Two Good Options for Summer Fishing

Two Good Options for Summer Fishing
Lee McClellan
from The Fishing Wire

Fun fishing in the summer


FRANKFORT, Ky. – Although this June so far is wet and soggy in the Midwest, the long-range weather forecast calls for a return to normal summer patterns. We can finally look forward to stable water levels, hot weather and predictable fishing.

Bass fishing in summer revolves around light, or the lack of it. The best times to sling a lure are pre-dawn to mid-morning, dusk and nighttime. You won’t find a better bass fishing spot during these times than a weedy farm pond.

Farm ponds make for great low-light bass fishing because they’re much easier to navigate than a huge reservoir. Target weed edges with a floating plastic frog or a Jitterbug in the pre-dawn, dusk and at night. A steady retrieve usually produces strikes, but switch speeds or pause the lure for a time if they don’t cooperate.

A weightless minnow-shaped soft plastic jerkbait is a good lure choice for low-light, but not dark, conditions in a farm pond. Rig this lure on an offset worm hook to make it weedless and cast it into fallen tree tops, brush or along weed lines. You can practically work this lure in place using short, quick jerks of the rod tip, driving any nearby bass crazy. You can also reel it over the top of weeds and drop it into holes in the vegetation that often hold some of the bigger bass in a pond.

The lack of weight and weedless nature of this rig make it easy to work in a shallow, weedy farm pond. Light lures are the way to go, leave the Carolina rigs and ½-ounce jigs at home. A medium-power spinning rod spooled with 8-pound test line works great for this presentation.

As the days turn steamy and uncomfortable, fishing from mid-morning to early evening makes for a sweat-drenched, uncomfortable experience. You can catch panfish and the occasional small buck bass, but fishing in the heat of the day usually leads to frustration.

Head to the Lake Cumberland tailwater and wade for brown, rainbow, brook or the newly stocked cutthroat trout. Fishing the Cumberland River below Wolf Creek Dam in summer feels like you are surrounded by natural air conditioning. You’ll fish in waters that stay in the 50s and 60s year round and trout bite willingly the day long, no matter how hot the air temperature.

Summer provides a reliable pattern for water releases from Wolf Creek Dam. Power generation generally peaks in the afternoon making the morning the best time to fish in the upper one-third of the river near the dam and the afternoon better in the lower river. This is not set in stone, so anglers must know the release schedule before traveling to the Cumberland River to fish.

There are a couple of ways to check the release schedule, visit the TVA generation preschedule page and consult the “WOL” column. The number 45 represents one turbine of generation. You may also log on to the Tennessee Valley Authority home page and click on the “Lake Levels” tab and scroll down to “Wolf Creek.”

Anglers can easily find access points for the Cumberland River. The Lake Cumberland Tailwater entry on the “Find a Place to Fish” page on the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources’ website at fw.ky.gov details these access points.

Anglers will likely need waders to wade the river because of the cold water temperatures, but many hardy souls wet leg the Cumberland for short periods during summer. You do not need fly fishing gear to catch trout. A light-power spinning rod armed with small shad-colored suspending jerkbaits, a few in-line spinners dressed in white or red along with a couple of small silver casting spoons will put trout in hand.

Fish suspending jerkbaits over a rocky or pebble bottom across the current with a strong, erratic retrieve. If this retrieve does not produce strikes, slow way down. After reeling to get the lure down, let the suspending jerkbait float downstream and gently twitch your rod tip occasionally. Trout that ignored your lure earlier often hit this presentation, especially brown trout.

Cast in-line spinners and spoons at a 45-degree angle upstream and simply reel them back, making sure they give off lots of flash. Keep them up off the bottom on the retrieve. These lures score on all four species of trout in the tailwater, but especially draw rainbow trout.

Head to a farm pond at dark or the Cumberland tailwater on a weekend morning to escape this summer’s heat and enjoy bountiful fishing.

Author Lee McClellan is a nationally award-winning associate editor for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. He is a life-long hunter and angler, with a passion for smallmouth bass fishing.

Summer Bream at High Falls Lake

Summer Bream at High Falls Lake

It has often been said that if bream got much bigger, our tackle would not hold them. Few other fish offer as much as bream – a good fight, excellent eating and memories for most of us of our first fish. High Falls Lake offers good bream fishing where you can enjoy all of their great qualities.

High Falls is a 660 acre lake located just off I-75 between Macon and Atlanta. The main lake is on the Towaliga River and there are three main arms, Buck Creek, Watkins Bottom and Brushy Creek running off it. The lake is lined with private cabins and there are two good boat ramps, one at the dam and one on Buck Creek.

