Fishing Rhino

We tried crankbaits that looked like herring and were close in size. Nothing. A fluke type bait in a small size might have done it, but I think the bass had eaten their fill. There was no sign of feeding activity.

Went to a new (to us) pond on Cape Cod with a buddy last Thursday. The weather was as good as you'd want for fishing. A breeze of varying intensity, skies cloudy with occasional patches of sunlight, and even an occasional sprinkle. The deck was stacked in our favor. There was a hatch of small flies, and trout were all over the surface feeding on them. At times, they looked like a school of mackerel or pogies rippling the surface. At times, they looked like a pod of dolphins cruising with their backs arching above the surface. Since we have been catching bass in the grass on other ponds, that is where we targeted our efforts. It was slow and fruitless going for an hour or more until I caught a small smallmouth on a worm rigged drop shot. That was to be followed by another two hours of futility. The plants were found in ten to twelve feet of water with their tendrils reaching to within a few inches of the surface. We found the six foot shoal which tapered to 30 feet deep around its perimeter. Set out a buoy for reference and made three or four drifts, up one side and down the other. Again, nothing to show for our efforts. As we worked our way through the vegetation toward the sheltered shore, I boated one more small bass. When we reached the fairly calm water it became apparent why the action was all but non-existant. Everywhere you looked in the plants were herring from two to three inches long, thousands and thousands of them. I have a sneaking hunch that once they depart the pond for saltwater, the bass will regain their appetites. Now, all I have to do is some studying to find out when they begin their seaward migration.

Here's something to try in the coontail that I discovered this year while experimenting with a fluke type bait, a Strike King Caffein Shad. Normally they are rigged with a straight, or as straight as possible back. I fooled around with the shape and discovered that if you hump the back a bit, when you give it a quick "pop" and then quickly give it slack, it will initially dart toward the surface, but as soon as it has slack, it will dart downward, into the coontail. If you offset the skin hooked tip, it will put a bit of sideways action into the darting motions. You don't have to bunch the bait up to make the hump. Give it a little extra, then slide it downward a tad on the bend of the hook, and you'll have the hump. A little experimentation will determine just how to get the action you and the fish want. I fished it on an Owner Twistlock 4/0 hook with no keel weight. Buttoned the nose of the shad tight to the eye on the twistlock, and it passed cleanly through the densest coontail without grabbing even a strand, nine casts and retrieves out of ten. Had been getting no action until I put that hump in its back. I ended up catching over a dozen. Nothing of size, but a good learning experience nonetheless. It worked great in the lily pad beds as well.

I was showed a trick which made the hook stand out horizontally from the line. After tying the hook, pass the tag end, to which you will attach a sinker through the eye from the side of the eye which faces toward the point. When you attach the sinker, the hook will stand out from the line, very nearly horizontal, but definitely with plenty of clearance between the shank and the line. In an earlier post, I had thought about using a snell knot to tie the hook, but reflecting upon your post, I can see that it would not exert the same force to make the hook stand away from the line.

I'm not a cross their eyes type of fisherman. In most cases, I use a quick, but not hard sweep. But, with the drop shot, which I frequently cast, I'm using a six pound test mono. Impossible to make a vigorous hookset since it is so stretchy. I use 20 pound fluorocarbon for a leader. I used lighter, but many of the ponds I've been fishing also have big pickerel, and after having the rig severed at the hook, I gave that up as a bad idea. Funny thing about losing them, it was always at, or close to the boat. They could perform all sorts of aerial acrobatics, and they'd stay hooked. Get up close, and that's where they'd get off. My guess is that the mono is so stretchy compared to braid, to which I've become accustomed over the past year, that the line never gets enough slack for them to throw the hook, until they got within a few feet of the boat. All I used thirty years ago was mono. When I resumed fishing, using braid, it seemed like I was using wire line, like that I used to deep troll for stripers back in the day. Both transmit the slightest tick. It may be just esthetics to my eye, but I prefer the way the octopus hook hangs from the line because of the way the eye is bent. It seems to hang more freely or naturally from the line. I'm going to try using a snell knot to fasten the octopus hook to the line. I can see where it might possibly inhibit the free hanging action of a palomar of fishing fool knot. But, it would also eliminate having to pass the tag end back through the eye after the knot is pulled tight. That too, might be nothing more than esthetics, having no real advantage or disadvantage.

