Largemouth from Bartletts Ferry

The snake was about three feet long and was right in the middle of the road. I didn’t try to run over it because I see no reason to kill a snake that is not threatening anyone. The guys in the vehicle behind us saw it too and didn’t run over it, but confirmed it was a rattlesnake.

One reason I don’t want to run over a poisonous snake is something, probably what we now call an “Urban Legend,” that I grew up hearing. The story goes that a guy had a flat and got out to check it. He ran his hand around the tire and got scratched by what flattened the tire.

Supposedly it was a rattlesnake’s fangs that stuck in the tire, and when they scratched him he got enough venom to kill him. I guess that could happen. Either way, I don’t take chances!

Rattlesnakes are pretty uncommon around here. I grew up near Augusta and the sandy terrain over there, rather than the clay around here, is more to their liking. We killed rattlesnakes on the farm several times while I was growing up. I still have the rattles from one, and many of us boys carried rattles in our pockets, bragging about how many rattles and buttons they had.

Snakes normally won’t hurt you. They will try to get away from you. After all, you are too big for them to eat. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone.

The other strange thing happened while we were fishing. Al and I were fishing a deep brush pile and Al had caught a couple of nice bass, and I broke off two and missed a couple. Then Al set the hook on a bass that wrapped him up in the brush. After trying to get it loose he had to break his line.

About ten minutes later a bass floated to the top and we picked it up. The 2.5 pound largemouth had Al’s hook in its throat! Apparently it swallowed the hook deeply before or while getting hung up and it killed it. I have broken off a lot of fish like that but have never had one float up like that one did.

At the tournament 13 members and guests landed 41 keeper bas weighing about 52 pounds. There were three five-fish limits and one member didn’t have a keeper. It was a surprise only ten of the bass were spots – usually we catch a lot more spots than largemouth there.

Al Rosser won with four weighing 6.37 pounds. We were real worried the one that broke off would make the difference but he still won without it. Niles Murray was second with a limit weighing 6.26 pounds and Chuck Croft placed third with five at 5.96 pounds. Roger Morrow’s four weighing 5.69 pounds was fourth and his 2.91 pound largemouth was big fish.

Fish were caught on a little of everything, from fish head spins to jigs and worms. There was a lot of muddy water coming down the river but the main lake and lower creeks were clear, and that is where most of the fish were caught.

Al and I started up the river a little ways and I missed two on spinner baits around grass. Niles had run about a mile above us and where he stopped was real muddy at 6:00 AM. Where Al and I fished the water was still ok at that time, but by 2:00 PM when we ran in the mud had come down the river past the ramp, several more miles downstream. Bass seem to hate fresh muddy water and stop biting when it first gets muddy.

Al and I fished a lot of different places and I got my first keeper at about 8:00 on a jig and pig off a seawall. Then Al got two on a jig head worm. Around 10:00 we went over a deep brush pile and Al got a nice 2.3 pound bass from it. I could see a lot of fish around the brush on my depth finder, but they would not hit.

After several hours of running around the lake trying to catch bass without any luck we went back to the brush pile for the last hour. Often bass will hold off brush then, for some unknown reason, move in to feed. And they had. Al got two more good keepers from it and I got one the last hour, and that is when we missed several bites and broke off three fish.

Deep brush is worth checking out several times during a day, especially if you see fish around it on a good depth finder!

Smallmouth Caught On A GLoomis Rod

A G. Loomis GLX 853C-JWR baitcasting rod is priced at $455.

Yep, yikes!

Not many of us would dare to buy a rod at that price, never mind telling our wives what we paid for it.

It’s a bit like owning a Ming vase when you have cats in the house -fishing rods, particularly ultra-light, high-tech graphite rods, are highly frangible, and we tend to use them around truck doors and boat hatches. To say nothing of prying reluctant largemouths out of hundred-pound wads of hydrilla.

On braid, yet.

But Loomis offers “insurance”.

“We call it our ‘expediter’ program,” says Bruce Holt, communications director for the West Coast Company, who recently spent a few days here testing his gear on Pickwick smallmouths in the company of Captain Steve Hacker. “If you break one of our GLX or higher series rods, in any way, we’ll replace it for a hundred bucks.”