It is a state park with special regulations. Boats are limited to 10 horsepower or less and all boats must be off the lake at night. Don’t get into a guessing game about the legal definition of dark – check out sunrise and sunset times and plan on launching at sunrise and coming in at sunset.

State regulations apply in other cases, so you need a Georgia fishing license and you can keep up to 50 bream each day. That includes all species and you may catch bluegill, shellcracker, warmouth and redbreast at High Falls. You will have to pay a $2 daily fee to launch your boat and park, except on Wednesdays which are free. An annual permit is available.

High falls is a fertile lake and has good populations of all game fish. The waters are not polluted, though, and there are no restrictions on eating fish from the lake. The lake is fairly shallow and is very silted in, with old channels mostly depressions and backs of creeks filled in with sand and mud.

Keith Weaver is the state fisheries biologists in charge of High Falls. He says the lake is an overlooked resource for all species of fish, and that there is a good population of bluegill in the lake. Their sampling shows you should catch a lot of bluegill in the half-pound range, fish 7 to 9 inches are there in good numbers. Shellcracker are not as numerous, but there are some big ones in the lake.

This has been a strange year for bedding fish of all species, and it may have made the bream bed at odd times at High Falls, according to Keith. Although the full moon is a prime time for bream bedding, the unstable weather we have had this spring has thrown them off. Bluegill will bed every month from April thorough September at High Falls, but the shellcracker will do almost all their bedding in April.

There is a full moon the July 16, 2019, so that week should be excellent for bluegill at High Falls. Keith says bigger bream usually are found toward the dam, so look for bedding fish in the small pockets and behind docks in that area.

After bedding is done, Keith suggests moving out to deeper water. Find stumps in 5 to 6 feet of water, especially along the old creek and river channels, and fish for bream there. Early mornings and late afternoons are the best times for bigger fish, and Keith said, without hesitation, that crickets as your best bait.

Shady areas also hold bream. Look for banks where tall trees keep the sun off the water longer, and find areas where the trees and bushes hang out over the water and provide shade. Boat docks also provide shade, and most have brush around them, making bream fishing even better. Be careful when fishing around docks to not disturb the dock owners poles left out to catch fish.

For shellcracker Keith suggest Watkins Bottom. The fish will hold on the stumps along the old creek channel there and hit crickets in 5 or 6 feet of water. The channel is deep enough to offer a thermal refuge of cooler water when the sun gets hot in June. If you catch one you can anchor and fish the area carefully, there should be others nearby.

Jim Berry owns Berry’s Sporting Goods in Griffin and has fished High Falls all his life. An mount of an 11 pound bass at the store shows the kind of bass he has caught there. Jim also likes to fish for bream at High Falls, and had a cabin on the lake for years. Add that to the fact he talks to fishermen every day that are buying bait and tackle will give you an idea of his knowledge of the bream fishing on the lake.

Jim and I went to High Falls during the full moon in May expecting to find lots of bream beds. We put my bass boat in at the ramp in Buck Creek and fished from there to the mouth of Buck Creek, then across to Brushy Creek and all the way around it. We landed a lot of bream but most were small, and we found just a few beds.

Apparently the cool mornings we had put the bream off their bedding schedule. That may mean even more are bedding this month, making fishing even better there. The baits and tactics Jim suggests should help you find bream and catch as many as you want.

Jim likes all kinds of bream fishing and carried a fly rod, a cane pole and several light spinning and spin cast rods with us. He suggest using 6 to 8 pound line so you can pull your hook loose rather than breaking it off when you get hung. This also keeps you from going into and area where you are catching fish to get unhung, which would spook them.

There are three basic ways to find bream beds at High Falls. You can ride the shallows looking for the saucer shaped light colored depressions in the bottom, you can smell them when you get close, and you can often see the fish making the water ripple around beds.

A small jig or Beetle Spin type bait is a good search bait for bream. You can run the banks casting those baits while watching for bream beds and water movement. If you see the beds, or smell them, stop and make several casts. When you catch a bream, especially a good sized one, it is time to anchor and switch to live bait.

To find beds you can’t see, or to find schools of bream holding out from the bank, Jim likes to cast his Beetle Spin or jig to the bank and work it back with a rise and fall action. He says the bream usually hit the jig as it falls. His favorite colors are white or black jigs and when using just the jig he likes the Renosky jig in 1/16 to 1/32 ounce.

