JohnF

I hear ya. When I was really into diving and experimenting with new gear all the time that's what the pool was used for. My neighbours all thought I was some kind of fetishist, wandering around my back yard in a rubber suit with two, and sometimes three, air tanks hanging off my body. Then I'd spend all that time just laying on the bottom, or near it, fiddling with stuff. Now all that tech & cave diving stuff is behind me, I think, so the pool is just a lure wind tunnel. In all fairness, my wife actually uses it occasionally but essentially it's just a wet hole in our yard that we throw money into. Oh, and I get to do all the extra maintenance and yard work so it looks nice when we have folks over for a bbq. Mebbe I could start a new sideline and charge to test and videotape lures for the non-pool types. In fact I might just do that for fun this weekend. I could rig up a gang bar and do parallel retrieves to compare the action on similar lures under identical conditions. Hmmm - casting a gang bar might be problematic. But on second thought the water disturbance from the bar running ahead of the lures would likely screw up their action. Perhaps I need a big fixed reel at one end of the pool and a set of gates at the other end from which to start the lures on the retrieve. AAAAHHHHH!!!! My head's starting to hurt. Ya see. This is exactly the kind of useless experimentation I do when I have too much time on my hands. It's why my wife won't let me retire. JF

I remember reading that they injected water into a P51 Mustang to get more power. JF

Rob & I were doing this stuff one afternoon last summer while our neighbours had a large gathering of folks in their yard. They kept looking over at us until finally one of the women came over and asked, apparently seriously, if we actually caught anything in the pool. Now whenever I come in from the poolyard with a fishing rod my wife sarcastically asks the same question. She thinks fishing is a smelly waste of time and money. I keep pointing out to her how much cheaper it is than most of my other hobbies have been. I recently sold a bunch of dive gear for enough to keep me in fishing tackle for years, probably for life given my advanced years and decrepitude. Bass season is too slow in coming. Why couldn't nature have made bass get horny earlier in the year? We need ice breeders. But I'm going carping this weekend a couple of times - and not in the pool. JF

Your "Garden Hackle" reminded me of an experiment I tried last year on the local bass. I have one pool that is as dependable as all get out, until low water ruins it. I was having pretty good luck with Texas rigged plastic worms but was losing too many fish because they apparently bit the trailing end of the worm, would hang on almost to my feet, and then just release the bait, or sometimes just take the tail end away with them. I've still got one particularly beat up worm in one of my boxes that shows where they were hitting it. My experiment was to use a bait needle to thread 4# mono through the length of the worm and add a second hook, like a stinger, in the worm's tail end. It was a useless idea. I assumed that the change in the worm action put them off. It definitely looked more rigid in the water. Other fishermen assure me that the eyes are critical on a body bait. They apparently believe that realism is the key. Someone else mentioned that identical lures will run slightly differently in the water and I can attest to that. I've tried several different lures in my pool and had slightly different tracking with each individual of each style. The depth seems to be fairly consistent but the wobble is different. That being said, it's impressive how consistently many of them do react. Rapalas truly are very consistent. One interesting observation has been that I can run two identical bodies from two different packaging labels (and prices) and get very similar results. Obviously either one company is branding their products for other packagers or they're both buying from the same body manufacturer. The paint jobs will be different in quality, and even the hooks, but the action is still the same which leads me to the conclusion that the body shape is the most important factor in determining the movement of the lure. And the action can be altered by adding or removing the split ring, or even just by tying the knot to tight on the eye. I had one minnow last night that would track one way or the other depending on which side of the eye the knot was tightened. When I loosened the knot so it could slip in the eye the lure ran true. Has anyone else come to similar conclusions? JF

SSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!! The composer will want her 500 bux. JF

