National Fishing and Boating Week is June 1 through June 9 this year. This week, set aside to recognize the millions of people who love fishing and boating, was started in 1979 a National Fishing Week and Boating was added later to include others.
Georgia celebrates this event by offering ”Free Fishing Days” from June 4 – 11th. During this week you can fish on public waters without first buying a fishing license. You also can fish on WMAs without a Land Pass and do not need a trout stamp to fish for them.
Based in those relaxed rules, this would be a good week to check out Big Lazer PFA south of Thomaston. It offers great shore or boat fishing and has good facilities for fishermen and their families. Although gas is ridiculously expensive to get there, there are no other costs once you arrive with your tackle and bait.
Also consider trips to High Falls, the Flint River (a public access boat ramp is at the Highway 18 bridge,) Still Branch Reservoir and Jackson Lake. All are less than an hour from Griffin and give you the chance to enjoy the water and catch some good eating fish for dinner.
I’m glad this all takes place after Memorial Day weekend. There are already many jokes on social media about the kinds of clueless boat owners that visit the lake on holiday weekends.
Some are just funny, like the pictures of boat ramps with truck underwater with boat trailer still in parking lot, or boat floating in the water with trailer still firmly attached under it.
But what is scary to me are the folks out there that don’t have a clue on driving a boat safely. They are apt to cut across in front of you illegally as well as not obeying other laws. They have no clue about boating “rules of the road.”
KastKing Contributes To Getting Wounded Warriors Back On The Water
May 8, 2024
By The Fishing Wire
The simple pleasure of casting into the water and connecting with a fish attracts millions of anglers to the thrill of the sport. It’s easy to take the sport and hobby we love for granted until a traumatic injury takes that opportunity away.
Such is the case with many wounded warriors and first responders harmed in the line of duty. Spinal cord or head injuries can leave them with limited or no use of their hands, arms, and legs.
Before their injuries, these wounded heroes may or may not have been avid anglers; however, veteran assistance groups, such as River Deep Foundation, recognize the restorative power of being outdoors and having a renewed empowerment to cast and retrieve a lure to catch a fish.
Through a collaborative effort with their non-profit alliance member organizations, River Deep Foundation works with vets with debilitating spinal cord and other traumatic injuries to offer outdoor family events, such as fishing, to assist in re-engaging in sport and adventure.
This is where Colorado University Graduate Engineering student, Connor Borshard, and the team of six other fellow engineering graduate students stepped in to help. A non-profit group called Quality of Life Plus issued a call for university STEM programs to create innovative technology solutions that improve the quality of life for injured veterans and first responders. Borshard’s team was drawn to a project aiding in the casting, catching, and reeling of fish for individuals who have little to no dexterity in their hands or upper limbs. Borshard and his team proposed and engineered a brilliant solution they’ve dubbed, the Adaptive Fishing Device.
In summary, the Adaptive Fishing Device holds a spin cast rod and reel in the vertical casting position above a firm tripod base. The device receives inputs from the user, such as the desired casting distance, then loads a set of torsion springs to bring the rod back while depressing the casting button of the reel. Once loaded, the device springs the rod tip forward while releasing the casting button and launching the lure toward the target.
As Borshard explains, “We wanted the device to be relatively portable, yet stable enough for different terrains. It weighs in at 36 pounds total weight and has a 15-minute setup by those providing assistance to the angler.”
There are two methods of casting with the Adaptive Fishing Device. For those with some fine motor dexterity remaining in their fingers, a joystick can be maneuvered back and forth to load the cast. If the angler is further limited with no movement in the arms, hands, and fingers, a sip or puff device can be utilized to provide casting inputs to initiate the cast with air pressure.
The notion of getting veterans and first responders back out into the therapeutic element of the outdoors struck a chord with Borshard, who in addition to being a graduate student, is also an active-duty U.S. Marine. Once his graduate studies conclude at Colorado University, he’ll enter the Marine Corps flight training program.