Fishing a fly is another good way to find bream. Jim likes a popping bug best but will use a rubber cricket or even a wet fly if that is what the fish seem to want. If you don’t have a fly rod, you can cast a fly using a clear bubble made for that purpose. It attaches to your spinning rod line and then you tie on a leader and your fly.

Sometimes it seems a bream will hit a fly or popping bug better than just about anything else. You can fish them slowly or fast, letting them sit until it drives the bream crazy. A sinking fly will also drift to the bottom so slowly that it looks irresistible. Give them a try.

We had crickets, red wigglers and meal worms from Jim’s store with us. All can be fished on cane poles or spinning outfits. Tie on a #6 or #8 hook, attach a small split shot about six inches above it and clip a cork to your line. Adjust the cork to the depth of the water, you want your bait to be near the bottom and the split shot should be at the depth below the cork to just touch the bottom.

If you can see the beds, cast to them and let the bait settle. If you don’t get hit immediately, slowly move it back toward you across the beds. It should not go far before a bream sucks it in. Jim says it is best to stay way out from the beds and make as long a cast as you can make effectively. This keeps from spooking the bream and making them move off the beds.

Jim likes a #8 hook for bream for a couple of reasons. One, it will straighten out easier if you get hung. And even more important, bream with their small mouths seem to take the smaller hook in better.

Good areas where Jim has found beds in the past include the last big cove on your right as you leave Buck Creek and enter the river. It is shallow and sandy, and bream bed all around it and even out in the middle toward the back. You can find bream beds all around Brushy Creek and the big flat in the back often has beds all over it.

In the river from the dam to the upper end, look for small pockets where the beds have some protection from the wind. Any backout can hold a few beds, and the bigger ones hold more beds. If your trolling motor is kicking up soft mud it is better to try to find a sandy area. You can check the bottom composition with a paddle, too.

The same baits work if you don’t locate a bed. You can anchor near the old river or creek channel and fish the live bait just off the bottom. There will be more and bigger bream present if there are stumps in the area. Let the bait sit longer to give them a chance to find it.

Jim likes the deeper banks in Brushy Creek as well as the channel in Buck Creek above the bridge. If you have a good depthfinder you can locate the deeper water with stumps, or you can cast a small jig until you start to get hung on them. Once you find them anchor and you can put out several rods or poles with different baits on them. If you start catching bream on one bait, switch the others to it if they are not hitting them as well.

There are a lot of old trees that have fallen from the bank and you can catch bream around them, too. Position your boat out from the tip and fish all around the trunk and limbs of the tree. A cane pole is a very effective way to do this because you can drop your bait into a hole in the limbs then pull it straight back up and out if you don’t get a bite.

Up the river above the confluence of Buck and Brushy Creek you can find a lot of overhanging willows. Stay on the deeper side and fish under them. This should give you action all day long, and you can also get out of the sun here, an important consideration as June wears on and it gets hotter.

As Jim and I loaded my boat, Tommy Lance came up and started talking to us. He was surprised we put my bass boat in the lake, but we explained it was OK as long as you don’t crank the gas engine. If you crank a big motor at High Falls you can bet someone will call and the game warden will be waiting on you with his ticket book! Your trolling motor should move you around fine on the lake.

Tommy saw some of the bream we caught and said he had fished for bream there many years. He had a cabin on the lake for a while and spent many hours catching bream on the lake. He offered a few suggestions for finding bigger bream, especially if they are bedding.

In Buck Creek if you go upstream from the landing the creek makes a bend, and the right bank is deeper. There is good bream fishing all along that bank, according to Tommy. You can fish live bait or artificials around the docks and trees in the water, and bream do bed in the shallow areas.

Tommy’s favorite area to fish for bedding bream is up the Towaliga River. There is an area where a big pond is off to the side and it is called the Duck Pond. He says head up that way and when you see the grass growing out in the middle of the river in a shallow area, fish the left side out from the boat docks and cabins there. That is a big flat and the bigger bream in the area like to bed and hold there.

Also, there is a slough on the left going upstream before getting to the Duck Pond. That is another good area to fish for bream, around the mouth of that slough and into it. There is an old boat dock there you can fish around, also.

Also, there is a slough on the left going upstream before getting to the Duck Pond. That is another good area to fish for bream, around the mouth of that slough and into it. There is an old boat dock there you can fish around, also.

Tommy’s favorite bait is a cricket fished under a cork. It can be fished around all kinds of cover and across beds, too. Crickets will catch anything in High Falls, including the bigger bluegill.

