Freshwater Fishermen Pollute The Water?

I like to think that I’m environmentally concscious. But this report I just read is making me re-think my favorite lure!

You can read the reort here:

Study: Soft plastic lures harm trout, salmon

I ocassionally lose a rubber worm in the water, but I’ll try everything I can to get it back. (I hate to lose lures!) Still, there are times that I lose them. I’ve never given much thought to what happens with those lost lures, but this report has made me re-think how and whether I’ll continue to use them.

It certainly makes a stronger case for using natural bait as opposed to rubber/plastic lures!

My hope is that with today’s technology, the lure manufacturers can come up with a new improved rubber worm that will dissolve in the fish’s stomach after coming into contact with the fish’s stomach acid.

I know that may sound a little utopic in light of all the problems our world faces today, but hey … I’m an optomist at heart!

So what do you think about this latest revelation? Still think we should use rubber/plastic worms for fishing?

Catch you later.

Best Freshwater Fishing Lure For Spring?

I’ve seen this question being asked in some of the forums I’m in. So I was wondering what I would say is the best lure for springtime freshwater fishing?

If you’ve read some of my earlier posts, you know I like spinners for spring fishing. I also like floating minnow imitation lures like the ones that Rapala and Rebel make. And of course, being the rubber worm lover that I am, I’ll always try one no matter what the time of year. But overall, I think I get the most success and action with spinners in the spring.

In my previous post, I talked about a spinning lure that I use to catch catfish. And in the post before that, you can see part of the actual spinning lure I was using to catch that unknown fish! Both of those were the same lure. So what is this lure that I use? It’s an old Hildebrandt flicker spinner lure! Here’s a picture:


Hildebrandt flicker spinner

Sorry about the quality of the picture – it was taken with my cell phone! You probably can’t tell, but I have a number 1 and a number 2 weight lure that I use. They are very light, which goes along with my ultra-light spinning outfit. I use 4 lb test monofilament and I can cast these a good 50 – 70 feet. (You can always add a little split shot if you need a little more weight.)

So here’s a better “store” picture of the lure:


Hildebrandt flicker spinner

Are these good lures? Well remember, I bought mine back around 1970 and I’m still using it! And as you can see, the fish still love it!

So if I had to pick just one lure for freshwater fishing in the spring, it would have to be the Hildebrandt flicker spinner lure!

How about you? What’s you’re “best” lure for springtime freshwater fishing? Please post a comment and share with us?

Catch you later!

Fresh Water Fishing – Lures vs Bait

It seems that wherever fishermen are, there will always be a debate as to which is better for consistently catching fish – lures or bait.

My brother and I used to fish together very frequently when we were younger. He was a bait fisherman much more so than I. We found a great little freshwater fishing stream close to our house which was crammed full of catfish. We enjoyed fishing there and would even get up early on Sunday mornings, before Sunday School, and go fishing for an hour or more.

He would use a bobber and live worms and I would use my secret spinner (the one I used to catch that mysterious fish in my last post!) Being true Americans, we would always be competing to see who could catch the most fish! It was always very close. Some days he would win, other days I would. We would always catch more than 1 too – never kept them – strictly catch and release.

No one I talked to ever used a spinner to catch catfish and they all looked at me as if I was a little crazy for even thinking about it! 😉 In our area, catfish were considered bait only fish! But trust me, my spinner was deadly for catfishing! I would cast it out, let it sink to the bottom and then slowly reel it in, twitching it every once in a while. The catfish loved it!

So which was better? Our conclusion was that neither was better. It came down to a preference on the fisherman’s part. I still prefer lures over bait. But I’ll use bait when I don’t have what I consider to be an appropriate lure for the type of fish I’m after.

How about you? Which do you prefer, lure or bait? Leave a comment and let me know?

Catch you later!

What Is This Fresh Water Fish?

With the weather warming up, I grabbed my sons and we did some freshwater fishing on Thursday afternoon. We only had about an hour so we ran down to our local creek. It was high tide, so I had high hopes for the afternoon.

After getting my younger son set-up with some worms, I started using a lure that is about 37 years old! It’s an old spinning lure with a single hook and some flopping silver pieces. I usually only use this for spring fishing and decided to give it a try. After my first few casts, I had a hit and eventually caught a fish. But it was one of those fish we’re just not 100% sure of what type it is!

Here’s a photo of it:
The unknown freshwater fish

So if you think you know what it is, please post a comment here?!?

As it turned out, it was the only fish that we caught in the short amount of time we had. But we had fun and the boys are ready to go again – so maybe this weekend?

Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you later!

Fresh Water Fishing Spring Reel Cleaning

Taking a break from taxes, I thought I’d share some knowledge I learned last weekend. We went fishing (my sons and I) last weekend and I brought my reel out from the garage. It was hard to crank and I wondered what it was that was causing this. We were short on time so I went with the reel the way it was and had a nice few hours.

After coming home, I pulled the reel off of my rod and started to disassemble it. It was then that I remembered that the last time I had cleaned the reel, I ran out of my good ole Garcia-Mitchell grease that I’d had for years! Wanting to go fishing the next day, I used some lithium grease that I had out in the garage. BIG mistake! The grease had become very stiff and had turned some of the inner reel parts a greenish color – not what I wanted to see!