When KastKing President, Al Noraker, heard of the initiative by the CU Engineering team, he leaped at the chance to aid in the effort by donating six-foot KastKing Crixus spin cast rods and KastKing Brutus spin cast reels to be used with the Adaptive Fishing Device.
“I’ve been fortunate to witness the incredible transformation from those with extreme PTSD and debilitating traumatic injuries leading to severe depression,” remarks Noraker. “I’ve seen it in a 19-year-old wounded warrior to an older Vietnam vet and it’s truly amazing how a simple experience of catching a fish changes their whole demeanor in such a short time.”
Recalling the transformation struck an emotional chord with Noraker, as he added, “When you witness the difference that fishing can make to people who have lost almost everything in the service of their country; well, that’s why I’m involved and will continue to be well after I’ve retired.”
For those interested in learning more about or implementing the Adaptive Fishing Device, Quality of Life Plus will take ownership once the graduate team hands over the finished product.
For inquiries about the device, Scott Huyvaert, Program Manager at Quality of Life Plus can be reached via email at [email protected].
For technical data and inquiries on the design, Connor Borshard is available at [email protected].
Founded in 2013, KastKing had a vision of producing quality products designed by anglers for anglers and delivered directly to the consumer at affordable prices. True to that vision, KastKing products are developed through feedback from the fishing community and go straight to the manufacturing floor. This inverse of the traditional manufacturer-to-consumer formula introduces cutting-edge features into new products that anglers want and need. The brand has gained popularity among anglers by offering affordable innovation through in-house engineering, which allows KastKing to provide never before seen technology at truly remarkable prices. Ten years later, KastKing products have been sold to consumers in more than 150 countries and regions across the globe through a variety of supply chains. Originally, KastKing’s products were only available online, but consumers can now find their favorite products in a growing number of retail locations. For more information about KastKing and KastKing products, please visit our website at kastking.com or follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
Bass were feeding on herring or gizzard shad spawning on a rocky point. I caught every fish I weighed in except one by 8:30 each morning. Several hit a spinnerbait, the others hit an underspin lure.
For years at Clarks Hill after the spawn bass hung around back in coves and pockets feeding where they had bedded. I remember daddy and two other men going around the back of a creek with Hula Popper and hooking big bass one morning.
They would not let us kids back there with them, we were too noisy! Four of us were in a bigger ski boat that we had pulled their jon boat to the creek from the boat ramp. We were near the mouth of the cove, trying to paddle it and fish.
I tried to make a long cast to a button bush in the water with my Devil’s Horse topwater plug but it went way off target. As I reeled it in as fast as I could turn the handle on my Mitchell 300 Spinning reel, a huge bass attacked the plug.
Somehow we managed to land that seven pound largemouth. It was by far the biggest bass I had ever caught when I was 15 years old. For days we talked about that bass being crazy chasing down that lure skipping across the top of the water. Everybody knew you fished slowly for bass!
Now we know you can not reel a lure faster than a bass can chase it down, and often very fast moving lures will attract bites when nothing else will. Buzzbaits were invented for that kind of fishing. I just wish I had been smart enough to figure that out back then and invent them!
I caught many bass at Clarks Hill in the 1970s and early 1980s fishing back in coves and creeks in April. Then the blueback herring population exploded in the lake and changed everything.
Bass love the herring. They are big with an average size of about seven inches so they are a big meal to fill a bass fast. And they are very rich in oils and protein, perfect for bass recovering from the spawn.
Herring are an open water fish, living on the main lake where it is deep. When the herring spawn they go to shallow gravel and rock areas on the main lake and are easy for bass to catch and eat.
It seems all the bass have learned that and almost[RG1] all of them will head to open water as soon as they spawn in April to eat herring. It has changed the way I fish on herring lakes like Clarks Hill.
The first weekend of May might be a little on the soggy side, with warm temps and a light to moderate south winds. Hmmm… sounds like pretty good fishing weather to me. The extended forecast indicates lots of cloud cover through the week, and an increasing chance of rain late in the week. The bite reminds pretty good for Bass and Stripers, although we are seeing some changes with the warming water temps. The lake level dropped last week, .28 feet, to a level of 1071.23 that is .23 above full pool. We’ll call the core surface temp 72 degrees.
