Tag: fishing

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Interesting Fishing Method

YouTube tends to feed me a lot of videos on golf and fishing. Go figure. This particular video caught my attention for some obscure reason!  I am not sure, but I think the language is Russian or at least in that language family.

It did  remind me of a time I took the kidrens fishing.  We were at their grandparents small ranch in Arkansas.  We had permission to fish the neighbor’s pond which was larger and fishier than any of the ponds on their grandparents property.  I don’t really remember very well, but I think David Bryan might of been around 5 or 6. That would have put Keely around 9 or 10.  They were fishing with cane poles and I was fishing with a spinning rig.

It was always a little funny fishing with those two as David would be catching fish left and right, and Keely would be getting skunked.  I remember one time she bumped David from his fishing spot.  He went down to where she had been fishing and started catching fish, and she continued to be skunked.

This particular day, David had caught 5 or 6 bass of a pound or two when he announced that he was going to catch one more fish, then quit. We got his line out into the water then I started to pay more attention to my own fishing.  After a bit, David, without catching one more fish, put his rod down and began doing other things.

I suddenly realized that his cane pole had come off the bank and was floating in the pond. I was fishing with a lure that had treble hooks.  I cast out and managed to snag his cane pole and drag it back in.  Lo and behold, there was another one of those one pound bass thrashing around on his hook .  He had caught (with a little help) his one more fish.

Just for the record, I watched this video several times.  I could never figure out the species of fish that she landed.  Any ideas?

And so it went.

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Why Granddads Take Grandchildren Fishing

I figured out why some grandfathers take their grandchildren fishing.

While I have rods of various types rigged with fishing line of different  strengths, I sometimes like to fish with ultralight equipment.  This is especially true if I am targeting smaller species like sunfish, bream or crappie.  If I happen to entice a larger fish on to my hook, like a bass, this has the added bonus of forcing me to finesse the fish rather than muscle it into the boat.

I was sitting in the middle of a small lake/large pond the other evening in my fishing kayak. I was endeavoring to tie a lure on to six pound test fishing line.  My eyes have gotten so bad I was having trouble seeing the thin, light line. I gave up on using anything less than that strength a long time ago. While I do not have arthritis in my hands very bad, it does make my fingers a little stiff from time to time. With the fineness of the six pound test line, with the difficulty in seeing that line,  I was struggling engineering the line into a good knot.

They do make fishing glasses with powerful magnification, probably exactly for this reason, or maybe for fly fishing fly makers. I could buy a pair of those glasses, soak my hands in WD40, and then go fishing.

Cynical me is betting, though, generations of grandfathers, under the pretext of teaching junior’s offspring the art of fishing, have manipulated their grandchildren into tying lures onto fishing line… just for the reason detailed above. Not really, but it was a passing random thought as the small diameter line was kicking my butt.

And so it goes.

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Me Be Bragging

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Well… no monster, but as big as a big mouth bass as I have caught in a while.  And before one of my siblings starts in on photographic perspective,  I challenge them to find a fishing photo that does not use this classic composition.

This particular fish was fun to catch as I was in my fishing kayak and was using an ultralight rig with 6 pound test.  She (full of eggs she was) took off running 3 different times making my drag hum each time.  All the while I had to position the kayak on a windy day to get it in a better position to land her after her last run.   Definitely, a very enjoyable battle.

Normally I am a catch and release fisherman, mainly because I do not like to clean fish even though I like to eat them.  However, part of the agreement on fishing this particular honey hole on private property is that I keep all I catch.  They are trying to decrease the fish population on the hope that will lead to more trophy size bass.   I am glad to do my part, and Señora and I both like  to eat fish.

Let an old man brag a little.