberglass beauties fairly shot across the surface of the reservoir.  And we sat and watched them.  After a moment, we grabbed a couple of oars, and made our way, with the wind behind us, to a stand of flooded timber that looked kind of "fishy," about twenty yards from the pier, and then tossed out our "anchor," which I'd made by filling an empty gallon milk jug with Sacrete and tying twenty feet of nylon rope to it.

We sat in our boat until our fingers began to get numb before we remembered we had lunches, each prepared by our respective wives.  I popped a beer and opened a sandwich bag, thinking all the while that this could perhaps make my day turn around.

I have noticed many times while fishing that things can start going bad within the first few minutes and you just know that this day is not a day you're going to enjoy, and that the first thing that went wrong--maybe your first cast ended up so high in a tree you'd have to cut it down to retrieve your lure!  And in your heart you know that was just the first thing to go bad, that the rest of the day will be one long chain of such incidents.  Yet, some very few times, I have been able to stop everything, take a breath, maybe sit down, take a sip of coffee; then, when I start again, I can do so almost like it was the beginning of a new day.  Sometimes, some very few times, this will work.

Unfortunately, this was not such a time.

I looked over at my friend, opening the lunch he and his wife had prepared.  First, came the cucumber sandwiches with the crust cut off, then from an ironically red plaid Thermos, gazpacho.

Yes, gazpacho.  On a nasty, cold Indiana day, my friend was eating cucumber sandwiches and cold soup.

Now I've spent a lot of time in boats, fishing by myself, but usually with someone else.  Really, just with "the Doc," I've spent hundreds of hours on the water, and never, I mean NEVER, have I come so close to throwing someone overboard!

Obviously, we caught colds, but no fish.  In the end, we decided to leave early in order to avoid the embarrassment of "ramping" our boat when the others did.

And eventually (after the other two beers) I was able to quietly forgive my friend.

The next time we went fishing, although I had a legendary hangover, I caught dozens of largemouth--FROM THE BANK!!--and the biggest catfish I had ever seen.  But the final redemptive moment of the day occurred when my friend opened the same plaid thermos and poured us each a cup of coffee (now it WAS Hazelnut or something, but what the hell)  AND he had a small sack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches--on white bread--which along with the coffee, constituted the single best meal I had ever had!!

January -- Moved, but No Fishing

 Rule 4:  Nazis never have the right of way.

[Sometime in October, and really, depending on who you ask...] 

 So, the move is complete.



Somewhere along the line, we lost one dog and picked up another--younger, and definitely more energetic.  Our home is wonderful.

We have just experienced our first big snowstorm and cold spell.

Somehow, Bass Pro Shops has a link in with our meteorologist--on the morning we got 3", their catalog arrived in the mail.  Even though I could go to basspro.com, but there's just something about having that enormous catalog in your hands--it seems to promise many and large fish!

Here, so far, is "My Gear Wish List": 

Strike King Bitsy Bug Mini Jig - 1/16 oz. Green Crawfish
Strike King Bitsy Bug Mini Jig - 1/8  oz.  Watermelon
Strike King Bitsy Bug Mini Jig - 1/8   oz.  Pumpkin Craw
Strike King Bitsy Bug Mini Jig - 1/8  oz. Green Pumpkin
Strike King Bitsy Bug Mini Jig - 1/8 oz. Cajun Crawfish
Strike King Bitsy Bug Mini Jig - 1/4 oz. Green Pumpkin 

NetBait Tiny Paca Chunk Softbaits - Green Pumpkin
Gary Yamamoto Senko - 4" - Green Pumpkin Black Flake 
Bass Pro Shops Triple Ripple Grub - 2" - 17 Pack - White 
Bass Pro Shops Squirmin' Grub
Bass Pro Shops Triple Ripple Grub - 2" - 17 Pack - Chartreuse Silver Flake

Stren Original Fishing Line - 2400 Yard Service Spool - Hi-Vis Gold - 6 lb.
Seaguar INVIZX Flourocarbon Fishing Line - 200 Yards - 4 lb.
Stren Monofilament Fishing Line 660 Yards - Clear/Blue Fluorescent - 6 lb.


Owner TwistLock Centering-Pin Springs - Large - 8 Pack 
Owner TwistLock Centering-Pin Springs - Small - 8 Pack
O-Wacky Tool
O-Wacky Tool Replacement O-Rings - Black - 25 Pack 
P-Line CXX X-tra Strong Monofilament - Hi-Vis Fluorescent - 8 lb. 

Pflueger President 6900 Series Spinning Reel - 6935
Ugly Stik GX2 Spinning Rod - USSP602L
Bass Pro Shops Crappie Maxx Mighty Lite Crappie Rod
Bass Pro Shops Crappie Maxx Pro Series Crappie Rods - 8' 

As you can see, I am going to devote a lot of time to jig fishing this coming season.  To this end, I am going to get a heavier rod/reel combination--the larger Pflueger President reel, and the Ugly Stik GX2 Spinning Rod.   Last year I got what I think is the perfect combo for the majority of my fishing--the Bass Pro Shops Micro-Lite, 7' rod and the lighter Pflueger President 6900 Series Spinning Reel 6925.  I wanted a rig that could cast heavier jig/pig combos and larger crankbaits.  Of course, I'll use this rig mostly on my ponds and lakes; there are just fewer opportunities for large fish on the White or Mississinewa Rivers.

So, what's on your pre-season Wish-List?