Better Late Than Never
7-21-18
You have read the date correctly, I am putting this on the computer about a week late. I have been so busy with work and other stuff, I have honestly not had the time when I had the energy to write anything. You see, if I do it when I am wore out, it’ll probably sound like a grumpy complaining old man. Those that know me might say, so it’s more accurate, well….. I resemble that remark. Anyhow, here we go with the fishing info (Dr. Seuss has nothing on me).
Striper fishing was tough the past few times I went and we got skunked a time or two, so I’ve changed what I am after, or at least how I go about it, I’ll catch anything anyway and have a good time doing it. My wife and I will be selling “crappie” jigs in the near future but I want to make sure that we are using good color combos and more importantly, they are of good quality, not falling apart after you catch one. So I’ve tied some up and my goal was to go crappie fishing.
Being the inexperienced crappie angler that I am, it’s gonna be a struggle for a while. I found some structure and I start fishing the jigs toward the bank. I’m really just flipping and slow reeling from bank in between structure that I can fish around. I’m not sure that this is a good technique, but I don’t know how much I trust my $100 5 year old fish finder to identify a fish that I have not fished for in about 30 years (at least regularly). So down the bank we go.
Now you may have noticed that I put crappie in parenthesis up there, let me explain as to why. We went down a couple of banks and let me say we caught a lot of fish and missed many more. I ended up putting one catfish, 3 smallmouth (the others were about the same size and therefore did not photo, and a whole bunch of little fellers. I’m not sure that fellers is the official species of the fish, but you get the point. By the way, all jigs are still intact, no chips or undone material on any of them. This is a good sign, however, I did experiment with a lot of them so none of them caught more than 8 or so.
Let me say that I am having a ball doing this type of fishing. A lot of bites in the summer, during the daylight, when I would usually be struggling to catch one or two big ones. It kinda takes you back to the days you were a youngen, before the electronics, boats, nice rods, fancy reels, fluorocarbon, and $30 plugs. Kinda felt like I should have been using a zebco 33 combo, getting bite after bite, missing more than I am catching, and just enjoying a great day on the lake. That type of fishing is what got me hooked when I was young.
You may or may not see many big fish over the next month or so, we’ll see how long I stick to this plan, I’m gonna mail off some of the jigs to folks that crappie fish often and let them field test. I really would not want to try to sale something that is not effective or of good quality. Rest assured though, I have a rod on the deck, loaded with a swim bait, ready if the stripers start chasing shad. And as for the size of fish above, I had read that if you long arm them they look bigger. Well I did that and they looks smaller, perhaps I should have had my fishing partner take the pic and long armed it toward the camera. Anyway, get out there and enjoy the summer, maybe by the end of August, I’ll have enough crappie for a fish fry. I hope everyone has a great weekend, God bless.
15 July 2018
Last journal entry you were able to read just how intelligent I am with the part about fishing for multiple species will allow me to master none. Well, being the intellectual giant that I am this week, I did not go after the striper, trout, or bass. That’s right, I chose another species altogether, the mighty crappie, yep, perfect time of year to go after them. Now you are probably thinking, this goes against everything that you talked about, yep, welcome to my ignorance. However, let’s discuss shall we, please be patient, I’ll get to the fishing.
I’ve done a couple of rod shows, which by the way is not necessarily an easy thing for a custom rod builder. You see, by custom rod I am saying that it will be custom to the customer. They choose everything from rod action, power, type of grips, guides, etc……. When I arrive at a show with rods I have previously made, they are not custom rods, they are handcrafted, but not custom. I’ve made a few of them and most folks come to a show looking for a deal. Needless to say, I do not sale many rods at shows and thought I need something to offset going to these things. So I got to thinking, yep, it’s about to get scary.
I got me a wife, some of you are probably shocked, and I thought she might be able to tie up some crappie flies. I figure a few of them at the show, I could maybe sale and viola, I could leave there with a receipt or two used. So I figured I would tie some up between rods and whipped out a few. Well, you aren’t going to tie up a brand new jig and not test that thing out. So Friday and Saturday, I went to the bridge to do a little testing.
Yep, they are crappie flies, but if a bluegill or nothing hit them I would classify them are literally crappie flies (check your pronunciation). Well I caught a few fish everyday, I don’t know the name of them fellers for sure, but I think we called them warmouths or something like that growing up. Anyhow, I was pumped and a certain few colors appeared to work the best. So Sunday evening rolled around and it was time.