For about a month, I've been targeting smallmouth at many of the ponds on Cape Cod. I've had very little problem with hooksets for largemouth, but was "losing" a fairly high percent of smallmouths at or near the boat. That did not happen with the larger fish, but was not uncommon with fish of about two pounds or less. No big deal since they were destined for release. But, it was something I needed to address. The solution turned out to be a simple fix. I had been using drop shot hooks. They looked mighty small to me after using 4/0 to 6/0 hooks in my favorite largemouth pond. I switched to a 1/0 octopus hook, and the "quick releases" came to an abrupt end.

Learn the bottom of the water you fish. If it's in your budget, get a basic depth finder. I bought a 99 dollar Eagle Cuda for my canoe last year. It runs on 8 AA batteries which last for several hours. Learn the shelves, and contours of the bottom. Look for irregular (not a smooth, straight lineon the display) bottom, and also note any transitions, including secondary echoes beneath the first bottom line. Do not use it as a "fish finder". I catch fish where none show, and at times fail to catch fish where they do show. You'll soon be able to distinguish hard rocky bottom from mud and sand, as well as submergent vegetation. Where you know there is a rocky bottom, run over it to learn what it looks like. Ditto for vegetation. If possible, get a chart of the pond/lake you fish. While there are electronics (GPS) that can do the job, in the long run, it will benefit you to be able to read the display on your sounder. Keep it simple. Learn the basics. While the high tech electronic stuff is great, it is no substitute for that computer between your ears. The more you know, the more the toys will help you.

I don't fish cranks much, but when I do, the majority of the time I tie with a Rapala knot. If I'm going to do some experimenting with cranks, I'll use a snap, only for expedience sake.

I used them years ago, and really liked them. But, I tried them last year, and you absolutely have to use the proper size for the thickness of the eye, ring, or whatever you are clipping to them. Too large a size, and they will not hold well. The hook, bait or lure can and will slip out while fighting fish. Too small a size, and it will spread the opening. Eventually, the flexing will cause the snap to break at the horseshoe bend. Unless everything you are "snapping" onto your line has the same gauge wire, you are better off retying. One thing about retying, every time you do, you recheck the line for nicks and other damage. You should always check for damage after every fish or hang on the bottom that you manage to work free. Depending on the structure and cover, you may need to cut and retie so much that the fast snap will not be much of a time saver. Plus, every additional piece of equipment between you and the fish is one more thing that can fail. They would probably work fine for pan fishing, but not so well for game fish.

It wasn't a day. It was really just a couple of hours, maybe less. Time fogs the memory, but this was so unusual it's pretty sharp. Early August of '71. The fishing had been slow. Stripers and bluefish were not cooperating, not even for the charter boats out of Rock Harbor in Orleans, or Sesuit Harbor in Dennis. My 15 foot work skiff was tied to its mooring in Wellfleet Harbor. After work, I decided to give it a try. Left Wellfleet Harbor and passed Jeremy's point which ends at Billingsgate Shoals. At the south end of the point I turned west to go between it and Billingsgate Island, which is only an island at low tide. The rocky foundation and a few remnants are all that remain of a lighthouse that once stood on the island as a beacon for boats navigating these waters at night. Once clear of the point and the island, I headed north to a particular landmark on Jeremy's Point. From this landmark I headed due west, a course which would take me to a hole on the expansive flats to the west of the point. It was the hole into which we would let the tide sweep live mackerel when using them for bait. The bass tended to congregate in this depression which was four or five feet deeper than the surrounding area. I fished for a half hour or so, without so much as a look. There was hardly any breeze, and the surface of the water was calm. I glanced to the north toward Truro and saw a sight which made my jaw drop. I have heard of a bass blitz, but had never seen one. Coming in my direction was what appeared to be whitewater rapids, with countless gulls and terns diving into it. It literally raised goosebumps on my flesh. I had a mackerel colored Rebel on my rod with the Penn Squidder baitcaster. When the river reached me, I could not make a cast without landing a fish. I even boated a couple of seagulls which probably cost me a half dozen fish getting them free. Fortunately, I had a burlap bag in the boat in which to wrap them. Even then I got nipped more than once, and those gulls have a nasty bite. As soon as the lure hit the water, a fish was on. If it got off, another would grab the lure. Every cast resulted in a fish in the boat, even if it was the fourth fish hooked on a cast. Then, like someone threw a switch, it stopped. The fish went down, and it was over. I went to the south in search of the fish, but never found them. In the final half hour or so of searching, never got another bite. Just as well, I had to get them to the market it Chatham as quickly as possible. A stop at home on my way to grab a picture, give a few to neighbors, and back on the road. In that brief period, I caught 17 stripers, and 17 bluefish. The count in the picture is 30, or 31 fish. It was taken after I had given away three or four.

