Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2024 i In-Fisherman

Polar Pak’in Keep drinks and food cool on warm days and warm on colder days with the NEBO PolarPak Hybrid Cooler & Warmer Bag. This battery-powered cooler uses hybrid Thermo-Cool Technology to cool as low as 27°F and warm up to 140°F. It has a 16-quart capacity, holding up to 24 12-ounce cans. It’s insulated, easy to clean, and easy to tote—$129.99, nebo.acgbrands.com Toad Thumper Frog Clan From Toad Thumper, the Swamper Walkin’ Frog and Thumper Poppin’ Frog are a dynamic surface-bait duo constructed with a specially formulated super-soft material and zero-line contour body for superior collapsibility and hookup ratio. The specially angled nose and flat belly on the Swamper allow it to climb over cover without the body roll that’s prominent on keeled belly frogs. The Thumper Poppin’ Frog…

Panfish were always a staple for my Midwestern family, and we caught them in only a small number of ways in a myriad of Minnesota summers. Necessity being the mother of inve ntion, my grandpa found that the only way to keep several grandkids from continually tangling was to fish vertically below the boat with the same “jigglesticks” we used during ice season. Though at times we still tangled plenty, my brothers and cousins and I became proficient at dropping a small ice fly tipped with a chunk of fresh-dug angleworm straight to the mouths of hungry ‘gills and crappies. We’d hand-over-hand our catch, and just about everything went into the bucket. Of course, a few of us were old enough to cast proficiently and catch fish away from the…

I’ve always believed that third-shifters possess some sort of superpower. I’m just not wired to routinely operate in the dark without significant supervision and even a modest ration of late-night coffee does funny things to my central nervous system. I’ve dabbled in the darkness on the lakes around my Wisconsin home and am happy to report that the bucketmouth bite largely dies at twilight, a convenient arrangement likely negotiated by the proprietors of the 28 taverns that fall within 10 miles of my front porch. But over the years, nighttime has, on occasion, been the right time, and I’d still be out there casting when Letterman and Leno launched into their nightly monologues, and dare I say, Mr. Carson. My initial forays after sundown consisted of muggy summer nights spent…

High Time for Taimen Conservation Population Status—The world’s largest salmonids are the five species of taimen, an imperiled apex predator found in certain waters of Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, and China. The Siberian taimen Hucho taimen of Mongolia is the most common and widely distributed species. Taimen of the Danube River system, often called “huchen” Hucho hucho are apparently the largest, growing to almost 6 feet and over 100 pounds. Dr. Matthew Sloat of the Wild Salmon Center of Portland, Oregon, recently published a synthesis of what’s known about these remarkable fish.* Two other taimen species are extremely rare. The Sichuan taimen H. bleakeri is still found in low numbers in China’s Yangtze River headwaters and the Korean taimen H. ishikawae is native to the nearly inaccessible border waters of North…

It’s the chameleon of bass rigs. You might call it underrated, misunderstood. What other presentation, after all, features more variables, nuances, and foibles than this interchangeable line-bait-weight arrangement? Ask 20 anglers to unsheathe their favorite drop-shot setup and you’ll see 20 different rig variations. On the right day, all these anglers catch fish. Yet inevitably, one or two of them clean house, catching bass like they’re fishing livebait. In some ways, that’s exactly the effect we’re after—to breathe life into a refined, seductive softbait and to let it hover inches to feet from bottom—a posture and position that speaks of bass food but that isn’t easy to achieve with any other rig. Right out of the gate, boosting a drop-shot’s value, I think, requires an understanding of how it behaves…

In the life of every animal comes a “window of opportunity.” If we’re lucky, several windows or doors may open in a lifetime, usually when we’re young, at some critical growth stage. For us, the opportunity might be an acceptance letter to college, or a key job offer to kick-start a career. For “teenage” catfish, the window opens each spring when waters rise and shad, sunfish, or other prey reproduce. In some fertile lakes and rivers, the portal remains open for weeks or months, allowing catfish to grow quickly into adulthood, to their full potential. These are the renowned trophy catfish fisheries like the Red River of North, the Tennessee River system in the South, the mainstem reservoirs like Santee-Cooper, Texoma, or Toledo Bend, or the country’s major flowages like…

In this column in past issues, we’ve covered modern fishing electronics in-depth and how the technology can help you catch more fish. Now it’s time we discuss the value of selecting the right trolling motor. The power to drive your boat hands-free using an intuitive pedal, or even a hand-held remote that works anywhere in the boat, is critical to maximizing the effectiveness of those electronics. If you can’t be adequately positioned—and that position be maintained—how can you expect to have effective use of your sonar/chartplotter? Most trolling motors these days can be connected to graphs through the established network to add more power to the overall system. Front-of-the-boat control is an essential part to productive angling today. The brands of freshwater trolling motors I reference here include Lowrance’s Ghost;…

What could be more delightful than a boatload of quality smallmouths in a gorgeous setting? Living there, that’s what. So we called people who live in the smallmouth Edens we’ve been to where quality of life is high, scenery is awe inspiring, and the next hook-set into a bronze block always seems just a minute away. We’ll let you research most of the financial details like cost of living, average cost of homes, business diversity, etc. If you’re moving there, you’re doing that anyway. If smallmouth bass haunt your dreams, these are just some of the very best of the very best places where one might go to live the dream. Pretty country, outstanding fish. Sunset Country Northwest Ontario is affectionately referred to by its happy inhabitants as Sunset Country.…

Musings on the whims and ways of summertime pike have long inspired spirited dockside discussions. The quest to better understand the warm-weather behaviors of these enigmatic predators has also sparked extensive research by In-Fisherman staffers and fishery biologists in a host of different environments. Over the years, a fistful of basic tenets and proven patterns have emerged that reliably guide us to epic Esox adventures for both numbers of fish and above-average odds of hooking up with gator-class giants. Solid foundations on which to base any given trip’s strategies typically include finding a fortuitous convergence of habitat (such as preferred water temperature and/or cover and structure) and prime feeding opportunities. Then it’s up to us to dial in the most effective presentation for the depth, mood of the fish, and…

Movements of fish have been exploited by anglers and commercial and subsistence fishers for centuries. Salmon migrate several thousand miles into the ocean to forage, grow, and mature before making predictable movements to their natal stream, the freshwater stream where they hatched. Although lacking the drama of high-seas adventures and then swimming hundreds of miles through often torrential rivers and streams, landlocked largemouth bass share navigational abilities with salmon. In contrast to the vast movements of salmon, most largemouth bass restrict their movements to a relatively small area of the system where they live. How salmon navigate and return to their natal stream is well understood, the science funded by a two-billion-dollar, intensively regulated, multi-national commercial fishery. Such is not the case for largemouth bass. Nevertheless, largemouth bass movement has…

“I woke up to what sounded like a halftime drum solo by the Iowa Hawkeyes marching band. In the fewer than 10 seconds it took to bail out of my sweat-soaked bed to investigate the hideous pounding, I swear the noise level doubled. The plant manager, who was also rudely awakened, bumped into me as we entered the cabin’s kitchen, and he spewed out a poisonous stream of run-together words. If recorded, his rant would have made a bestselling rap track for which Doc was providing the annoying rhythm. In the flickering light of a sputtering Coleman lantern, Doc had a 6 x 8 x 12-inch chunk of ice on the table, and he was attacking it with a claw hammer from the policeman’s toolbox. Shards of ice flew in…