I hadn’t taken out the boat cause I just didn’t feel well enough to battle the thing, but Sunday was only about 88F and I still felt bad, but figured if your gonna feel bad, might as well do it on the lake. So off I went armed with my new fly and no idea how to fish for crappie in July. I found me a dock, found out later a brush pile was around as well, I’m down a fly, and fished it. Let me say the little fellers really like this thing as I may have gotten over 50 hits in about 2.5 hours. They just nipped, but it sure was a lot of fun.
I ended up catching a crappie, missing a boat load of little one, catching a smallmouth which the pic doesn’t do justice. It was nothing that you would win a tournament with or even make the cut on most lakes, however, it was a nice smallmouth. I think you are supposed to hold the fish close to the camera to make it appear bigger, but again, my intellect says, stretch it away from the camera. Anyway, I caught a lot of fish, most of them I did not take pics of as they looked like they were from the same batch of guppies. Those things would hit the jig before I could flip my bell.
We have struggled with the striper and bass, honestly haven’t gotten out all that much, and I came to conclude that this was a great alternative. I’m not going to break any records for size of fish doing this, however, it felt good to get all them bites.
This day took me back to my youth as I remember loving to catch them bluegill with a few carp mixed in (this is just here so I don’t end a sentence with a preposition, more youth memories). It was a blast getting bit, missing them only to have them hit again. This will not eliminate my striper, bass, and trout fishing, but just add another thing to the ever growing list of unmastered interest. So tune in next time and see what we went to catch. Truth is, I caught more bass crappie fishing than I did bass fishing last time. I hope you have a great week and God bless.
07 July 2018
It’s a Combo Post
This past week, I could get all week off with only three days of vacation, what a bargain so I jumped on it. I needed to finish up a fishing rod for BJ’s Custom Lures, by the way, check him out on facebook, he has some great looking stuff. I wasn’t in a big hurry to fish on the weekend as I had weekdays off. So Monday evening I headed out to the lake.
I had been on the water an hour and a half, was hot and had not had a bite yet. My phone rang and I was asked to come in Tuesday. We won’t go into any boring detail, but I figured I would go. I fished for a couple of hours and got completely skunked. My plan had been to fish into the darkness, however, I need some sleep if I was going into work.
As I was fishing, I was recollecting the Florida trip, I neglected to put into the journal about the evening that the bird relieved himself on my head, yep, it was nasty and funny to everyone except me, I did eventually laugh about it. I remembered the black tipped shark that broke off and landed on the dock as we were lifting, daughter was without shoes and nearly went into the water. I condensed that journal too much and need to start penning this stuff as it happens.
Thursday came and I headed to the river. It’s hot outside but the river is always cool. I hadn’t cast my fly rod in a while and thought it’d be a good time. Well, I was right, it was a good time, but the skunk was still happening. I got a couple of bites on a streamer but landed or even hooked nothing. I did however get to watch a fellow angler fish about 20 yards away from me and land many many trout. Apparently he knew what he was doing.
I told my wife that I have come to a conclusion. I can continue to fish for bass, striper, and trout and not be very good at any of it, or I could focus on one and get better. Well, I am still changing it up about every trip.
Today we headed out and the wife wanted to go with me. I got the striper rods ready, we caught bait, and headed upstream. Withing the first hour we had three hits on the flat line. The drag went briefly, then nothing. The shad were scarred but not too bad. The water temp was in the 50’s and we never saw what was hitting. Trout don’t tend to take the bigger shad in one bite, but without seeing, I cannot be sure.
We went and picked up daughter and fished a good while longer. We got a few bites on the Ned Rig, but the shad did not yield another bite. I’m thinking we went too early in the day, but that was the most convenient time to go. We loaded up and headed back home, but the way the day on the lake was awesome. I did hook a nice catfish on the Ned Rig and landed that rascal. It was a pretty good tussle and I got to remind my daughter that I out fished her. She does the same to me when she catches more, and that is happening more often than not anymore.
I’m not sure how much fishing I am going to try to do through July, 3 trips and one catfish. Not that I am giving up, but maybe just get ready for the fall as I catch up on some rod building. I will probably do something just to get out of the house, but I am at least lowering my expectations. I hope if you went, you did better than I, and I hope you like the pics above of the rod and catfish.