Loomis GLX line is expensive, but an “insurance policy” assures anglers that a broken rod is not the end of their investment.
That’s added to the lifetime full-price warranty against defects in workmanship and materials, notes Holt, so in all there’s a whole lot less risk in buying one of these top-line rods than it might first appear.

And, for those who have the expendable income and the compulsion to own the best there is for their leisure pursuits, it would be hard to argue that the upper-level G. Loomis rods are not about as good as it gets.

“Most of the cost of a rod is in the graphite and the guides,” notes Holt. “The lighter and stiffer the fibers that go into the blank, the lighter the rod is going to be at a given power and action, and the better it’s going to feel in your hand after six or eight hours of casting. The GLX material has a very high “modulus”, that is resistance to bending, and that makes it possible for us to build rods that are amazingly light and fast.”

Holt said the GLX series also uses Fuji Titanium SIC guides, much tougher and more resistant to bending than steel, which feature a ceramic liner that’s much smoother, lower in friction and more durable than conventional guide liners. The guides are positioned on the blank via computer programs that designate the best locations as the blank tapers, preventing line slap on the blank, and the rods also use several more guides than lower cost sticks-there are 11 plus the tip-top on the 7-foot, 1-inch 853C, compared to as few as seven on low to mid-range rods of the same length.

“We couldn’t find exactly what we wanted so we had this mount built for us,” says Holt. “It’s extremely light but very strong and dependable.”

The mount is “skeletonized” to reduce weight, and also features a larger area of exposed blank directly below the reel, where the index finger naturally rests, to increase sensitivity when fishing jigs and soft plastics where the bite is often light.

The cork handle is also top of the line.

“Quality cork is a lot more expensive than the black foam handles on mid-range rods, but it’s lighter, it’s smoother on the hand and most anglers like the feel of it better-it’s firm and yet it’s got enough ‘give’ so that you can keep a good grip even when it’s wet,” says Holt. “It also looks good, year after year, if you just scrub it now and then with a light detergent and water.”

The 853C is designated a medium-heavy power rod with an extra-fast action-this means lots of power in the butt, melded to a stiff and very quick tip section that allows quick, powerful hooksets. The rod is designed for lures of 3/16 to 5/8 ounce, and for lines of 12 to 16 pounds.

G. Loomis makes a full stable of GLX bassing rods in both casting and spinning versions. The company also markets several lower-priced models.

“The maximum line test is something that anglers should keep an eye on,” says Holt. “We test rods to destruction to determine how much they can lift, so that’s sort of a safety device-if you put line no heavier than 16-pound-test on a rod rated for that line and put slow, steady pressure on it, it will either lift 16 pounds of fish and weeds, or the line will break first. Beyond that, if you overline it with heavy braid, for example, it may break.”

The exceptionally light weight of Loomis sticks makes them incredibly easy on the arms and wrists, a big plus for anglers who fish daylight till dark. Matched with a lightweight reel like a Shimano Chronarch or similar, these rigs seem like old friends the moment you pick them up the first time.

And odds are, they will become that for the fortunate few who can afford them.

“These are legacy rods,” says Bruce Holt. “You can fish them for a lifetime, and then hand them down to your kids and they can fish them for another lifetime.”

Provided they avoid car doors and hatch lids, of course.

Prespawn largemouth

Back in the early 1980s I was in a deer club where we had a terrible problem with “seed ticks” every fall. One day after hunting I saw my pants legs were covered with tiny moving dots. I had some Scotch Tape in the truck and stuck a bunch of them under a strip and took them to an entomologists at the University of Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station in Griffin.

He identified the ticks and gave me some background on the tick life cycle. I reviewed information on the internet to check my memory of this information. One good site on tick life cycle is: http://animals.howstuffworks.com/arachnids/tick2.htm
And on Lyme Disease at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease

Lyme Disease is a bacterial infection transferred to people by tick bites. The bacterium that causes the infection is Borrelia burgdorferi. When a tick bites you, it actually attaches with its mouth parts and feeds on blood. To keep your blood from clotting and ending its meal, the tick injects anti-clotting agents into its host. That is when the bacteria are injected into your body, where they grow and multiply.

