brought to you by: AHMTRAVEL.COM
Some of the greatest fishing in the world, is available within a mile or two away any where in the US! Many anglers miss out because their gear is too big and not sensitive enough to show them bites.
Fish feed in a delicate fashion 90% of the time. In order to catch them, you need to change your ways. If you do, you can be rewarded with 500 fish in 4 hours- my record is 512.To get in on this action, you will need a few items and, you will need to get rid of a few old items you may be used to.
It might help the reader to know that until the Spring of 2000, I was a big game fisherman with a box full of lures and plenty of spinning gear as my main tools for catching fish. Everything changed about the way I fish, especially the fact that I actually caught fish, every time out. I still have not been “skunked” since changing my ways. By the way, it’s a good thing we don’t smell like a skunk when we don’t catch anything as a group of anglers, otherwise our families would know for sure how miserable a fishing day we had. Getting “skunked” (catching no fish) stinks!
There is no need to be skunked, if you follow a couple of fishing basics and transform your gear for local waters (instead of our tackle being based on Florida Bass or Kentucky crappie or Wisconsin Muskie.
Even the “ultra light” spinning gear we are accustomed to using as a standard for local fishing is cutting down on our catches! Most anglers in the US have never truly fished “ultra” light. Years ago I changed my gear and I caught sacks full of fish all summer and for the first time in my fishing career, caught fish into very late fall! I never knew that fish would feed in late November and early December on open water!
When the rig was actually wet,because these kids could not get the thing into the water near the fish because of tangles and weeds on the jig head, it was not catching fish. Their “casts” couldn’t get the lure/giant bobber combo past the 6-foot wide weedy edge. I fixed that problem by putting down my pole and setting up my shortest 7 ft. graphite telescopic “pole” with a delicate float (the size of an pencil eraser) with 1.5 lb. line leader attached to a siz #14 hook and baited it with a tiny grub.
Kids rods come with the Mouse on the box, wrapped in plastic as one unit and are way too short. The closed face reels are not bad, but the short rods require a giant 55-gallon drum bobber which are often sold with these kits. Every angler in America should own and use a cane pole to fish with! A pole with no reel! On another day that summer, with nothing more than the cane pole, I won the 1st day of the U.S. Open with a top weight of 19.75 lb. of blue gill caught in 4 hours.
The answer to this victory was the simplicity of my rig and the size of my line using a tiny hook. By using this cane pole (really composed of graphite) I was able to fish quickly for blue gill that were in front of me. The conditions that day had them feeding in past the first break of the shoreline and were only 8 inches of water. My rig allowed me to get the bait out to the fish easily,
accurately and quickly. Most of the other anglers in the match were fishing much farther out. My neighbor had a 60 foot pole!!! He was 58 feet past the fish with his expensive gear and I crushed his weight by 83% using little more than what Huck Finn used -- a cane pole. Some competitors were even casting far out into the lake some 70 yards away.
On this day, AS MOST DAYS IN OUR LOCAL LAKES, the plentiful smaller fish caught in great number, will offer you success as an angler. I would brag even more about that U.S. Open, but my teacher Hall of Fame Angler - Mick Thill, came from behind and crushed me in day 2 to win the tournament overall, I finished 2nd.Here are details on setting up to fish for most every fish in your local ponds. Follow these (8) steps and you will have a pan fish blast of your own.
1. Consult local bait store owner.
They will give you great information on local ponds and you should be able to buy some floats, and the rest of your gear below. While not every store owner is great for information, most can get you to good fishing spots. To start, find waters with panfish.
Panfish are abundant and for the most part active. This will provide you with a chance to catch fish.
2. Throw out your bobbers and purchase a couple small floats.
Floats catch fish. Even if you must cast larger float, a properly balanced float will crush a round bobber every day. Slip bobbers are not as good as floats either. This is because the line comes out the top in a slip float and catches wind, current messing up the presentation.
3. Get some good fishing line
Fish feed by sucking their feed in with water. If the line is heavy, it gets sucked in slower. Most of the time, heavy line is just spit back out. Fish can spit a poor presentation out faster than you can see your float move up on the surface!
4. Get some small, SMALL hooks
small! A big hook will kill your fishing! Kill it. Take a look at the nail on your pinky finger. That is about as long as your hook should be or smaller. (Ask your bait store owner or check out mickthill.com for these hooks). MOST MAJOR CHAINS DO NOT CARRY THESE HOOKS. Some aren’t interested in you catching fish, just buying stuff. They are quite happy selling a bunch of giant bass hooks, because that is what you have been buying!!!