One of the best things about fishing at High Falls is the peace and quiet. Every time I go there I am reminded how nice it is to fish and not be bothered by skiers, jet skis and big cruisers. You will hear the occasional fishing boat or see folks on a pontoon out riding around, but the 10 horsepower limit means lowered noise levels. It is very enjoyable.

Give High Falls a try for bream this month. You can check with Jim at his store in Griffin for the latest fishing information on the lake, and also get anything you need for fishing there. As Keith says, High Falls is an overlooked resource. Look at it and take advantage of some good, peaceful fishing.

High Hopes for a Bassing Career

High Hopes for a Bassing Career

By Frank Sargeant, Editor
The Fishing Wire

Cole Drummond has high hopes for a bassing career.

He looks at Van Dam, at Wheeler, at Martin, at the Brothers Lee. And he sees himself a few years down the road.

It’s not an easy or a straight road.

Drummond, a South Carolina kid who started fishing with his dad Steve when he was just big enough to click the button on a Zebco spincaster, is 19 now–still a kid to some, but he’s starting to chink away at building a reputation in pro bass fishing.

He’s not only done very well in the booming high-school bass tournament scene, making the championship fishoff at Kentucky Lake as a junior, he’s also had some success in fishing open tournaments against guys two or three times his age–he’s banked $14 grand in a couple years.

But he’s come up against a hard truth that soon faces most with pro fishing dreams.

It costs a WHOLE lot of money to fish any of the circuits. Tens of thousands in travel costs, to say nothing of the entry fees and supporting a tournament grade bass boat and a truck to tow it.

“I’d like to see him get where he bankrolls himself,” says dad Steve, who’s a successful taxidermist. “Quick.”

They’re here at the FLW ICAST Cup, the kickoff for ICAST 2019, at Big Toho Marina on Lake Tohopekaliga, and I am their designated media type. Some 60 boats run by an assortment of seasoned and well-known pro anglers from FLW as well as some who hope soon to be known, like Cole, have volunteered to get us out on the lake for a taste of fishing before the doors of the big show open.

Cole is a clean-cut, tattoo-free, polite kid who just loves to fish. He’ll never be Mike Iaconelli–but you could see him being Jordan Lee someday.

One possible speed bump in the road ahead: collegiate fishing. Much as college football is a sort of farm system for the NFL, college fishing circuits, growing even faster than the high-school competitions, have become sort of the de facto road to the pro’s for many younger anglers who might otherwise have to wait years for sponsor support, all the while pouring money into the game.

Cole is not going to college. He’s not much for studying in the classroom. It interferes with his fishing time.

The question is, will a degree become an expected prerequisite for sponsors–who pay many of the bills for the more successful pro’s? Cole and his dad are hoping not.

“I know it’s about helping them sell product and getting their name out there,” says Cole. He’s no stranger to it. He helps his dad film a local outdoors television show, and sometime appears on camera.

He’s a good angler, no doubt about it. He puts four bass in the boat while his dad and I manage only a couple between us. He’s working up his social media profile, reaching out to pro’s already on the circuits for advice. But . . . .

Pro fishing has been the wreck of a whole lot of dreams, for sure. But Cole Drummond is hopeful–he’s been able to set up a couple meetings with some of the major companies in the industry during the visit to Orlando . . . maybe, just maybe . . . .

Fake News from CBS and 60 Minutes – Guns of Autumn

The below was part of my Griffin Daily News column in 2004 about their lying report on President George W. Bush during the election – the one Dan Rather lied about constantly. They have just gotten worse and worse, but my wake up call was a BS hit job on hunters called Guns of Autumn back in 1975. I have not believed anything on news shows since then.

I have watched the news about CBS and the fake documents they ran on 60 minutes with interest. I lost all trust in CBS and 60 Minutes back in 1975 when they ran a segment called “The Guns Of Autumn.” I had not been out of college very long way back then and still believed in the accuracy and fairness of the national media, but that show put an end to my trust.

That show was nothing but a hatchet job on hunters. It showed some slob hunters and emphasized everything negative on hunting they could dig up. Since I knew most hunters were not like they portrayed us, and I knew they were not being fair to hunters, I started questioning everything I saw. If they would be that inaccurate and unfair about something I knew a lot about, I suspected they would do the same thing on other topics.

I have refused to watch CBS news and 60 minutes since that day 29 years ago this month. The current mess at that network does not surprise me at all.

