Fishing Rhino

I prefer the Fish N Fool knot to the Palomar, though I frequently use the Palomar. Once I got the knack of tying it, the Palomar has (k)not failed. Why the Fish N Fool? Because it goes through the slimy gunk (moss/filamentous algae) much more cleanly. I can fish places where I avoided because the filamentous algae was so thick. I fish a keel weighted hook (Owner Twistlock) with plastic worms or creatures rigged weedless, and toss it into the densest of mats. It sheds the stuff like magic, no matter how slowly or quickly I retrieve it. Coontail, lily pads, grasses, water hyacinth, all can be fished cleanly. The only time the bait comes back with weeds is if the point has become exposed. Other than that, it is as easy as fishing clear water.

LOL. When I'm "wandering", I have no specific destination in mind. If I did, it wouldn't be wandering. Sorry. The devil made me do it.

Decisions, decisions. It's what makes life interesting.

When I have a lure or a bait that really produces for me, I'll get at least two backups, usually more. I need a backup for the backup to feel secure. The Chatterfrog is the best example for me. At the moment, I've got one in my canoe. I tried it now and then, but they aren't liking it right now. If and when they do, I'll have three in the canoe. But, I will have a half dozen more at home. Just in case.

I play golf about as much as I fish and I play with $4 golf balls. I figure I'm going to loose one every now and then but that doesn't stop me from playing the game! LOL. I play golf too. But I can play a round with a single ball or lose more than a half dozen, though a couple a round is more like it. I play with two dollar balls, Titleist NXTs. The only time I'll play the ProV1 is if I find it. Why play a four dollar ball when I can score as well, or as badly, with a two dollar ball?

I use the Yum, Megastrike, and JJ's. Do they work? Who's to say for sure. If you catch fish after applying it, is it the stuff, or would you have caught them anyway? The first day I tried YUM, I caught fish like crazy. I've been using it or one of the other products since then. Have I had slow days using it? Yes. All I can tell you is this. Since it might have improved the catch rate, I hesitate to go back to au natural. It only costs pennies a day to use it. Cheap insurance. Just in case.....................................

Sit down with a calculator and total up all the cost involved with a typical one day trip to your local body of water, now divide that amount by the number of bass you actually put hands on. I'm not typical in regard to your above request. Out of pocket expenses for a fishing "trip" to the pond I regularly fish is less than two dollars. That is for the gasoline consumed round trip and amortization of 8 AA batteries which are good for about six weeks of fishing to run my 95 dollar Eagle Cuda. Our grocery bill is probably a bit higher because paddling my canoe around consumes energy which must be replenished. Does wonders for my blood pressure though. In the winter, it runs 130s over 80s. Since I resumed paddling, it is now in the one teens over 60s. Is it the exercise, the benefit of a relaxing hobby, or a combination of the two? It's working, that's all I need to know. Let the scientists sort it out. I could easily afford seven dollars per fish in addition to the other costs of the hobby. Would I be willing to pay it? I doubt it.

Re: When a lure catches one fish, it has done its job. I'm not so sure about that. Look at it from this perspective. Take a seven dollar lure. That's not cheap, but definitely not in the high rent district. How many of us would continue to fish if we actually lost a seven dollar lure per fish caught? Heck, how many have grumbled on here about a particular plastic worm being used up after catching "only" three or four fish? And that's only pennies per fish. Or, look at it this way. How many folks would buy a lure that was by design only able to catch one freshwater bass?

Here's one product. http://www.auroramarine.com/aurora/catalog/aluminum-boats/alumabrite-01240.htm Google, "aluminum boat cleaner" , and take your pick. I've never used an aluminum cleaner, so I cannot provide a consumer report, pro or con.

Is this you? There is a boat builder around here who used to build something similar to this in fiberglass. It was a bit beamier with wider side decks, and it was a two man version. He sold as many to fishermen as he did to hunters. Some used them for both pursuits.

It's definitely a defense reaction, triggered by an invader. It appears they are called clams or mussels. Being an old salt, the mussels I'm familiar with attach themselves to the bottom and other structure with byssal threads. These anchor themselves by burrowing into the bottom with approximately half their shell exposed. For sure, the otters around the pond love them, and perhaps the muskrats as well, though I thought muskrats were vegetarians. There are several muskrat condos around the shoreline of the pond. Near these mounds, on the mat of dormant aquatic vines are piles of shells. Obviously something has been eating them. I would imagine that they are a food source for snapping turtles. They are plentiful and easily obtained. It's not uncommon for the mushroom anchor to come up with a clam it "dredged up" from the bottom. Being filter feeders, clams must play an important role in the natural purification of the pond's waters. An interesting article, which may explain why the pond I fish most often has an algae bloom which it never had years ago. http://www.glsc.usgs.gov/_files/factsheets/2000-5%20Clams.pdf Some attribute it to a development which was built a few years ago, increasing the flow of nutrients into the pond. But I doubt that because years ago, farms around the pond had, in total, several hundred head of dairy cows that grazed in the fields that abut the pond. All these fields sloped to the pond. Further, the cows would often wade in the pond to cool off on hot days. It seems more likely to me, that, based on the article, a decline in the clam/mussel population, is responsible for the algae bloom. It seemed to me that there were not as many clams as I had seen back in the '60s. There are definitely more otters around the pond. I see a few every day. Back in the day, I didn't see any. No doubt there may have been some, but not in the numbers so obvious today.