Remember to be sure and tune into Capt Macks Epic Outdoors Radio each Saturday AM, 4 to 6 am. on WSB 750 Am. Yeah, it’s early, but I’ll be up with a pot of coffee and some Fig Newtons waiting to take your hunting and fishing calls.
Striper Fishing
The bite is good, and the techniques are really the same as recent weeks. The fish are also using the same types of structures and areas, with maybe a little more emphasis on the Herring spawn. The fish are pretty catchable when you find them so stay in the move until you locate them. Free lines and planers continue to account for good numbers of fish, but the down lines are still producing and are perhaps a bigger part of the pattern than in the last few weeks. Keep in mind the floating down lines, they are often a good technique at this point in the year. Herring and Gizzard Shad are catching fish, with shiners also still being effective, the shiners mostly on the free lines. Pulling the baits around shallow humps, reef poles, and points is a solid pattern, best in the am, but effective all day.
Looking for the spawning bait fish remains a good strategy, find the bait fish spawns and the Stripers will likely be nearby. Shad and Herring may spawn on almost any type of rock or hard surface. Look around the ridge pilings, seawalls, rip rap or rocky banks. The fish that are around the bait concentrations may be shallow, especially early. After the bait fish activity slows or ceases, the Stripers may stay in the same area, just backing off into deeper water and relating very loosely to the structure.
The pitch bite remains very, very good, perhaps one of our most prolific patterns each year. To respond to a couple of questions; What exactly is pitching? It is just finding a likely structure that is holding fish, securing the boat with spot lock shallow water anchors, and casting or “pitching’ a live bait, on Lanier general a Herring to the structure. Easy enough, but there are a couple of pointers there will catch more fish. Firstly, once you pitch, lob may be a better description, to the point, fish with your rod tip low. The reason being, many of the fish, especially the Stripers will eat the bait and swim towards the boat, fast! Maybe faster than you can reel. If you rod tip is high, you lose the benefit of being able to lift the rod on the bite which gives you the ability to take up several feet of line, aka slack. Also, I prefer not to set the hook, but just start cranking until you feel the weight of the fish, then lift the rod, keep reeling and that should get the hook set. I prefer a circle hook over the octopus for the pitching technique
Bass Fishing
April Was a very good month, it’s early, so far it looks like May will continue that trend! The patterns of the last few days are continuing, I think we can just add in a few post spawn patterns that are emerging. Are the fish still spawning? I think so, however, I think there was a big group of fish that spawned on that last full moon that be will be finishing up soon. I still think we will have another group of spawning fish, maybe not as big as last month, so the shallow water patterns will still have merit, we’ll just have some post spawn patterns to add variety.
With water temps in the low 70’s we should have shallow fish anyway, regardless of the spawn. You’ll still have the advantage of catching fish on many baits, the same baits that have been effective in recent weeks will still be catching fish. The soft plastics, jerk baits, spinnerbaits, swim baits (both soft plastics and hard baits)and top waters continue to produce. One footnote on the spinnerbait bite I have discussed so much recently: as the fish leave the banks the spinnerbaits will still have application. The technique is the same as mentioned in earlier reports, just deeper. Fish the bait slowly enough that is following the slope of the bottom to get the bait down into 5 to 12 feet. a heavier bait may also be a plus in getting into the appropriate depth range. Banks with cover will still hold fish, it will most likely be that shallow offshore structures will be more prolific. Target long flat points, shallow humps, deep stump flats and shallow brush tops.
Keep an eye on the spawning Herring, find them and you find the fish. What to cast? Again, lots of choices will get the bite. Sashimmy Shads and Lanier Baits Magic Swimmers, are a couple of consistent producers. Soft plastics on the lead head, and top waters should all get the bite. The same baits will have application for any schooling fish you see chasing bait, and that is occurring frequently now!