Scott Forristall Selected to Lead St. Croix Rod Company

Scott Forristall Selected to Lead St. Croix

Scott Forristall


New President and CEO brings deep industry experience, angling passion and a history of success to the Best Rods on Earth®

Park Falls, WI (June 24, 2019) – St. Croix Rod CEO and co-owner, Paul Schluter, announced a planned transition of leadership to St. Croix Team Members in January of this year. In his statement, Schluter cited his desire to hand over the day-to-day operations of the 70-year-old company in order to focus on family, fishing and other aspects of the company he most loves.

Paul’s journey with St. Croix started in 1983 when his father, Gordon, hired him to manage retailer accounts in Minnesota. A year later, Paul was promoted to Sales Manager. In 1989, Gordon stepped aside, and Paul assumed the role of President. Brothers Paul, Jeff, Dave and sister Pamela Smiley purchased St. Croix from Gordon and Irene in 1990, and continue to own the company to this day.

St. Croix’s Board of Directors is excited to announce that fishing-industry veteran, Scott Forristall, has been selected and hired as the company’s new President and CEO.

Forristall brings a keen understanding of the fishing-rod business and the greater fishing industry to St. Croix, earned from a rich employment history with premier companies such as Eagle Claw, Johnson Outdoors and Far-Bank Enterprises, parent company to the Sage, Redington, and Rio Products fly-fishing brands. Most recently, Forristall served as President and CEO of the R.L. Winston Rod Company and Bauer Reels. His strong fishing lineage, industry knowledge and disciplined management style position the “Best Rods on Earth” for continued success in the company’s Balanced Scorecard approach to operations and measured company performance.

“St. Croix is the strongest brand in fishing rods in the US,” says Forristall, who shares the enthusiasm and pride of St. Croix’s employees and customers. “To come to work in Park Falls for this premier, family-owned business with US manufacturing is a rare opportunity in this industry that I love. St. Croix – its people, products and ties to the community – is everything I value and want to be part of.”

“Scott comes to us with vast experience managing premium outdoor brands and exhibits a management style which is consistent with all that we value at St. Croix,” says Schluter. “I’m really excited to watch Scott and the rest of our strong team further our objective of providing every angler the upper hand. Between my father and myself, a Schluter has been responsible for the execution of St. Croix’s mission for the last 41 of our 71 years. I have the highest confidence in Scott as he assumes this leadership role while I remain an active member of our Board of Directors, and, of course, an owner of St. Croix along with my brothers Jeff and Dave, and sister Pam.”

In addition to fishing, Forristall enjoys training and competing in triathlons during his free time. He and his wife of 44 years, Lynn, will relocate to Park Falls from their current home in Dillon, Montana. Forristall begins work at St. Croix on June 24.

Avoiding Barotrauma

Right Tools Mean Everything for Avoiding Barotrauma
From the Florida FWC
from the Fishing Wire

It’s that time of year when you might be fishing for snapper and grouper. Continue your role as a conservationist by looking out for fish with signs of barotrauma and being prepared to respond. Barotrauma is a condition seen in many fish caught in waters greater than 50 feet that is caused by expansion of gases in the swim bladder. Signs of barotrauma include the stomach coming out of the mouth, bulging eyes, bloated belly and distended intestines.

It’s important to know in advance what tools are available and how to use them to help fish return to the bottom and increase their chances of survival.

Descending devices can be used by anglers to take fish back down to depths where increased pressure from the water will recompress swim bladder gases. They fall into three categories: mouth clamps, inverted hooks and fish elevators. Learn more about descending devices and how to use them at MyFWC.com/SaltwaterFishing by clicking on the “Fish Handling” then “How-to Videos” or scrolling to “Barotrauma.”

Descending devices are used to return fish to a depth where expanded gases in the body cavity can recompress.

Venting tools are sharpened, hollow instruments that anglers can use to treat barotrauma by releasing expanded gas from the swim bladder, enabling the fish to swim back down to capture depth.

Please note, items such as fillet knives, ice picks, screwdrivers and gaffs are not venting tools and should never be used to vent a fish, because they are not hollow tubes that allow air to escape. Venting a fish incorrectly or with the wrong tool may cause more harm than good.

To properly vent, lay the fish on its side (on a cool, wet surface). Insert the venting tool at a 45-degree angle, under a scale 1-2 inches behind the base of the pectoral fin, just deep enough to release trapped gasses. Never insert venting tools into a fish’s belly, back or stomach that may be protruding from the mouth. Learn how to vent properly by visiting https://youtu.be/jhkzv1_2Bpc.