That's a great one too. How 'bout this one. It's a trademark that he first used, to my knowlege, in the Star Wars movies. He looks at Princess Leia in Star Wars, smirks and says, "Trust me." He uses it in the Indy series as well.

The middle photo is of particular interest to me. What I have seen on the bottom at the deeper depths, thirty or more feet is a return on the screen which roughly, has the shape of an eyebrow, with the thinner end touching the bottom. In your middle photo, the return is composed of several of these, stacked randomly, on top of each other. I've thought the eyebrow was likely a small pod of baitfish, unlike the large ball on your sounder. One other question. There is a broken, straight line which drops at an angle from left to right, into the left edge of that pod. Is that your bait dropping into the baitfish as you get into the pod? There is a similar, but unbroken line at the right side of the third photo which appears to be the same, but with the boat moving, or drifting at a slower speed, with the bait staying within the transducer's cone. Here's a tale of the sounder which might interest you. It was never noticable on the paper recorders I had, but clearly visible when I finally got a cathode ray tube, color sounder. I loved it. Could run it all the time without the expense of the paper rolls. We'd leave the dock in order to get to our gear in Buzzards Bay at the break of dawn. The bottom was a normal line on the screen, but, just before daylight, as the sky was beginning to show the first sign of daylight, a second line would slowly rise from the bottom, then gradually disappear with the increasing light. It was an echo that was precisely parallel or equidistant from the bottom. I did some research, and found it was caused by photoplankton. Throughout the day, the photoplankton was dispersed throughout the water column, but would settle to the bottom as daylight dwindled. In the morning, when the first hint of daylight "activated" them, they would rise as one, then over a few minutes gradually disperse throughout the water column. It was a fascinating phenomena to observe. Routine weather variations (wind speeds) that we fished in, had no effect upon them, though I suspect that storm surges might disperse them as the began to rise. Never went out in that kind of weather, so it's strictly conjecture. I never noticed it when we fished deeper water, twenty to thirty fathoms, which we fished from August into the late fall. Apparently, it only occurs in the shallower coastal waters. Try as I did, during my fishing years, I never saw the "green flash" which supposedly appears in the sky just before daylight. I've seen the sky preceeding dawn have a pale green glow, but never the rapid spread of brilliant green from east to west I have read about.

Yep, just like it was yesterday (but sadly, it was not yesterday) It was during the 50s for me as well, and in addition to tautog, which Jerseyites call "blackfish", we also used "dropper rigs" for porgies, seabass, kingfish, mackerel & flounder (both winter & summer flounder). Just like Rhino described, blackfish (tautog) live on a shellfish diet and loathe movement. I parallel blackfishing to angling for redear sunfish, another mollusc-eater that strongly prefers immobile forage. Depending on the species sought, our hooks were either smaller or larger than the hooks used for largemouth bass, but due to tidal currents, our sinker had to be heavier. I never purchase fishing rigs, but tie all my own. To tie a dropper rig, I first form a dropper loop, then snip the loop adjacent to the knot to create a single long dropper-line jutting squarely from the main line. The hooks are then snelled to the end of the dropper line(s). I tied Christmas tree rigs for Boston Mackerel in the same manner, where many hooks are added to the tree. Just keep jigging up-&-down until the rig gets REAL heavy, and at times you'll boat a half-dozen mackerel on the same lift. Roger Snelled! That was the word I was searching for, but could not find in my brain. I assume the knot is similar to that used to whip the end of a twisted line so it won't unravel. I also posted, after you, about fishing for mackerel. Seems like yesterday. Gives a perspective about how short our lives really are.

