Fishing Rhino

I made some out of half liter spring water bottles. A bit of bright paint slopped around the inside, so it won't scrub off, some twine, and a sinker for each. Storing the twine was a pain. Wrap it around the bottle, and it sometimes sloughs off, making spaghetti. I finally got tired of that, and spent a few bucks on the "H" shaped plastic floats that come two to a pack for six or seven bucks per pack. An inch wide, 1/16th thick strip of lead about six or seven inches long, that is easy to flex around the line coiled on the crossbar of the H, keeps the line in place. Easy to use. Peel the lead weight off the crossbar, and toss it in. With the H shape, the lead pulls off only as much line as it needs to reach the bottom. If you need stealth, spray them flat black or color of your choosing. When you haul them in, wrap the line, bend the lead around the crossbar, and done. Easy to use, easy to store. What more could you ask for?

Sensitivity. Since it involves the nerves it is something we are born with in varying degrees. Can you develop the trait? Good question. What you can develop is your concentration. Shut out distractions. There may be habits that inhibit "feel" or sensitivity. Drugs, alcohol, and tobacco come to mind. Preoccupation (distraction) is another. So, make the most of what sensitivity you have by eliminating those things which can inhibit it. Now, we come to another facet involving sensitivity. Interpreting what you are feeling. Is it a fish, as stone, vegetation, etc. Interpretation comes only with experience, providing you pay attention to what you are feeling at the end of the line. Sensitivity, without the ability to interpret or comprehend just what you are feeling, is like a hammer w/o a nail, or vice versa. You need both to get the job done properly.

I'd call that better than "decent". Here's hoping for bigger and better bass in the future.

My interpretation. He and whoever he was with caught twenty-five bass. One of those was his first bass, ever.

"Talent" is more than an innate physical ability. It also includes mental attributes. Don't know if they still have them in school, but back in the day, we took "aptitude tests", which guidance counsellors used to help us make career choices. It could be further education in college, vocational education, and what we were best suited to pursue. It could be engineering, teaching, nursing, etc, etc, etc. It may be semantics, but I equate "aptitude" to talent, though aptitude is often equated with mental potential. It has to do with our ability to assimilate, comprehend, and process data on a given topic. Some kids assiduously apply themselves in school, yet struggle to get passing grades in some or all topics, while other breeze through. Contrary to the noble concept, all men, and women, are not created equal.

I don't think talent is overrated. We all have our limits to our abilities. It's called talent. Fishing is different from golf, or tennis, etc. Book learning can take you a long way in fishing. You can learn where fish are likely to be in different seasons, weather conditions, etc. You can learn about structure and cover from books, and avoid a lot of trial and error. But when it comes to putting a lure in that one tiny spot from thirty or fifty feet away, some just plain have better hand eye coordination to do it. Feel is another. Dick Stuart, the baseball player of yore was known as stonefingers because his fielding was atrocious. Yet he played in the majors for years. The computers between our ears have various capacities for processing information. "Intuition" is nothing more that the result of the subconscious processing of information that has been fed into our brain. Some folks are good at math and sciences while others are good a liberal arts. Same with fishing. Some have brains tuned into fishing to a high degree, others not so high. If talent was overrated, there would be a lot more Tiger Woods and Michael Jordans out there. They are both cut out for their games, physically and mentally.

My favorite is across the street, but I have to go to the opposite side to put in. Ten minutes, or less. Sawdy Pond, five minutes. South Watuppa, six minutes. Stafford Pond ten to twelve minutes. Cook Pond twenty minutes. Lake Noquochoke fifteen minutes. Hands down, the best of the bunch is the pond across the street. Surrounded by private property. Weekdays, it's peaceful and quiet. Weekends are too, but there is more activity on the pond. Typical shoreline scene.

Next time, hopefully there isn't one, use the string yank technique. It works, and works well. I've performed it, and had it performed on me. It is quick, and painless if done as directed. http://www.gofc.us/docs/MarineMedicineHook.pdf

You truly are the dinkmaster.

Sorry to hear about your back. Take care of it the best you can. Hope it gets better, so you can beat up on those river bass.

Welcome to the Rage Tail Afficianado Club. It's always good to have another weapon in the arsenal.