5. Get some small bait
Again, the thumbnail on your pinky finger is probably the biggest bait you should use. There are times the fish only want 1 maggot (spikes) on a tiny #16 hook. Even the big gills will not take 2 or 3 spikes as readily as they would 1 tiny piece of bait, this is especially true in early Spring, late Fall and after cold rains. Same would go for worms. Sometimes using a tiny cut piece will give you success. Only the fish will tell you. Lastly- big fish eat small bait! I have caught 15 lb. fish on a piece of crawler the size of my small fingernail.
I have landed a 3.5 lb. fish so far on the cane pole with 2 lb. line. We call them “whips” and some call them crappie poles. I plan on landing bigger fish than that, but the greatest number of fish are best caught in our local ponds using a whip and tiny delicate floats with small baits. The whip will deliver the bait out to the exact spot you need to lower your bait. This could be a drop-off, rock edge, gravel edge or weed edge. You can hit the exact spot every time! No missed casts. No birds nests. Once you find the fish, you can put the bait back in with the whip in the spot where the fish are. Whips vary in length from 6 ft. to 25 feet (longer if you find pro versions).
Good shot is essential to this setup. The bite indicator (float you use) should be the smallest you can find. Take your line, rig this float up and then using a bucket of water to add split shot below the rig until your float is nearly sunk. It should be 95% below the water if you have the right amount of shot on it. 75% of that shot goes right under the float. Take a few small shot and this will go close to the hook. The best shot is Anchor brand split shot! This is premium splitshot that will stay on the line better and not slide around on you. It also tangles much less than the brand with the wings on it- round shot is best.
8. Catch (and release) bags full of fish
You will need a keep net for the water if you want to have some fun. Seeing how many you can catch is all the fun. There is nothing like pulling a bag with 100 fish out to show people what fishing is all about. If you want to fish in a local club competition, the net is also required to keep the fish you catch for weight of your total catch. Keeping some medium sized fish and returning the largest fish is the way to improve your lake. If you take all the big fish, they won’t be in there next time you go fishing. If you take the medium sized fish, the bigger fish will get even bigger! It is essential that you release large fish to keep the bloodlines breeding and ensure future fishing on your lake!9. Teach a kid to fish and take them fishing
With a cane pole and the basics, kids can have a blast! If we don’t take our kids fishing, and above all, show them a good time, our sport will fade. Improving our sport brings better fishing programs, cleaner local waters and education on preserving our environment for kids. We need kids to care about their local world and taking them fishing for bluegills is the absolute best way to show them a good time. Incidentally, there is nothing wrong with catfish, golden roach shiners, bullheads, carp or bass as any fish gives the kids just as much fun. Any fish they catch will be a blast on a whip.Who knows, you might even get hooked on pole fishing. I did. As an angler, is our time best spent casting all day, or catching fish? Certain situations will require spinning gear, a very long rod and casting, but for the greatest number of situations in our local ponds and lakes the reel-less pole will outperform casting gear sometimes by more than 200% and up. I mean, take a look across the pond at spin casters sitting fishless and you destroying them with a pole-that is the goal! Or should I say whipping them!
Angler Magazine Writer- John Wilkinswww.MidwestAngler.com
john@midwestangler.com
John Wilkins has fished on the US Fishing Team competing at the highest levels of fishing in Europe, Canada, China & the United States. He has fished in 2 World Championships and has educated anglers on the basics of fishing urban waters. His teacher is angling legend and Hall of Famer Mick Thill. John's top catch is 512 fish in a 4-hour competition and top finish is second in the US Open Championships in 2000.
AHM Cruise Vacations provides detailed information on Cruise Vacations, Caribbean Cruise Vacations, Discount Cruise Vacations, Family Cruise Vacations and more. AHM Cruise Vacations is affiliated with AHM Travel International (http://www.ahmtravel.com).
Arthur Williams, " Join our business, Today!" Select the Business Opportunity below that suits you. Leave your name and number and I will get back to you. No one else will see your information :Become our Friend on FACEBOOK.
Follow Us On Twitter: MLM_Traverus For Discount Travel Alerts!
Do You Have A Request? Please Enter It In The Comment section...
No comments:
Post a Comment