When I lived on the Cape, we used to catch tinker mackerel as bait for stripers. We used a multi-hook rig called a Christmas Tree. So named because at the end of the line was a small but relatively heavy silver jig. Above the jig on four or five dropper lines were small hooks threaded hooks whose shanks were covered with colorful plastic tubes. If I recall correctly, the tube was cut at a sharp angle and the long tip extended beyond the bend of the hook on the outer side of the shank. Find a school of mackerel in their usual haunts or sighting them rippling the surface. Cast the "tree" into their midst. When one got hooked, you'd allow it to swim so others could get caught on the other hooks. If the school was thick, all the hooks would have fish in a few seconds. Then the mackerel went into an aerated bait barrel which was a medium size plastic trash barrel. The hook arrangement was a bit different. A 6/0 or 7/0 hook was tied to the line, then a size larger siwash hook was secured to the shank of the first hook. The first hook was inserted through the mackerel's back beneath the dorsal fin. The Siwash hook would dangle off the shank of the other hook. It was definitely efficient at hooking the bass that struck the mackerel.

My favorite movie "quote" is wordless. Indian Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark. The guy starts flailing the two scimitars. Indy looks at him, shrugs, pulls a gun, and gives him one in the hat, turns nonchalantly, and walks away.

I thought that line was Al Pacino in "The Scent of a Woman".

I always thought spilunking was exploring caves (spelunking). Sorry I couldn't resist. But yes, I have seen surfcasters use it. A couple of weeks ago I was fishing a pond on the Cape, and a fellow was fishing from a sandy beach with a steep dropoff. It was a place I wanted to try, but he was there. He had three poles in holders set in the sand while he and a buddy were sitting on the tail gate of his pickup drinking beer and bsing. He went to one of the poles and hauled in a nice smallmouth. I like the way you "swim" the drop shot. I started a thread about the same thing. It works well on the kettle ponds of Cape Cod. Very few have rocks that will snag a cylindrical sinker, but many have grassy, weedy bottom. Some is only a foot or so tall, while others have tendrils five or six feet long. They seem to favor a flappin hog but if they are not really going after it, I switch to a 3 3/4" Yamamoto Crawdad. I've been using an Owner weedless finesse worm but am going to switch to a 1/0 octopus hook. I don't have a problem with the bigger fish, but yesterday I lost several in the pound and a half size right at the boat. Doesn't bother me since they were going back anyway, but want to solve that problem. While I have never fished a tournament, if I were to, I'd need to resolve that "problem". I also like your info about the cone. I was a commercial lobsterman for many years, and made my living by the depth sounder/chart recorder, and the color crt display when they came out. I fished trawls that were buoyed on each end. I kept loran bearings on the end of every trawl, plus the date they were set, hauled, and the count of legal lobsters the trawl yielded. It was not unusual to find one or more trawls that had their ends cut off by boat traffic. We fished a lot of gear in the steamer channel of Buzzards Bay that leads from Rhode Island Sound to the Cape Cod Canal. When a trawl was "down", we'd use a grappling device, and tow it across the middle of the trawl. Go a bit uptide from the point where the trawl was, drop the grapple, let it touch bottom and within a few minutes we'd snag it. When the tide was slack I'd have to move the boat with the motor. We used floating line for ground line, and if you passed lengthwise over the trawl, you could see the ground line arching up between the pots as you went along it. I primarily use the sounder for reading the bottom. There are times it appears to be marking fish, but I've had no luck getting bit from whatever it was marking. On the other hand, I've caught a lot of fish from good bottom when the sounder showed nothing but the bottom. But, the pond I fish most is shallow, and I rarely fish water deeper than five feet, since anything deeper is silty mud. And, at that shallow a depth, the cone is probably reading an area a foot or less across, so it can miss marking a lot of fish.