I've been pondering the "buy American", look for the union label, and all that jazz. Automobiles. Without getting into the quality debate or anything else comparing brands. The argument goes that buying foreign (whatever foreign means today) is somehow unpatriotic, and shows disdain for those who labor making "American" vehicles. I'll give you a different perspective. So the unions want us to support and show concern for the workers. Well and good. However, when they were in contract negotiations they were trying to wring every last cent out of the companies, be it wages, retirement, health care and other bennies, that they could. Did they care in the least about the consumer, who in reality pays these wages and bennies? Did they show any "loyalty" to the American consumer when they were driving the price of vehicles up so they could fatten their pockets, by taking money from me? The answer should be obvious to anyone with a pulse. So, I'll show the same amount of concern for them and their finances that they show for mine. They do what is best for them. I'll do what is best for me. If they take it on the chin in the process, so be it.

I like and use *** too, but the fix for the SK is really simple, and well worth the effort. Heat a needle and insert it about three quarters of an inch into the middle of the head. Problem of getting them onto a keeper solved. I've caught plenty of fish on them recently, and have yet to see the slightest tear in them. I've wacky rigged them, and have yet to see them tear that way. They are tough, flexible, durable, and they catch fish. In the long run, I find them to be the most economical, simply because they outlast all the others I've tried by a longshot. The only ones I have used that are "out of service" are those that got irretrievably hung up on the bottom with the jig head. The only sign they have caught fish is the scuffs on the surface from the raspy mouths of bass. None have been torn off or tossed off.

Muddy, missing him is a blessing. Missing someone shows there is a void in our heart that they once filled. A void that can never be completely filled by anyone else. Count it as one of your blessings to have had a dad that was dear to you. Not to miss him would be a tragedy.

Megastrike ShakE2 jig head, with a four inch Strike King finesse worm (3X), watermelon/red flake if you need the color. Wacky Jig Head rigged again with the Strike King finesse worm. The hook looks fragile, but it does the job. Eventually, the weedless wire will fall out. I recently began using the SK finesse worms, and they are fantastic. They do not tear. No need for O rings. Caught as many as 12 on the same worm, and other than being scuffed it was in otherwise perfect shape, good for another 12 fish, but I lost the rig when it hung in the rocks. You'll notice the difference when you wacky rig one, and pierce it through the body. It stretches considerably before the hook penetrates it. It also grips the hook shaft, and does not move as easily as all the other worms I've used. The one bugaboo. You cannot push it onto the weedless rigging barb on the Megastrike jig. I clamp a needle or fine finish nail in vice grips, then clamp that to a table. I heat the needle with a lighter or propane torch. Then, I center the worm head on the point and insert the needle about three quarters of an inch along the center of the worm. Twist the worm as it's removed. Prevents the plastic from sealing back together. Takes only a couple of minutes or less to prep a package of these worms. The third jig head I've been fiddling with is the Owner twistlock jig hook. I prefer the Wacky Jig Head for wacky rigging, and the Megastrike for weedless rigging, giving it the edge over the Owner, though I could live with the Owner without disappointment. Those are the three I tried. Other jig heads may work as well, or even better. If they do, I sure want to know about it. I have an assortment of round head and football head jig hooks. I'll work them into the rotation and find out. Good luck. I hope they work for you as well as they have for me. I'll second the Rage Tail motion. I have done very well with them this year. Lately the fishing had slowed down on them, so I tried the above, and I'm into the fish again. The more weapons in your arsenal, the better. Provided you have gone through basic training with them, and learned how to use them.

e.g. "Ande Tournament" Roger Thank you for bailing me out, or at least filling in the blanks.

Is that the topwater you told me about? Nice fish.

Jersey City and Hoboken ARE the Middle East !! Now thats actually, it's pathetic I agree. I'll bet those in the Middle East would be offended.

Bingo!!!! I refuse to spend my hard earned money on products of mediocre quality. I want to get the best I can for my dollar. I'd like to know who on here, when they buy a new car, demand to pay sticker price and don't go looking for the best deal.

When you get back, the tide will have gone out, and the truck will be high and dry. Perfect!!!!

