Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i In-Fisherman

JUNE 5 Hot New Baits Happening > Boss Dawg Largemouths > Poling Crappies > Soft Options for Smallmouths JUNE 12 Lip Ripper Hot Bites > Busting Early Season Bluegills >“Cutting” Ice Out Smallmouths > Swimbait Hooking Giant Pike JUNE 19 Presentation Sleight of Hand > Curlytail Softbait Smallmouths > Grass Pig Grinding Largemouths > Rag-Tagging Swimbait Walleyes JUNE 26 In the Crosshairs—World-Class Fisheries > Gargantuan Yukon Pike > Saskatchewan Multispecies Mecca > Catching 2-pound Bluegills…

In the early 1900s, our bassin’ forefathers were thankful for the introduction of exciting new lures. Seems James Heddon of Dowagiac, Michigan, had been whittling various hardwoods to create bass plugs. Wood lures cast far better than those of wire, sheet metal, and feathers, and had lifelike action on top and realistic swimming movements when cranked below the surface. ¶ His first design was a frog, carved from a pinewood broomstick. On its initial test a bass demolished it, so the story goes. In 1902, he applied for his first U.S. patent for his invention of ”new and useful improvements in fish-baits.” For the first decade, James Heddon and son Will produced surface lures. He introduced the Wiggle King in 1918, a shallow-diver, with the promo , “The wobble makes…

Recently, my wife Diane found a collection of old family photos in the basement of my parents’ house. Included was an album that contained pictures of the first trip my grandparents, dad, aunt, and uncle made from their home in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Stalker Lake in Otter Tail County, Minnesota, back in 1937. This trip was taken the year before Grandpa bought our family cabin on the south side of the lake. Seeing photos of the cabin before it came into the family and the first stringer of fish caught from Stalker Lake by family members was emotional for me. However, I was also amazed at how many photos the album had of my ancestors’ stay in Pipestone, Minnesota, where they camped for the night after a full day of…

The nitty-gritty of how we rig with knots (and wire) often is left behind in painting the larger picture of a fishing situation. We usually discuss rod, reel, line, and lure selection, but typically pass over the specifics of knots that also play a role in success. But then knot choice and how they should be tied is such mundane stuff that you wouldn’t want to read about it all the time. The two simplest and strongest line-to-snap, line-to-split ring, or line-to-lure knots for monofilament and fluorocarbon are the Palomar and the Trilene. Tied correctly they both provide knot strength of more than 90 percent of line break strength. This is much better than other easy-to-tie knots like the improved clinch. My experience with these knots is a matter of…

While some panfish purists are content to pursue a single species, most anglers are quick to take advantage of situations where several species are available. Such situations exist in waters from coast to coast, allowing anglers who play their cards right to catch a rich diversity of panfish all summer. Jungle Warfare Emerging vegetation sets the stage for much of Brian “Bro” Brosdahl’s multispecies mayhem. This guide and avid panfish fan says the most fertile underwater fields are expansive beds that offer a variety of plant types. “Big weedbeds with a mix of cover and structure are better than small single-species plots,” he says. “In an ideal world, the scenario starts with hardstem rushes in the shallows and transitions out to coontail and cabbage on the outside. If you have…

Bass Spawning Migrations Field ScienceÑ Migration for reproduction, or potadromy, is common among freshwater fishes, and has occasionally but typically not been observed in black bass species. While movement patterns of largemouth and smallmouth bass have been well studied, those of more regionally specific black bass species are less understood. One such species, shoal bass, is found in the Apalachicola River Basin in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, occurring throughout the Flint and Chattahoochee river watersheds. Shoal bass have been reported to migrate during the spring spawning season, but details of these migrations are unknown. To determine if shoal bass exhibit potadromy, Auburn University fishery scientist Dr. Steve Sammons tagged 376 bass (12 to 22 inches long) in an undammed stretch of the Flint River over a four-year period.* Angler recaptures…

“WE CAN PUT THE CURSOR ON ONE PARTICULAR FISH ON THE SIDE-SCAN SCREEN, THEN BACK OFF AND CAST TO IT” Legendary walleye men Bob Propst Sr., Gary Roach, and Mike McClelland were so ahead of their time that, other than lure tweaks and bit of technology, the trio could have probably written this article back in 1987. ¶ Gary Parsons, a walleye star past and present, refers to them as “next-level predatory anglers,” gifted fishermen with a nose for tracking fish. Parsons isn’t talking about simply being able to catch more than your buddies. He’s referring to the talent of sniffing out, stalking, and targeting one king-size walleye at a time, regardless of whether the fish is holed up in a boulder field in 32 feet of water or a…

For legions of catfish anglers, the only thing that exceeds the smell of punchbaits is their reputation for catching catfish. Punch-baits come in many brands and formulations, but are generally a cheese-based doughy paste with lots of fiber added so that when a treble hook is pushed (“punched”) into a bait tub and then pulled out at an angle by the fishing line, the hook ends up surrounded by an assertively aromatic, viciously tenacious ball of catfish candy. Clark Culp of Seaford, Delaware, says he’s been chasing catfish for only a couple years, after getting frustrated casting lures for bass and other gamefish with limited success. “I noticed other guys having good luck catching catfish on manufactured catfish baits,” Culp says. “I just want to catch fish and have fun,…