Monday, October 13, 2008

More Fishing Stories


When Every Day Meant a Full Stringer

My Grandfather, who came to this country and became a US citizen, he arrived via a couple of years spent living in Canada. While he was there, he had the foresight to obtain an 99 year renewable lease for a good amount of acreage from the Government. It consisted of a small harbor and large, natural log cabin and surrounding woods. It was somewhere along Honey Harbor in the Georgian Bay.

My father and I discussed how popular the boxes of vintage lures he has, are on eBay, to collectors. Pop has always kept them stored in waterproof all purpose bags and that precaution has kept some of his 1950 era lures and plugs in nearly flawless mint condition. The sheer volume of artificials that he collected, many before I was born, is staggering and going through them is like traveling back in time. Each plug, spoon, hand painted jitterbug has it's own special memory of a morning or a warm afternoon, a boy with a small boat and very, very large fish.

I found myself recalling stored away black and white photographs of myself as a youth, holding up Northern Pike so large that I couldn't keep their tails from touching the ground! One old, faded photo which I wish had been taken with a good Digital SLR camera (for preservation) is one holding a Pike as I've only read about being available but hardly ever see, except on fishing magazine covers.

That Pike was taken at about two hours before dark in a small inlet filed with a dense water grass near shore and lily pads rolling out to meet the open water. We fished that inlet for an hour and Grandpa was telling me to "reel it in - we're going home." Something inside me said "one more" and I verbalized that to Gramps as the large Johnson spoon, tipped with a pork rind splashed perfectly right into a pool in the lily pads.

Within two or three cranks the fish exploded into the spoon and bent my rod almost to the breaking point as line screamed off the reel - the only "drag" being one's thumb on the spool. The line held, the knots were well tied and after an exhausting 15 minutes of wondering what it was - a Great Northern boiled near the surface and made one last desperate run, which eventually tired the fish and allowed us to finally snatch him into the boat. A true monster - I would be the envy of everyone and smiled all the way back to the cabin!

Next day Grandpa was into the live well and got busy cleaning the big fish when I came outside. Upon his motioning me to come, I noticed that he seemed to be struggling furiously with a pair of pliers. When I arrived at his fish cleaning table he tossed me the Johnson Spoon that he had just extricated from the fishes jaw. I was aghast to see that it was twisted a full 180 degrees and the hook was almost straightened out before he got it to pop loose.

The old lures were art and fishing tools, where by comparison, the modern offerings are for the most part much better and highly productive. They still don't inspire the sort of memories that a wooden, hand painted, glass eyes, fore and aft propellers. torpedo shaped, casting plug does when you cradle one in your hand and remember.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Steelhead Are Gathering

They're Back!

Along the Lake Erie shores, at most of the tributaries, the Steelhead are gathering at the mouths and ready to move upstream. Nothing turns my friend on more than catching steelhead, browns, rainbows locally and nearby.

He alerted me Sunday night that they were going to be out and hitting some honey holes this week. Not being an avid trout fisherman I still manage to get excited discussing new tackle or other gear obtained since the last run of fish.

I asked him what they were using for bait and he relied "anything", translating to live bait, spinners, spoons, flies and jigs. He told me he was having his best luck with a hand tied jig, very lightly weighted and trailing about 6 feet behind a small bobber to keep it running at just the right depth for his presentations. This is an easily adjusted rig, slide the bobber forward to run shallower or let more line out to run a bit deeper. Of course the rate of retrieval can account for much of the same manual adjustments.

I told him that I found that very interesting, since we have for years, used the same technique on ultralight spinning gear to land large panfish. They really hit it hard, the bobber snapping straight into the air when the giant bluegills, rock bass, crappie and other panfish took the lure. This rig absolutely triggers some slamming hook-ups!

He whipped out his small fly box and showed me his handiwork grinning as he described the lethal attributes of each and every fly and jig. I smiled too, although not a salmon or trout fisherman, I am a dedicated fisherman, I just target other species as my favorites.

I went out to the car and made him a gift of an Ewa-Marine waterproof all purpose pouch to slide his small metal lure case into. His aluminum case might not rust but the waterproof pouch will also keep your gear floating, bobbing at the surface of the water for an easy and welcome retrieval.

Time to get the waders out guys, looks like those robust steelhead will be hanging around within casting distance soon, if they're not already!