Yes, I have, as fished in fresh water. In a moment of reverie about fishing, I recalled the old tautog or bottom jerking days, and the similarity. There is not a lot "new under the sun". The only surf casting I did was plugging along the beach, but some guys fished squid, worms or other baits with a rig similar to a Carolina Rig. They used a pyramid sinker to help it anchor in sandy bottom. The line would pass through the eye of the sinker then a swivel would be attached. To the swivel was a length of leader with a hook. The sinker allowed for long casts, and when it hit the water, if would move away from the swivel. Then the bait would settle, and could wash around in the current. I always figured any current running along the beach would have more force in the line between the sinker and the rod tip and gradually pull the swivel back to the sinker. I forget what it was called. For all I know it may have been called a Carolina Rig. I don't think I'd care to drop shot with that tautog type of rig in fresh water. While I do some drop shotting at the boat, I also cast it, and it's bad enough with the typical fresh water arrangement. At times the baited hook and the sinker look like a whirligig at the end of the line. It never tangles. But if the hook was attached with a dropper line, I can only envision the tangles. Back to the tautog rig for a moment. One of my favorite nostagic smells was that of the old tackle shops along the seashore. The tautog rigs and many others that they carried used tarred marlin (I think) for the line. The hook did not have an eye. The end was hammered or pressed flat, making a paddle end, then the line was attached to the hook by whipping it with a fine thread. Just the memory of that tarred marlin smell brings a smile to my face. It's like the memory of that new car smell of many years ago. Today's cars smell like plastic. But those of my childhood had a unique scent, unlike anything around today.

You'd be suprised at how well you can feel the lightest of nibbles, even from the infamous bait stealers, the choggies, while using a stubby boat pole, possibly because the current takes the belly out of the dropper line. Interestingly enough, that same term is used in both methods. Drop and dropper. It would be interesting to know how many salt water techniques have been adapted to fresh water fishing, and vice versa.

Drop-Shot History The drop-shot rig is receiving a lot of national attention, due largely to its recent success in the west. The system has roots in the eastern US, dating back to the mid-70's, and was first seen in Fishing Facts magazine. About five years ago Japanese anglers resurrected the method for use on their highly pressured waters. The Japanese refined the technique and it soon returned to the States. In 1997, drop-shotting was relatively unknown, except to a few Southern California fishermen who had ties to Japanese manufacturers and pros. The system worked extremely well, and those that knew about it did their best to keep it a secret. Then, in winter 1999, two major tournaments were won using the drop-shot rig - the B.A.S.S. Invitational at Lake Oroville, and the WON Bass Classic on Lake Cachuma. The proverbial cat was out of the bag way out! http://www.billsguideservice.com/drop%20shotting.pdf I suspect some of the old salts like RoLo will recall this. The above is not correct. It's not even close. Though it may not have been fished under the same name, it was the same method. When I was a kid, back in the 1950s, we used to fish for tautog using the same arrangement with one slight difference. A "tautog rig" consisted of a bank sinker at the end of the line, and two lines with hooks attached above. There was a space of 6 - 8 inches between these two hook lines. The bottom hooked line allowed the bait to tend the bottom while the upper line would suspend the bait a several inches above the bottom. Enough line would be spooled from the reel to allow the sinker to hit bottom. Then, you would raise and lower the tip of the rod to offset the rise and fall of the boat in the waves/swells to keep it still on the bottom. The boat was usually anchored in position, and from time to time, you'd raise the sinker from the bottom and move it to another position a foot or two away then lower it to the bottom in the new spot. After fishing around the boat thoroughly, we'd pull up the anchor and move the boat a few yards, to a new position. The only minor difference is that the hooks were not attached directly to the main line, and that we used two hooks rather than the typical single hook drop shot rig. But, it has me wondering how a multi-hook drop shot rig would work for fresh water. edit: This arrangement had been used for years, long before I used it in New England. How far back, I do not know, But, you could buy handline frames with line and these rigs, ready to fish. This rig was likely used in handlining before the advent of reels. Certainly decades before the 70s when the above article claims drop shotting was "invented".

Thanks for your advice. It was very helpful and here is one of the fish that following your advice produced.

