Something to read while it snows...

[Garry2Rs]

Happy New Year to OFC from sunny Arizona!

Wow, I just heard that much of Ontario is going to get hit by a major "lake effect" snow storm. Please be careful out there.

 

Since some of you will be shut-in, until the storm passes, let me tell you about the beautiful weather we are having here in Yuma...It's true that we had some cooler days, down to the low 60's (16C) before Christmas, but for the last week by noon it's at least 70F (23C) ... In The Shade.

 

This is the desert, but we are close to the Colorado River. There are many miles of irrigation canals, as well as the river and it's backwaters, were there is year round bass fishing.

 

There are also some water storage reservoirs and ponds with bass. Some of these are also stocked with rainbow trout during the winter, when water temps are low enough for them to survive.

 

Winter bass fishing in and around the river is mostly jig-and-pig. The river water basically comes from melted snow in the mountains and it's still quite cold when it gets down here.

 

The canal water leaves the river at the Imperial Dam a few miles above Yuma and runs in a meandering pattern through the many acres of lettuce, cabbage, peppers, cauliflower and broccoli etc. that are grown here in the winter. This water probably travels several hundred miles, before spilling back into the river only about thirty miles from where it left.

 

The reservoirs and ponds are fed from these canals, but being much slower moving and quite shallow, it warms up and the fish are more active there.

 

The stocked trout die-off as soon as the water warms up in the spring, but any that aren't caught fatten up the bass, so it's a win-win for snow-bird and local anglers...grin.

 

I don't like still fishing for trout with paste type baits or live worms, so I have been throwing small spinners. To handle these 1/8 oz baits I wanted a 6.5 to 7 ft ultra light rod. Surprisingly, it seems these are hard to find. G.Loomis and St,Croix has some nice ones, but as you would suspect, the prices are quite high. Cheaper UL rods are out there but most are short and tend to be as soft as noodles. This might be fine for lobbing live bait, but weren't what I was looking for.

 

To cut-to-the-chase, I have been working on some custom made ultra light spinning rods. These rods will see double duty, both for trout down here and for crappie back home.

 

I'm not normally a spinning rod guy. But one should always use the right tool for the job. Back in my youth I used to be quite fond of spinning with Mepps and Panther Marten spinners, for all species. Truthfully it was line twist and break-offs, when fishing from shore that drove me away from these baits back-in-the-day. However they caught fish then and they still do it now! In fact, so far this season I have caught nearly as many bass, as trout, with these little baits.

 

Last year, to fish these lures, I made a seven foot ultra light rod from a kit. I wound up selling that rod, with the intention of making a six and a half foot version with up-graded guides and handle this year. Back in November I built that rod, and it's quite nice, but for throwing small spinners from shore I felt I wanted more "snap" to really get them out there.

 

My latest rod is built on a six foot spin-jig blank with an extra fast tip. This unit seems to cast my small spinners very well. I added a few inches, from a broken rod, to the butt end of the blank because I wanted a finished rod of around 6-9 or 10. The added length gives me some extra distance but by staying under 7 feet it will also fit in my rod locker better than a longer model.

 

I'm in love with the Fuji IPSM reel seat that is designed so that the cork handle wraps up over the reel-foot to keep your hand off the locking threads.

 

 

It's a little fiddly to assemble, compared to standard grips but it's very comfortable to hold onto. I have large hands and with age they have stiffened up a bit. It seems that many commercial rods today have quite small diameter handles. These twiggy handles wear me out!

 

The guides I chose are Fuji Alconite in "K" series. The frames on these guides are flared, and the ring is set at an angle. This is supposed to allow any loops to slide over-and-off instead of forming knots under the guide-ring.

 

As an experiment I only used two reduction guides then five tiny 5.5 size running guides. It's not quite a mini-guide spinning rod, but it's getting close...grin.

 

That's A Dime!

 

Sadly, my drink got warm while I typed this so I have to go ice fishing in my freezer now...Anyway, that's about all the news I have that's fit to print...grin.

Garry2R's

Edited January 3, 2012 by garry2rs

[tb4me]

So far so good! Now where are the damn fish pics?

[Weeds]

Man, looks pretty sweet down there. Nice read Garry. Should be -16 in Peterborough tonight, -27 with the wind. And colder tomorrow.

[Ice_ice]

I went to Arizona at the end of september, thought desert was a boring place... It's not! Anyways what stood out is a fishing story of everyone spending mad cash on fishing equipment. Turns out Mexicans are not new to fishing, and all they need to catch a big one is a bottle and fishing line. And here I am with 2000$ of ice fishing stuff and no ice

[solopaddler]

Nice read Garry.

 

I built a couple rods with the same handle except reversed. Uplocking as opposed to downlocking.

 

When I'm holding the rod most of what I'm gripping is in front of the reel. A downlocking seat like yours means I'm grabbing threaded nuts instead of cork.

 

Have you been successful catching any of the trout?

[Garry2Rs]

Since Dec 1st. I have caught almost a dozen trout on 1/8 and 1/4 Panther-Martens. I have also caught about 8 or 9 LMBass. The bass have been small, nothing over 1.5lbs but on an ultra-light that's a big fish...grin.

[EC1]

Always great to see what you're up to when you're out of Canada.

I would love to go bass fishing right now!