Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2023 i In-Fisherman

Fenwick Quality Reimagined The entire lineup of Fenwick rods, including World Class, Elite, HMG, and Eagle, have been retooled and redesigned to continue delivering enhanced performance and quality, each within different price ranges. Check specific lineup and individual-product specs with a visit to purefishing.com Endeavor Boot In the boat or on the bank, the Rocky Boots Endeavor Hiker offers waterproof construction while maintaining breathability. Meanwhile, full-grain leather uppers, flexible dual-density outsoles, and antimicro-bial mesh lining provide comfort—$147.99, men’s and women’s sizes, rockyboots.com Everglades Glasses Robustly stylish; perfectly light-weight (for all-day comfort) yet durable, Everglades sunglasses from Hobie Eyewear also float. Four lens colors help you match conditions on the water as Sightmaster Plus Polarization provides clarity for spotting fish and habitat underwater—$99.99, hobieeyewear.com St. Croix SEVIIN Baitcaster The SEVIIN GF…

Saying that October and November can be terrific times to catch catfish is risky when addressing a national audience. What works for an angler chasing blue cats on the East Coast during October and November could be a tough trip for a Midwesterner fishing for flatheads in the same time frame. Even southerners might disagree about the best practices for catching blues, flatheads, and channel cats once the weather cools, depending on whether they’re fishing in Texas or Georgia. But there are commonalities to catching late-season catfish that can help anglers across the country extend their fishing season. Understanding how catfish move—how some species migrate as waters cool below 50°F—is the key to late-season catfishing success in different parts of the country. Catfish eat every day, or in the case…

“Not of this world,” the kid said. “The Death Star exploding.” “Sounds like someone is sliding a steamer trunk across the floor on the story above,” the attorney said. “If we had a story above.” “An 18-wheeler in the shop getting its tires rotated,” the policeman said. “That’s what I’m hearing.” “The klaxon dive horn in a submarine movie?” the banker said. “A barge loaded with scrap ductwork running aground on the Mississippi,” I said. “I got one more,” the kid said. “The noise Aunt Lucy would make with a nest of yellow jackets after her.” As was our decades-old tradition, when we arrived at one of Knobby’s Northwest Ontario outpost cabins, we cut cards to choose where we’d sleep. Most of the cabins were set up like a boot-camp…

Genetic Investigations—For more than 30 years, agencies have introduced Florida bass, a species now known to be separate from largemouth bass, into waters with largemouth bass, intending to increase the size potential of the population, production of trophy-size bass, or catch rates of large fish. Much of the impetus for these introductions comes from angler requests to increase the size of bass in their local waters. As a result, most stockings have been done by state management agencies, though unofficial or illegal introductions have occurred and fish have moved among water bodies. Geneticists have long noted the tendency of first-generation hybrids of mixed stocks to show heterosis or hybrid vigor, resulting in some of these objectives being achieved in some waters, but not others. Several states outside the natural range…

In recent years, we’ve come to view lipless lures as jigging lures as well as wind-and-grind baits, where they’ve always been highly effective over shallow vegetation. Some models glide off to one side when paused, others shimmy as they drop. Both sorts of action simulate helpless prey, so they’re key in the fall season as predators move shallow to feed heavily and as bass move out to deep structure in big reservoirs and natural lakes. Lipless Luring One of their key attributes is what we call “triggering bites,” generally meaning to elicit strikes from bass that aren’t feeding, but find the lures’ cues hard to ignore. Lipless baits fish a range of depths and one of their irresistible actions is the slight pause that lets the lure momentarily dip into…

I can still see Mighty McTrout (Mike McLeod), waist deep, battling a corpulent steelhead on the legendary Pere Marquette. Memorable, in part, because he hooked it on a gardening accessory. Tiny granules of Soil Moist—a product designed to absorb and slowly release water in the soil around your flowers and veggies—expand in a bowl of water to clear little globules. Properly dried, then treated with dye and scent, the little “eggs” can be tied up in netting to catch trout. I never figured it out, however, and deposited the granules in the garden. Recently I spotted a post about cutting orange and yellow sponges into little balls then soaking them in an old film can filled with melted Vaseline and anise oil. I first read about that spawn alternative in…

A proper bladebait provides a sumptuous tactile feast. Impossibly long casts are effortless. It slices through wind. The drop is swift. Bottom type is quickly revealed—rock providing a satisfying, fish-calling “clunk.” Snags are amazingly rare on rock. When lifted quickly from bottom, fish-attracting vibration pulses up the line through sensitive graphite to palm and fingers, telegraphing the right speed for triggering strikes. Feels so good you want to do it again. At some point, lifting a blade off bottom inevitably becomes a hook-set, the rod doubling from the weight of a fish. Could be a bass, walleye, pike, rock bass—the vibration calls in predators like the mythical Siren luring sailors to their doom. Yet I was doing just fine last fall without tossing a blade. The typical autumn arsenal—hair jigs,…

Overlooked all these years, consider a fundamental presentation idea frequently mentioned by the finest jig-fishing artists in history. Bill Binkelman stressed its significance for big bass and walleyes starting in the late 1960s. In-Fisherman Editor In Chief Doug Stange wrote about it many years ago, outlining the exploits of walleye angler Cap Kennedy and his Rock-A-Roo hair jigs. Most recently, I recall conversations with Ned Kehde, who’s spent years endeavoring to explain his “no-feel” style of fishing a finesse jig and soft-plastic combo for bass. If there’s one overlooked, little-understood key to Kehde’s now-famous Ned rig system, this is it. It’s not an easy thing to articulate, nor is it something anglers can readily wrap our brains around, mostly because it clashes so completely with conventional wisdom: that maintaining constant…