Yesterday, I caught a clam on a Rage Tail Space Monkey. As the weighted keel of the hook passed throught the open bivalve, the clam clamped down on it. Drat, I did not have my cell phone with me to take a pic. Anyone can make up a story like that. Today, I made sure I brought my cell phone with me. What are the odds of a repeat. Lo and behold, this time, the Rage Tail Lizard was the bait. Not only did the clam clamp on the weight and the hook, it also grabbed a bit of the lizard. The pics aren't the best quality. Sorry 'bout that.

Rage Tail Shad, Toad, Space Monkey, Craw, Lobster. Rigged on an Owner (I know, I sound like I own shares in the company) Twistlock hook, weighted if you want the bait to sink faster in the pockets. I prefer the Owner simply because it has the centering pin in the coil which, with a little attention, keeps the head in alignment with the body. With the hook keel down, start the bait top up. Three turns will bring it snug to the hook eye. The only part of the rig that will catch/snag moss is the tag end of the knot. A quick tug, and the moss will be shed. Fish it topwater, mid-water, or like a jig on the bottom. They are all effective, and weedless provided the point of the hook is hidden.

I had seen the process for dehooking gullet hooked fish when you posted it before. This morning I read it again in the thread "Will this bass live?" This afternoon, for the first time, I ended up with a gullet hooked fish. The process worked perfectly, though it was complicated a bit with a keel weighted owner hook with a Rage Tail Space Monkey still in place. Took a couple of tries to see which way the hook wanted to turn to go between the gills. When I got it turned, and looked in the mouth, it was already free. Plucked it out. No harm, no foul. I could not believe how simple and easy the process was. Having done it once, I'll never forget it. Thanks again.

They certainly would not do as well as they do with them. That is an absolute. The fact that they have them indicates that they would be handicapped w/o them. I was a commercial lobsterman for years. The first "sounder" I had was a chart recorder. Changing the rolls was a real pain, not to mention costly. When the color sounders hit the market, they were a vast improvement over the black and white recorders, and the monochrome sounders. The colors made all the difference. On the monochrome, a lot of the bottom looked identical, but with the color, subtle differences became apparent to those who paid careful attention. Made a big difference in finding "lobster bottom". Electronics made fishermen out of some who would have never made it otherwise. I put myself in that category. Same is true for the commercial fin fisheries. I see no reason why it would not apply to the rod and reel fishing as well. Some, but certainly not all of the big names would still be at the top of the hill.

Back to jigs today. They lost their effectiveness when the bass began to spawn. Rage Tails baits became all the rage. First it was the Shad, then the Toad. The past week to ten days it has been the space monkey, and the craw. The fishing had slowed the past couple of days, so I went back to the jig n pig, and the spinnerbait. Both caught fish, but the jig worked better for me. Only had a couple of hours today. Six on the jig, and two on the spinnerbait. Tried the space monkey and craw, but no go, not even in the lily pad beds.

"The Reach", by the late Dan Fogelberg. It's definitely about fishing. The problem is, it's about lobstering.

For future reference. When you get in a "sea" like that, ride the back side of a wave, with the bow near the top, keeping pace with it. Comfortable, and no chance of pitchpoling.

My observations. Last fall where I put in, there is a shallow sandy rocky bottom which slopes to the shore. There were no beds on that bottom the last day I fished. Late October or early November. The first time out this spring, mid March, there were wall to wall depressions in this bottom. Enlarge the surface of a golf ball, and you get an impression of what this looked like. The depressions were all the same size, maybe a bit over a foot in diameter. They were obviously made by critters. They were not new. The depressions were filled with decaying leaves from last fall. My guess is they filled with leaves after something had finished using those beds. Now the bass are on their beds. Most that I have observed have a single bass standing guard. But, in places the bluegills and other sunfish are thick along the shore in many of the same areas. Also, where I put in, I have recently noticed small fish, maybe two inches in length max. They have the shape of a bass, but are too small for me to make out any characteristic markings. Any thoughts on what was happening. Doesn't seem to make sense that any fish would spawn with winter only a couple of months away. But it appears that is what happened. Bullfrogs digging in and hibernating, or sun turtles? Thought they wintered over buried in mud.

Somebody probably asked JJ why he wasn't out fishing rather than tinkering with that stinky stuff. There is always a better mousetrap out there somewhere. Finding it is called progress. The pointed stick worked just fine as a fish gathering tool in its day, or so they thought. Still does in some cultures. Different strokes for different folks.

For the jig, it's a toss up between the Strike King Football black with a blue flash skirt and the Boo Yah Pigskin River Craw which is black with a blue flash. The trailer I used is the *** 4.25 Beaver Craw, watermelon/red then dip the "claws" in JJ's methylate. For retrieve, I bump and drag it across the bottom, and occasionally vary the retrieve with a sharp jerk to make it jump. That's what produced the fish in my avatar. For the life of me, I cannot figure out what it is that fish find attractive. When I watch it in shallow water it looks like some type of lure buried in a mass of grass. But, work, and work well, they do.

The spinnerbait and chatterfrog were my favorite baits last year. Hope that's the case again this year, cause it's been a darn good year so far, and they aren't interested in the spinnerbait or chatterfrog yet. Jigs with *** trailers and Rage Tail baits have been all the rage so far. If it gets better when they turn on to the spinnerbaits and chatterfrogs, it'll be outstanding.

Now you're thinking. Fish oils in a spray bottle, or small brush applicator like that for fingernail polish, why not? Maybe I'll soak my salt pork in the fish oil. Gotta be something they'll like in that smorgasboard of scents and flavors.

How 'bout some Shirley Bass-ey songs?