It's interesting swimming with the fish (scuba diving that is) and having them treat you like just another (big) fish. You get to see something of their personalities that way I suppose. You realize when you're down under that certain kinds of fish are more accommodating than others, a few are twitchy, and some seem to be just a tad curious about this new kind of sea creature that's coming near, but most really just act like we're big funny looking fish. I've had 3' Rainbows poking around my mask hard enough to dislodge it. I realized afterwards that a friend of mine was dropping dog kibble on my head from above me. I've often been within touching distance of decent sized bass, carp and catfish. I've swam through big schools of Perch in Long Point Bay (near a bunch of tires for those of you who know the area) with hardly a flinch from them. If I hold still some fish will swim right up to my faceplate and look inside, literally bumping the glass. Perhaps there's a fish word for Cyclops. A big Barracuda shadowed me for several hundred feet sitting right off my shoulder (within 3 or 4 feet), his left eyeball just looking me up and down. I've pushed through a school of 15 or so good-sized Tarpon without any sign of alarm from them. They just turned away slightly to allow us room to pass. In Key Largo a 4' Green Moray wrapped himself around me poking his nose in my pockets for a snack. When he found nothing I could almost picture him (if he had arms) putting his hands on his hips and going "humph!". Fish are wonderful to observe underwater and you start to actually feel like you have a bit of an idea of what they're thinking when you're down there with them. I'm sure that's just delusion on my part and it sure hasn't helped me much in trying to figure out how to catch more of them. You may well be right about the impulse bite thing. I've seen lots of fish gobble something from the bottom or the water column only to immediately spit it out. But underwater some colours disappear quickly as you get more depth, like red, so I'm not convinced that red colouring makes much difference to fish. Red looks black once you get down there a bit, although very close to the surface it still shows. There are some studies available on how fast it loses it's redness, but I'm pretty safe in saying that if you're trolling deep, red is black. Some people claim that yellow attracts fish, particularly sharks, but one of my wetsuits has a lot of yellow on it and I really have to be sneaky slow to get close to any kind of shark. Odd behaviour for the apex predator in the seafood chain. They're among the more timid fishes in the sea although there are a few kinds that one is smarter not to test that theory on, like Bullsharks and Great Whites. Muskies are apparently unafraid from what little I've seen of them. They act pretty much like big barracuda around divers, but without that element of curiosity. It's pretty impressive to see a group of them hovering a few feet away from you. Pike seem to be a little twitchier. Imagine the fish tank at Bass Pro without the glass wall between you and the fish. Sorry. I kinda wandered all around your answer there but I wish you could see the fish when they're going about their daily business. There must be other divers here who will know what I mean. JF

Good point, but in my years of scuba diving I've observed a lot of fish close up and haven't seen any screaming along in a straight line vibrating. Sick or injured fish tend to make little darts as if they're trying to act normal, but they quickly tire (or something) and just float or lay over on their side, then dart again. That kind of action I can understand, and in fact, that's one retrieve I often use with floating minnows. It works pretty well in shallow rocky bottom creeks, although for the most part we get smaller fish that way. I get the biggest smallmouths by working closer to reeds along shore or over rocky shoals (which are hard to find in a creek typically seldom deeper than a few feet). But what I'm really asking is, do the fish generally respond more to realism (design and retrieve action) or to flash and glitter? JF

I just spent an hour or so running different lures up and down my pool watching how they behave at different retrieval speeds etc. I noticed that some work better with split rings and some without. Rapala minnows for instance are great without while some of the Rapala knockoffs are lousy without and need a ring. Some can be made to act just like a real minnow while others are just a lot of movement. Is too much wiggle possible? I noticed that some act more like real fish at slower speeds but just look like a squirming blur and nothing like a real fish if I really burn 'em. So here's my question: Are we trying to emulate the action of real baitfish or are we simply trying to get our target fish's attention and try to entice him/her to hit whatever we're tossing? By that I mean do most gamefish really get fooled into thinking our fake perch or rainbows are real, or is it just the colour and flash that catches their eye? I'm sure it depends to a degree on what species you're targetting, and the time of year, but is realism more important than simply getting their attention? I'm getting ready for bass season, particularly smallmouth around here, so any bassy type answers will be appreciated. Also smallish pike as they seem to be part of the bass equation in our creeks. Most of our fishing is wading, cast & retrieve. JF

I enjoyed. Thanks for posting. Local colour posts like that are great. Many of us will probably never get to see that setting except through posts like yours. The same goes for those excellent reports of Moosebunk's meanderings and the others who record their paddling (sometimes Solo) treks into the wilds. Fishporn is nice, but for me the best part of some of my creek prowling is the sightseeing, not the fish themselves. The fish are a bonus. In a way, you post kinda addresses another thread that's going on now, about professional guides. It's all well and good, and often fun, to explore on your own, but there's definitely something good to be said for having someone who knows the area show you around. That being said, don't expect a tip. JF

Mebbe Tiger Woods got it right in a weekend interview when asked about the playoffs. He uttered something sage like "Does anybody care about hockey any more?" JF

I know a guy who swears they're great eating. He often saves a mess of 'em when we're hunting real bass on the river. Sometimes he just wraps 'em in tinfoil and buries them in the embers of the campfire to eat crusty for breakfast. Bear in mind this guy would probably eat a snake if he caught it with a fishing pole. JF

I didn't think she was picking - I thought it looked more like she was just flicking it with her thumb. Heaven only knows what kind of things can become attached to one's nose out in the wilds with fishermen standing all around you. If she wasn't obviously a lady I might have assumed she was just doing the old farmer's (or athlete's) nasal passage clearing. JF

Soon he'll be wearing baggy shorts to his calves and a wallet chain. JF

Malkin has been anything but invisible, wallowing around looking for ever better giveaways to pull off. I suspect most Pitts fans wish he would be more invisible in that department. He carried the team for a quite a while while Crosby was down. Mebbe he's just worn out, physically and mentally. JF