Ticks are related to spiders and adult ticks have eight legs, making them arthropods, not insects. We have four kinds of ticks in this area that you are likely to encounter. American Dog Ticks, Black Legged Ticks, Lone Star Ticks and Brown Dog Ticks are all common in Alabama.

Their life cycle is complex. An adult female tick feeds on a host and fills with blood. After breeding, she drops to the ground and digs in. She will lay hundreds to thousands of eggs and, when they hatch, the tiny ticks climb onto grass stalks or bushes and wait on a warm-blooded host to come by. They get onto the host and get a meal of blood then drop off.

At the first stage of their life, the ticks are tiny, about the size of a pin head. Often called “Seed Ticks,” these young ticks can actually be any of the kinds of ticks that live around here. You aren’t likely to see them attached to you at this stage since they don’t feed long, but they leave an itching sore where they bite that shows up a day or two after they are gone. Since hundreds hatch in the same small area, you can get dozens on you at the same time.

The tiny ticks go back into the ground, molt and grow, then climb back up onto something to wait on a host again. At this stage the ticks are bigger and easier to see, but are usually still called seed ticks. They bite and attach a little longer before filling with blood and dropping off again. You sometimes start to itch while they are still attached at this stage.

After dropping off, the ticks will go through another molt then try to find a host a third time. They are mature at this point and will be bigger. You often feel them crawling on you and can spot them easier, and can even identify the type of tick. And they will stay attached much longer while feeding. This is the stage where the tick will be a big gray ball after filling with blood. At some point during this stage the tick will breed. The females then drop off, lay their eggs and start the cycle all over again.

Different kinds of ticks carry different diseases. The Brown Dog Tick mainly carries infections that affect dogs but Lone Star Ticks carry Tularemia and Lyme disease, the American Dog Tick carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and Tularemia, and the Black Legged Ticks are the primary carriers of Lyme Disease and also carry human granulocytic ehrlichiosis. Since the different kinds of ticks are very hard to identify at different stages, all ticks should be considered dangers.

Growing up back in the 1950s, we seldom saw ticks except on our dogs, and almost never got them on us. They were just not that common. But something happened to make ticks much more widespread. Whitetail deer are favorite hosts of ticks and, as the deer population boomed, so did the tick population. By the late 1970s, it was hard to walk in the woods in warm weather without getting a tick on you.

I spend a lot of time outdoors and get bit by ticks way too often now. From April to October, if I go out to my ponds and walk around them, I will get ticks on me if I don’t spray carefully with repellant. Just playing with my dog can transfer ticks from him to me. Sitting on the ground turkey hunting is a very good way to get ticks too.

One of the most unusual ways I got ticks on me happened in April a few years ago. While practicing for a tournament at West Point Lake I answered a call of nature. When I got out of the boat, I commented to my partner about all the deer tracks on the bank in that area. That night I found three ticks on me, two crawling and one attached, when I took a shower.

In July I started to feel run down and tired all the time. Sometimes at night I felt like I was having a slight chill and running a low fever. By late August I did not want to do anything. I had to force myself to go fishing, and a club tournament was an ordeal I suffered through. Walking out to the mail box exhausted me.

In early September I made my annual fishing trip to northern Wisconsin. Even though the fish bit great, I could not fish longer than five or six hours each day, and felt miserable after that short a time. When I got home, I went to the doctor and told them to find out what was wrong with me.

A wide ranging variety of blood tests for all kinds of things came back positive for only one thing – Lyme Disease. The doctor said I could have been infected for months or even a year and the symptoms were just showing up. I never saw a rash or “bulls-eye” swelling around a tick bite that is supposed to be seen in 90 percent of the cases of an infection. I never found a tick on me that had been attached for more than a few hours, although it is claimed they need to be attached for 24 hours to transfer the infection.