Venting tools should be inserted at a 45-degree angle, under a scale 1-2 inches behind the base of the pectoral fin, just deep enough to release trapped gasses.

Descending devices and venting tools should only be used when fish show one or more signs of barotrauma and cannot swim back down on their own. It is essential to work quickly when using these tools and return the fish to the water as soon as possible. Anglers should choose the device and method they are most comfortable with and that best fits the situation.

To learn more about catch-and-release techniques, visit MyFWC.com/Marine and click on “Recreational Regulations” and “Fish Handling.” To learn more about barotrauma, descending devices and venting tools, visit our YouTube channel at MyFWC.com/SaltwaterFishing. For answers to questions, contact 850-487-0554 or Marine@MyFWC.com.

July 4 and Fireworks

In the late 1950s and early 60s fireworks were legal in Georgia. And not just the wimpy stuff made legal in the past few years and being sold now. I don’t think there were any restrictions or controls on size or power. All six of the small stores in Dearing had a display every July 4th and New Year’s.

We kids saved our money from allowances, collecting bottles for deposits, picking blackberries for sale and other money making schemes. Since my allowance was 25 cents a week and we got a penny for every bottle collected from ditches and 25 cents for a full quart of blackberries, we were careful with our funds. We studied the fireworks displays, carefully picking out our favorite things to buy.

I loved things that made a big, powerful boom. Back in those days’ cherry bombs, TNT bombs and M-80s were my favorite and each one was just a few cents, so my money went a long way. I always got a few packs of smaller firecrackers as well as a few bottle rockets and aerial bombs, but those seemed to go way too fast.

The big ones were powerful. Every year we just had to test them on concrete blocks. A cherry bomb fired off in one the holes in a block would break it into two pieces, a TNT bomb would break it into several chunks. But an M-80 would shatter it into gravel chunks.

We always had to see what we could blow up. Anything around the farm was fair game for a bomb stuffed into it just to see the effect. Anything from tin cans to hollow trees were tested. Trees didn’t react much, but cans were shredded, and we learned to run from them fast to avoid the shrapnel.

We were constantly warned by parents and store owners to be careful, and we usually were. Every year my friends and I would challenge each other to hold a small firecracker between our fingertips and light it. I was never brave enough to do that, always throwing them away before they went off, but a couple of times friends were brave.

The powder stain on their fingertips and reported burning and stinging was not something I wanted to experience.

Sometimes friends would light a whole string of firecrackers. We all liked the rapid-fire popping, but the one time I did it, I realized I had burned up my whole string of firecrackers in a few seconds. I never wasted them that fast again.

Skyrockets and aerial bombs were similar. They were pretty and made a good boom, but each one was expensive, probably a quarter each, and each one was a one-shot deal. That was way to fast to blow my money.

One of my dumber tricks I tried only one time. For some reason I cut a 12-gauge shotgun shell open and made a small mound of the powder on a rock out in the woods. After placing two small firecrackers’ fuses touching the powder, I touched the pile with a lit match.

I’m not sure what I expected but it was not what happened. Maybe I thought the pile would burn slowly, lighting the fuses. But the whole pile of powder went off with a flash while I looked at it. Since I was close, it blinded me for a few seconds.

Then the two firecrackers exploded. I was within arm’s reach of all this and when they popped, my ears started ringing and I was deaf for a few seconds. Not a good idea.

When I could see again, I had to put out several small fires started by my experiment. The leaves beside the rock had caught fire from the pile of powder, then the firecrackers blew them for several feet around it, starting other fires.

One year I watched as a neighbor “shot an anvil.” To do that, the hole in the bottom of the anvil was packed with powder from several shotgun shells. It was carefully placed on top of another anvil and a fuse placed to light the powder.

I loved the big boom and ringing sound the top anvil made as if flew way up in the sky, but that huge chunk of iron flying on an uncontrollable trajectory scared me. I wanted to try it. But standing way back I could watch the projectile and know which way to run.

I was always afraid if I lit the fuse I would be running away – in the wrong direction. I never tried it.

Fire works are fun, but we should never forget what they represent this July 4. The rockets’ red glare and booming of cannon and guns while we fought for our freedom from a tyrannical government controlling us is what we celebrate.

Unfortunately, We the People have let our government become the tyrant, controlling every part of our lives. From what fireworks we can buy, if even allowed to buy any, to what guns we are allowed to own, all aspects of our lives are controlled by our own government. And it seems to get worse every year.