So I took the reel completely apart – including removing the ball bearings from the reel spindle shaft. Did you know that there are 17 ball bearings on each side of the shaft. (That makes 34 ball bearings total.) And these ball bearings are just a tad bit bigger than a pin head! Fortunately I had bought some Southbend reel grease over the winter and used that to clean and lubricate everything – and I mean everything! After putting it all back together, it works much more smoothly and fluently.

So take a lesson from me – always use quality reel grease when cleaning and lubricating your freshwater fishing reel!

Want to see the quality grease I used? Here it is:

Catch you later!

Freshwater Fishing and The Environment

The NSF (National Science Foundation) just released an article about how we freshwater fishermen are helping to spread viruses to amphibians! You can read it here:
Spring Fishing Season Arrives … And With It, Amphibian Diseases

I’m not sure about you, but I can safely say that I’m NOT helping to spread viruses to amphibians! I rarely use live bait when I fish, and I’ve never used a live or dead waterdog as bait. I prefer to use the plastic or rubber worm type lures whenever I fish. However, this article makes a good point that I was talking about with my sons as we came back from our first fishing excusion this past weekend.

We are responsible for our environment. As a boy scout, I was taught to leave a place just as clean or better than it was when I found it. I’ve tried to always accomplish this in my life and fishing is no exception. I hate seeing trash on the ground when I’m fishing. So I’ll usually pick it up and make certain that I don’t add more pollution to the environment, no matter what I’m doing.

Along that same point – we saw 2 young girls walking towards the creek with a catfish in a plastic bag. It looked like one from a “pet store” and I asked them if they had caught it. One girl replied “No – it’s my pet”. I could only guess why she was carrying it toward the creek! So I explained to my sons how important it was to NOT introduce fish into waters where they don’t belong. I used the snakehead fish as an example. I explained how it came from China and was introduced into the Potomac and is now killing off our native fish species – all because of some careless human beings.

Which brings me to another thing – when I was a child back in the late fifties and sixties, every morning I’d go outside and there would be dead toads in the street. Fresh road kill from the automobiles passing during the night. We used to catch toads and frogs all the time – every day! But now, I’m lucky if I see one toad the whole summer season. Scientists aren’t sure why the frog and toad populations are dying off, but their numbers are declining and here’s one possible explanation:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96282292
So for the sake of having a few less weeds on our properties, we’re causing the extinction of frogs and toads?!? If you’d like more info on frogs in general, here’s a great resource site I found: http://allaboutfrogs.org/info/resources/leaping/science.html

OK – this post is getting too long, but as freshwater fishermen, let’s be more conscious of our actions and the effect they will have on nature and the environment. And for goodness sake, stop using virus infected waterdogs!

Catch you later.

Does anyone want to share their favorite spring bass fishing techniques and tips?

I am a fan of soft plastic tubes and worms. Can you give me some of your favorite techniques?

North shore of the lakes will warm up faster due to getting more sun shine and the prevailing southerly winds. Fish those banks, outside bends in the channel, drop offs near there, with craw fish imitators….either crank baits or jig w/ trailer.
Start when the water reaches 50 deg. Big females spawn first.
If you lake has a shore with black shale or black clay fish them hard….especially if there is a drop off of more than 5 ft. like from 15 to 20 or more. This has worked for me for a long time now.
Tubes will work under the same conditions sense they imitate a craw. Tube colors I like are Road Kill / Chartreuse tips, Brown cold, green flake / orange tips, of course Black blue tips as well. I do not use worms until the water gets in the upper 50's or after spawn.
Spinner Baits also work well this time of year as do crank baits worked slow….remember I am talking "early spring" pre-spawn, when the bass are starting to stage off their spawning grounds.

** Added ** Float N Fly is a real good technique when the water is below 50 degrees. Works great from around Dec. – late Feb, early March. I use it during this time for Small Mouth Bass in S. Central Ky, and Tn.

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My Son’s New Freshwater Fishing Rig

We went to the store a few weeks ago to get some new cleats for my son so he could play soccer. While there, I happened to notice the fishing section of the store and decided to go check it out. Of course my young son wanted to come along with me!

They were running a pre-season sale on most of the fishing gear and I noticed a nice Zebco 11 freshwater fishing rod and reel. It was an ultralight combo (spin casting) and the reel had a trigger that you use to hold the line until you’re ready to let it go when casting. It looked perfect for my 5 year old. Here’s a picture of the reel:

The rod it was attached to was a six footer and would nicely replace the “spiderman” rod/reel combo he used last year! 🙂 (The “spiderman” rod was about 3 feet long and we had problems when fishing the local creek last year because his rod wouldn’t reach out over the weeds and shrubs on the bank of the creek.) So I showed it to him and asked if he wanted it – his response was a shriek of delight and then “oh yeah Dad”!

We bought the “Zebco 11” combo and hopefully we’ll get to try it this or next weekend! I’ll let you know if we were successful.

Catch you later.