The doctor put me on 200 milligrams of Tetracycline daily for 20 days and I started feeling better near the end of that treatment. Unfortunately, within a week after ending the antibiotic, I felt terrible again and was given ten more day of Tetracycline. It had no effect and another 20 days of it was prescribed.

I did a lot of reading and found out 20 days of Tetracycline was the accepted course of treatment, and was supposed to cure you. It was scary reading how Lyme Disease left untreated could affect your nervous system, heart and other organs and even cause death. I found articles saying there was a chronic form that was much harder to get rid of, often taking years of antibiotic treatments.

I also found out the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) had a map on their web site showing a low risk of Lyme Disease for most of Alabama and no or minimal risk in some far north areas. That really surprised me since everyone I talked with seemed to know someone who had tested positive for Lyme Disease.

At this point I had taken antibiotics for 50 days and still had the same symptoms. I was worried and went back to my doctor. He ran every test he could think of, taking eight vials of blood for them. All came back normal and he said there was really nothing he could do since the test said everything was ok.

One point was a little scary. He told me my Lyme Disease test was still positive, but it would always be positive. Once you get Lyme Disease your blood will always have the antigen that shows up positive in a blood test, so it really does not tell the doctor anything. You can still be infected or the infection can be gone, there is no way to tell.

For several weeks I managed to get by, feeling run down and tired all the time. It felt like someone had unplugged me and all my energy was gone. I could be sitting at my desk or lying in bed and just felt drained and did not want to do anything.

While talking to a local forester, I told him my experiences, and he said his son and gotten very sick with Lyme Disease and had gone through the same things without being cured. Then he found a doctor in Mobile that specialized in Lyme Disease and went to him. After a long struggle and months of antibiotics, he started getting better.

I contacted the doctor and got an appointment. He told me my experiences were common. He had been treating Lyme Disease for over 20 years, studying it and had come up with a course of treatment that helped about 95 percent of his patients. He ran several tests on me and said I was lucky that so far I didn’t have any neurological effects. He also said the approved course of antibiotics I had taken were not nearly strong or long enough.

He started me on 30 days of 500 milligrams of azithromycin a day plus a daily dose of Flagyl, a kind of antibiotic that will kill bacteria in the cyst stage. After three weeks of the dual antibiotics I started feeling better and actually wanted to get out and do things like cut wood and work around the house, something I had not felt like doing for almost six months.

That was the first stage of his four month treatment. The second stage is 250 milligrams of azithromycin daily for sixty days, then a fourth month of biaxin twice daily.

I still do not feel as good as I did last spring, but I no longer have the feeling of being exhausted all the time. I can actually enjoy fishing a club tournament for eight hours and the idea of turkey hunting doesn’t wear me out just thinking about it.

There are several things you can do to avoid ticks, but if you love hunting and fishing, it is much more difficult. Avoid grass and bushes where ticks may be waiting on you. Stay away from deer and dog trails in fields and woods. Wear light colored clothing so you can see ticks. Tuck your pant legs into boots or socks. And apply strong repellants. Some are made without smell so they won’t interfere with hunting, but use something anytime you are outside.

Watch out for pets that may bring ticks to you. If you have a dog, make sure you treat it for ticks and check yourself after playing with them. And remember, ticks can be anywhere, so always be careful when outside.

Avoid getting bit by ticks! If you do find a tick bite, be aware of any symptoms like fever, being tired all the time, weakness, confusion, headache or rashes. Watch for the bullseye swelling or rash. If you find a tick on you, stick it to some tape or put it in a small bottle of alcohol and show it to the doctor if you develop symptoms.

The blood test for Lyme Disease will not work for several weeks after the infection starts but let you doctor know if you have symptoms and have been bitten by a tick. And the test sometimes has false negatives, meaning you may have Lyme Disease and the test still show you do not have it.

It is best to seek a specialists in infectious diseases or, if you can find one, a doctor specializing in Lyme Disease treatment. I have heard stories of doctors that are skeptical of Lyme Disease infections or don’t know much about it and don’t even run the tests until it is too late.

Don’t let your symptoms go untreated – the sooner you get treatment the better your chances of getting over it. Left untreated, you could have serious health problems.