I often see big ones cruising the surface right downtown in Stratford. Mebbe I'll try floating some grubs and worms by them. JF

That answers a few things then. Thanks. We'll head over one evening this week before dark and hunker down in the shadows. Thanks JF

I started off right below the dam and later wandered down under the bridge and a bit beyond. I used corn and Rob used worms. We both caught lotsa rock bass. I wondered if the schooling meant they were in spawning mode cuz there were dozens of them in groups everywhere below the dam and just the usual singles cruising below the bridge. I'll be back there plenty of times. I live in Stratford (12 miles away) but I grew up on the river in St.Marys just a block from the dam so I know it pretty well. It was my playground. We still go there a few evenings a week looking for bass or pike farther below the dam. JF

I'll give it a try. All this talk about carp has got me interested. I watched a guy flyfishing for them down in St.Marys one day. Ian James may be a familiar name to some of you. He swears they're even more fun on a flyrod. JF

I used canned corn, but it was cheap stuff - mebbe they're snob carp, and only eat Green Giant. The water was shallow and fast moving, right below a dam, so mayhap they were just groovin' on the sun and getting an O2 buzz on. As for the spawning, I couldn't tell, but none of them had lit smokes so I doubt it. I've got some less travelled areas in mind, and will try seeding the area for a while. Thanks for the advice. JF

I've been reading some more on these monster beasties since getting skunked last weekend by them, and I have some questions that I haven't found answers to yet. They were swimming all around us, nothing shy about these guys, but they wouldn't sample the corn we offered on my DIY hair rigs. The Rock Bass loved the corn though. They scarfed it up faster than the big ole lazy carp had a chance to swim to it. When I chummed with corn I didn't see the carp gobbling it up. They just plotzed around the bottom with nary a care in the world. Mebbe it wasn't the right time of day (mid to late afternoon), mebbe they were in breeding mode, or mebbe they just weren't finding the corn. Do they sniff it out? I tried sight-fishing but they just swam on by the corn I laid in their paths. There were literally dozens of them within 20' of us much of the time, and they were fearless. Since the embarrassing skunking I've built new hair rigs using much lighter line and #8 Gamakatsu Octopus hooks. I suspect my other hooks were too big and perhaps the hair line was a tad stiff. After the fact I remembered the discussion about chumming the area ahead of time with corn. So what's the drill? Do the carp smell the corn or just munch their way along the bottom until they happen to suck in my hair rig? Is the pre-chumming important? All advice will be much appreciated and used when I next venture out to take on these monsters of the deep. In desperation JF

Back in the sled days (1970+) we had to be sure of which oil we were using. The synthetics could be run much leaner than the regular oil, up to 50:1. My rule for regular conditions was 20:1 for standard leaded gas premix but these new products have changed all the rules. I'm not sure the age of the motor is quite as important as the type of oil used when deciding on mix so read the label. I tended to cheat on the rich side and take my chances with running hotter. The modern synthetics are pretty darned good and I doubt there's any reason to richen with them. BTW. If yer gonna fool with the jetting etc always look for either extreme white or extreme black with a carbon buildup on the plug. If it's really light richen the gas jetting immediately. JF

Thanks for confirming that. I'm not surprised. I'll check the camping thang. JF

Okay, here's a stupid question or three. It hadn't occurred to me there might still be cabin rentals available, and boats. I might even consider camping in a pinch. Rob's fine with camping but he's a nature boy/artist and we know how peculiar they can be, especially when they've been wading the creeks for the last 50 years all alone. Does anyone happen to know if there are any accommodations, and are the rental boats okay? I'm fine with a tiller unit. I grew up piloting them around the river beside our house. Are there any modern licencing restrictions on the little bitty boats cuz I have no kind of boat licence? The more I think about this trip the more I like the idea, and I know Rob would really be into it, even if he does have to go in a boat. I might even entice my bil to join us but I suspect he'll be long gone to his fishing camp on Manitoulin by then. If I thought my son would join me I'd invite him, but I'm pretty sure he's still young enough, and musician enough, to think that fishing with the ole man is very uncool, although he did get a permit and borrowed a bunch of my stuff for a holiday at Huntsville last year. Who knows? JF

Yeah, but when the ladies were off the beach you'd be reduced to eating raw seals without flossing. JF

It's pretty tough to carry on conversations about fishing without mentioning likes and dislikes in lures, bait, line, rods, reels, boats, motors, charters etc. Granted there's sometimes a pretty fine line between self-serving promo and helpful info but it's not too hard to see when it's blatant promo and when it's just points for discussion. I like to hear about others' experience with the different products and have a pretty good Bull filter when it comes to spam. JF