Fishing Has Evolved into a Multi-billion Dollar Industry

Here's why, this one will throw you for a loop. Just the other day I was out with a buddy doing, what else, fishing. He had a problem with his line, (it had crossed itself while he was re-stringing his reel the night before) and after we got the line straightened out, he tried to use it anyway. You know, trying to conserve and recycle. It wasn't working out for him. That's not it.

So he decided to remove the twisted and mangled section of his line. My buddy cut the line which left about an eight foot section. He was straight-linin' a chunk o' night crawler. (A snelled bait-holder hook, a split-shot sinker and half a night crawler) He tied the end of the line to the lanyard on the deck we were fishing from and threw the other end in the water. He says "Might as well try to catch a fish while I'm re-stringing. You never know." Now that's efficiency.

That's when I laughed and re-focused my attention on my fishing. As you might have guessed already, when he was finished re-stringing his rod & reel, he decided to pull his line up and yep, you guessed correctly, he had a bluegill hooked on the other end.

Trust me. I would never have been able to make that up.

Lately I have been researching different methods of using what I have been using in the past. (Mix this with that and that with this) I was showing my buddy different types of combinations I had come across and he just shook his head and laughed. He's and old fashioned kind of fisherman. That's not to say he won't try something new and continue to use it, if it works.

It just blew my mind later when I got to thinking about it. Guys (And girls) buy all this expensive fish finding equipment; life like lures and top of the line bass boats and my fishing buddy ties a line, a hook and a worm to the dock, like ol' Huck Finn and catches him a fish. Go figure.

Just goes to show you, the basics always work.

We happened to be fishing one of the smallest ponds I have ever fished. It's privately owned and man-made. My buddy keeps telling me of giant bluegill and crappie, but I have yet to see these elusive creatures. It's not that I don't believe him; I just haven't seen any caught yet.

The water was a cloudy type of muddy, the weather was 75 and sunny and it was mid May in Indiana. It was beautiful day for fishing. At about high noon, I had a 7-incher dart out from under the tree limbs next to the dock and hit the Berkley Gulp fog that I decided to throw on for the first time after trying about six different lures.

I can now say that frogs work in catching largemouth bass. I can't say if it was just that pond yet or not. I recently fished at Yellowwood Lake near Bloomington, IN and got a hit with it, but when I got it to the dock, it spit it out.

At the little pond, I lost just as many fish as I caught, so who's to say?

Around two or three in the afternoon, I got in a row boat, (Which wasn't fun when the wind picked up) and my buddy got in a paddle pontoon, that's when we started to catch largemouth left and right. Literally. I don't know if it was the change in lures. (We were changing lures about every ten casts or so from the dock) When we found something that worked, we stuck with it for the rest of the day.

Being that the water was muddy and it was a sunny day, we thought the good ol' "Chartreuse Spinner' would be the ticket however, a dark green frog and a blood red worm ended up being the "meal ticket". Dark colors work well in muddy water, especially since there was full sun.

Both were Berkley Gulp brand soft bait. This bait is manufactured with Berkley's 400x emitting sent. This bait has continued to work well since its introduction a couple of years ago. I can't say if all the pros are using it, but that's what I hear.

I don't mean to sound like a Berkley commercial however, since Bass smell and taste simultaneously they're Gulp brand baits work very well.

Back to the story, my fishing buddy was using the 7 inch, curly tail, blood red worm. He likes to use one snelled bait holder hook, weightless. I told you he was kind of old fashioned.

What you do is grab a number one snelled bait-holder hook and run it through the nose, keep running the hook through the center of the worm until you get to the eyelet end of the hook. Then let the barded end protrude though the side and straighten 'er out, attach the leader to the line with a barrel swivel and that's it.

You can let it drop to the bottom, which takes a while. Then very slowly work it along the bottom. Or you can start reeling as soon as it hits the water and then use a stop and go method. It depends on how the fish are feeling.

I was using the dark green frog, which is very life-like. I rigged it weightless on a 2/0 offset hook. Sort of like a Carolina or Texas rig without the bullet sinker. Oh yes and with a barrel swivel between the leader and the line. The barrel swivel keeps your line from getting twisted when the bait swims through the water.

I just threw it into the shaded areas beneath over hanging trees. Sometimes I let it hit the bank and then "jump it" into the water, right into the nest and swim it like a frog would, every once in a while letting it sink.

Largemouth bass like to make their nests in the shallows just off channels or drop-offs. This pond has two coves that are essentially channels. I kept my eye out for really dark or really light spots under trees or next to logs and near the drop-off into the channel.

I forgot to keep count of how many I caught that day, but as I mentioned earlier, I lost as many as I hooked. Until next time, always have happy thoughts and good fishing.