Will some future kid light fireworks and celebrate freedom, or will they be so brainwashed and controlled they have no idea what it means to be free?

Tackle Spending Up

Tackle Spending Up but Angler Numbers Flat
(Today’s feature, by publisher Jim Shepherd, appeared initially in The Outdoor Wire.)
Jim Shepherd, Publisher, The Outdoor Wire

The latest statistical study we’ve seen on the sportfishing market seems to paint a pretty optimistic picture for the recreational fishing industry. That’s good news as everyone preps for ICAST next month in Orlando, Florida.

The newest research indicates the overall sportfishing tackle market grew a whopping 12% to nearly $6 billion in 2018. According to the study, growth was primarily fueled by rods, reels and combo outfits that grew in both dollars and units sold.

Good news – if you’re a retailer- but for everyone concerned about growing the sport, it’s not all blue skies and a hot bite.

According to the Southwick & Associates (www.SouthwickAssociates.com) angler participation numbers, participation -the number of anglers going fishing- remain flat for 2018. If that is, in fact, the case, does it mean anglers are spending more, but not necessarily proselytizing the sport?

I talked with Rob Southwick yesterday, and he reminded me of something significant for the long-term health of fishing. Angling’s core customers, are doing what blue collar workers do in good economic times: they’re working. They don’t always have the luxury of extra time to take a fishing trip.

It’s something that’s been true for decades. In the boom years of the 70s, workers -including me- didn’t have time for “get aways” – we were working. Our bosses and the business owners were enjoying more leisure time – because with good times, the business was, basically, running itself.

I have a tendency to look at what’s happening in the outdoors from my time in the golf industry. Golf is a sport where spending and participation have been directly tied to two things: age and income. More money and more time is good- until you have an audience that’s basically aged out of the sport. Today, golf is a sport on the ropes on the consumer side.

That isn’t necessarily the case here. Especially when you consider that the blue collar workers might not have the luxury of the time to fish more; but their increasingly optimistic financial situation enables them to move to higher quality purchases they’ll be able to enjoy when they do have leisure time.

Like every business, there are a myriad of things in play. But it’s not a reach to say that the angling trade has reasons to be optimistic for the future. That allows them to focus on something every recreational business needs to work toward: bringing in new participants.

“Not everyone in the trade may be seeing the large gains across the industry due to inventory issues related to retail mergers and other factors,” Southwick VP Nancy Bacon told me, “but consumers are still spending on fishing equipment.”

The downside of that spending? There have never been so many avenues available to purchase product. Simply put, retailers are having to battle for those customers more than ever before.

Tackle shops, however, enjoy one significant advantage over their colleagues in the shooting sports. One thing that helps offset any price difference is the local knowledge that these shops offer their customers.

When traveling to unknown waters, many experienced anglers only bring their basic gear. They’ll head directly to the local bait and tackles to find out to things: 1) what’s biting, and 2) what getting bitten the most.

That’s information you can use. It’s another compelling reason to consider changing some of the gear you brought for the stuff locals are telling you works best. Fishing Arkansas’ White River a couple of years ago, I was the angler in my boat that wasn’t catching fish, and I was throwing the exact same bait as my companions.

We were stumped, until the guide noticed something. I was using my own gear and my line was tinted. My companions were using his gear and all their line was clear. When he added clear line to my reel, my bite improved- immediately. I tipped him considerably more than the cost of that very small bit of line – but you get the point- the right equipment means results.

Another reason everyone might not be realizing the same gains is the changing demographic of our society.

Today’s young consumer, I’m told, isn’t as aspirationally driven as my aging generation.

They are experientially driven. They want to participate in activities with their friends.

If their friends are fishing, they’ll give it a try. If, however, they don’t find it rewarding, they’ll move on to something that meets their needs.

Keeping them from moving on is the question every subset of “the outdoors” is trying to answer.

We’ll keep you posted.

Fishing Tournaments and Lake Weiss

Growing up, I never played sports and did not like many games. I was not competitive in anything, being too much of a loner. I wanted to be out on the water or in he woods all the time and was perfectly happy being alone.

In April, 1974 Jim Berry took me to my first bass club tournament and I fell in love with the competition. For some reason, it was different. Although still somewhat on my own, with just two of us in the boat, it was very much to my liking.

Fishing big lakes in tournaments is different. If I wanted to go fishing just to catch fish, there are many bodies of water where I could catch more and bigger bass. And if numbers were my goal, I could choose to fish for something other than bass.