Lately I've been having great luck/success "swimming" the drop shot rig. I've been fishing a drop shot "rig" by casting it in shallow water, from five to 15 feet deep in broken or weedy bottom. I use a cylindrical drop shot sinker, and a space of two to three feet between it and the bait. I determine the distance primarily by the depth of the vegetation. I try to keep the hook just above the thickest of the plants, and the cylindrical weight passes through the gunk more cleanly than the other types of weights. What stuff it (the sinker) does gather, does not seem to diminish the effectiveness of the setup. In fact, many of the strikes come when the weight gets hung up on a plant, and I jiggle the rod to pull it free. I fish it similar to a jig, with a slow twitch and occasionally jerk or sweep on the retrieve. Flappin hogs, crawdads, finesse worms, lizards and creature baits work for me. If the fish are tail biting the longer bait, I'll switch to the Flappin Hog, and if they are nibbling at that, I use a 3 and 3/4" Yamamoto Crawdad. If you try it, be sure to leave a tag end of four feet or so for your sinker. That's enough to keep the bait high enough so that it rarely snags the vegetation. I adjust it to that point. I usually make long casts, unless casting to a specific target, such as rising fish. It's not a topwater rig, but I've managed to hook a few by casting past the spot where the fish jumped, and retrieving it without allowing it to settle. For a hook, I use the Owner Weedless Wacky Downshot hook. http://www.ownerhooks.com/pages/products/hooks/downshotsystem.htm The only downside I've experienced is that pickerel will frequently sever the line. To counter that, I use a swivel on the main line, then use about seven feet of twenty pound test fluorocarbon for a leader. I use Seaguar Invis X line, but expect that most other brands would work just fine. I may have to replace it after catching a pickerel, but it has stopped the break offs, without a noticeable dropoff in hits. Probably because it's getting fish that are holding in the weeds, waiting in ambush for an unsuspecting prey to come along. If that's the case, mono might work nearly as well as fluoro. But, why take that chance? My philosophy is that you should tip the scales in your favor at every opportunity, whenever possible.

Do my days of lobstering count? If so, I've fished in days when the swells were over fifteen feet. Seen days when I've been alongside draggers, and could only see the tops of their masts when we were both in the trough. The absolute worst to fish in was when the wind and tide were fighting each other. Created steep chops that made it all but impossible to fish. Everything had to be tied down on deck. Never went out into those conditions, but did finish hauling the gear in that stuff a few times. There is a saying among fishermen (and others I s'pose), "Heroes die young." Gone out fifteen miles or more, only to turn around and head back to the dock before we got to the gear. I'll fish in a lot of wind in my canoe, but do it along the lee shore, or on very small ponds.

Misery loves company. You think you have it bad? I became a Giants fan during the glory years of Frank Gifford, Pat Summerall, etc, in the late 50s early 60s. I remember Y A Tittle standing bewildered, bloodied and battered in their loss to the Bears in the championship game. Then they went into a funk of being terrible until they regained form in the 80s. I suffered through Joe Piscarceks (sp?) fumble in the Meadowlands. They were in the playoffs, when instead of taking a knee, he tried to hand off, and fumbled the ball which was run in for a touchdown by an Eagle player, knocking them out of the playoffs. It was probably a mercy killing since they would have gone nowhere in th post season. I can identify, and, I feel your pain.

Unfortunately many of them are fishermen. Been to several different places the past few weeks, and saw some disgusting sights. Trash, discarded coffee cups, bait containers, boat parts, old shoes, tires, paper, bags, broken boat seats, etc. I do not understand how some can be such low life, inconsiderate slobs, with no respect for others who also use the same areas to fish or launch their craft. How difficult is it to take a plastic grocery bag, or some other container, and stow your trash in that to be disposed of properly? It really ticks me off to see such a blatant disregard for the law, and the rights of others. There should be a law which allows for the confiscation of a fishing license and boat, to be held until a hearing or trial is held. Some of the ramps looked like dumps. At some point, these points of access will be closed due to the actions of the slobs. Heck, some of these areas have trash barrels, but it is apparently too much effort for some to take a few steps and stow the trash in those barrels. I have a small plastic barrel that I take with me, and a box of latex gloves. I pick up some of the trash, and place it in the barrel to take home and dispose of. I know a few other guys who do the same thing.