Dumping what I have will accomplish nothing, but a couple months ago, when my uncle lost his job due to a plant shipping overseas I vowed to buy American products if at all possible, I have done so with the bigger products - trading in my Honda for a Ford. Trading my wifes Toyota for a Ford. Now I'm working on my fishing equipment. I dont mind buying something from Sweden or Finland. I just dont want anything from China or Japan, or Korea. Again, I know its a frutile effort, but I have extra cash laying around, and if I sell all of my current rods and reels I can buy alot of American Made products, and it will give us and the guys "something to talk about" on the fishing outings, comparing American quality to the cheaper China stuff. I'm sure a St Croix rod is going to outpreform a cheap berkley any day of the week. Sorry for such a long post. Not long compared to the filibusters I write. In March of 07, I took delivery of a GMC New Sierra. My pickups since 73 have all been GM products. My "New Sierra" was built in Mexico. I know some blame the trade agreements for the job losses. To do that is to ignore history. Long before those trade agreements were thought of, we lost the electronics industry, the furniture industry, the textile industry, the footware industry, and others. In the 1930s, before I was born, my maternal grandfather lost his position in a Fall River, MA textile mill when the mills in the Northeast were outsourcing their labor to the South. He was offered the opportunity to run the plant in Georgia. He agreed to get it up and running, but was on in years, and opted to remain with his many children in this area, once it was. I say this not as a political discussion, but to point out that businesses will go wherever they have to in order to compete and survive. The difference between then and now is that it is easier today for a company to move its operations offshore than it was for those textile mills from the Northeast to move their operations a few hundred or a thousand miles to the South. To the folks employed by those mills, it made no difference to them whether the mills moved to the South, or South Korea. The result was the same. Financial devestation to Fall River, New Bedford, Haverhill, Lowell, Lawrence, etc. None of these cities have ever rebounded from that loss. The same for Brockton and their footwear industry. Life has never been the same in those communities. And though I don't like the idea of it, it will never be the same in the good ol' U.S. of A. No matter what any politician may promise.

I hear you. It is a compromise. I can do it either way. I enjoy taking folks or going with them, but I also want to do it alone at times, particularly if I'm prospecting or experimenting. Alone, I have eleven rods rigged and at the ready in my canoe. That's two more than in my smaller one. With another, we can only take a max of three each. There's freedom in being alone, but there is cameraderie with a friend. Both are important, so do both. Fishing with a buddy on a steady basis is like being married. Sometimes you get to know them too well, and you find things that annoy you, and vice versa. The key is balance. Don't wear out your friendship, and save some time for yourself.

Yesterday was a day of prospecting. Some might wonder why, when I'd been catching plenty of fish which averaged about two pounds per. It's a small pond, and I've covered the rocky shoreline pretty well, or so I thought. I know where the bottom is clean and rocky, suitable for dragging lures across it. I know where it is rocky, but is covered by a layer of filamentous algae, making it impossible to touch down on the bottom. Even stuff rigged weedless will gather the gunk at the knot or any bump including the leading edge of the bait. Haven't run the sounder in weeks, so yesterday I turned it on, and found a rocky patch in six to six and a half feet of water that I did not know existed. The shelf adjacent to it has been very productive this year. As I was drifting slowly at the bottom of the dropoff, I glanced at the sounder, and it was marking broken bottom. I haven't seen the term used in fishing articles, but it is a term we lobstermen used to describe irregular patches in the middle of an otherwise smooth and featureless bottom. I searched its perimeters using the trolling motor, then positioned myself to cast along its length. Bang, bang, bang, three nice bass on three casts. The first on the drop, and the other two during the retrieve on a ShakE2 jig head with a four inch SK finesse worm rigged weedless. Found one other piece of interesting bottom that produced nothing yesterday, but I'm sure it will. No matter how well you know your local waters, there are always surprises lurking at the bottom.

The "pound test" is not at all accurate for most lines. In most cases, it doesn't matter. Don't recall which, but there are a few lines, very expensive I believe, which are accurate to within the guidelines of the IGFA for certifying record catches on certain pound tests. Catch one on the usual stuff, submit the line, and you are not likely to get in the record books. One other thing to keep in mind. UV rays are harmful to mono, and probably the other lines as well. Decades ago, I had a salt water spinning reel spooled with 15 pound test. I always fished with a light drag. One day I caught several nice sized stripers on live herring in Pleasant Bay on Cape Cod. I had to retie after catching one fish, and when I pulled the knot tight, the line broke like it was four pound test. Pulled off some more and tried again. The same thing. Fortunately I had a spool of line which had not been exposed to sunlight. Respooled and went back to fishing. Learned a valuable lesson about keeping the gear out of the sunlight when not fishing.

I'm curious. Dumping what you have and like will accomplish what? Is it some kind of penance? We are now in a global economy. It doesn't matter if we like it or not. It is called reality. Bucking that tide is a futile effort.