But the challenge of figuring out how to catch bass on big lakes with lots of fishing pressure is a thrill for me. If you watch the pros on TV, they often make it look easy. Of course, the cameras focus on the guys catching fish. If you look at the total results, in every tournament many of the top pros struggle.

My goal in club tournaments at the start each morning is to catch one bass. That first one is important. I try to not think of catch a limit until I have five in the boat, and catching a limit is often hard to do.

Two trips last week emphasized the difference in tournament bass fishing on a big lake and fishing on other waters. Tuesday, I fished Lake Weiss with Hayden Marbut and his father Brian, getting information for my Georgia and Alabama Outdoor News August Map of the Month articles.

Hayden is a 16-year-old high school tournament fisherman and his father grew up fishing Weiss. He won a high school tournament at Weiss recently. But we knew it would be tough fishing, with bright sun and no wind.

We started fishing before sunrise and three hours later had not caught a single bass. But a big part of tournament fishing is sticking with it and trying hard. The fifth place we tried, Hayden caught a two-pound keeper pitching a jig and pig to a dock. Then he caught a second keeper there, but this one weighed 5.92 pounds, a great kicker in a tournament.

We fished until 4:00 PM and Hayden landed four more keepers. His best five weighed about 13 pounds, a good catch in most tournaments. His dad got frustrated, fishing hard but never catching a single bass. I sat in the boat, taking notes and pictures and never made a cast.

In tournaments you often work hard for five or six bites like that.

Last Sunday was similar.

Tips for More Efficient Kayak Paddling

Tips for More Efficient Kayak Paddling
from The Fishing Wire

Tips for More Efficient Kayak Paddling


Whether kayak fishing or out for a quiet day on the water, proper and efficient kayak paddling will help increase speed and momentum so you can travel farther with less fatigue. YakGear provides a few general tips for new and seasoned paddlers to make the most of their day on the water.

Proper Posture

Efficient paddling begins with proper sitting posture. An upright sitting position is key to getting the most from your paddle blades and allows for easier dipping and removal of the blade from the water. Paddlers should be sitting upright or slightly forward and not lean on the backrest. Feet should be anchored to the footrests or foot molds with knees slightly bent.

Proper Hand Grip

To determine the optimal grip placement, position the middle of the paddle on your head and grab the shaft with elbows at 90 degrees. This will be the ideal gripping spot for each hand. Most paddlers will tend to over grip the paddle. A light grip will prevent hands from growing tired and give you a better feeling for the balance of the paddle. Using paddle grips, such as HOLDFast Kayak Paddle Grips, will help keep hands fresh and provide a consistent, tactile point of contact.

Paddle Stroke

A smooth and consistent paddle stroke is perhaps the most important aspect of efficient paddling. Most new paddlers hold the paddle too close to their bodies with their elbows bent – more commonly known as paddle hugging. Instead, keep the paddle as far in front of your chest as possible, with elbows slightly bent. This will allow you to reach farther forward when you begin your stroke.

Begin the stroke by reaching forward and inserting the blade into the water, vertically in line with your feet or ankles. If the stroke is on the right side, the right hand serves as a fulcrum point while the left hand pushes forward while your torso rotates to the right. The blade should come out of the water as it passes the hip. Keeping the blade in after the hip does not help propel but actually creates drag. Leaving the blade in the water past your hip also promotes the paddle blade to spoon or bring up water, which will drip down the shaft when that blade is up and out.

Using the Correct Length of Paddle

The general rule of thumb for finding the correct length of paddle is to stand straight and position the paddle vertically alongside your body. If you can reach up and just hook your first finger joint over the blade, it will be the correct length. For kayaks wider than 30 inches, you will need to add those extra inches to the overall paddle length. Paddles are measured in centimeters instead of inches, so a conversion will be needed. One inch equals 2.54 centimeters. For most kayaks and adults, a 230 cm or 240 cm paddle will do the trick.

For kayakers that straddle standard paddle lengths or may have several different sizes of kayaks, the Backwater Assassin Carbon Fiber Hybrid Paddle provides added versatility with an extra 10 centimeters of adjustment to fill the gap. The kayak paddle is available in lengths of 230-240 cm and 250-260 cm.

Efficient paddling is achieved through extensive practice. Spending time on the water in a kayak is quality time that is best shared with family or friends. YakRule No. 15 says it all – “Never Go it Alone.”

See the latest kayaking products and get more tips at www.yakgear.com.