Oaf Angler Is, Eeeek, A Baitfisher Of Smallies..

[jdmidwest]

It was no joke and you know it. You started your same stupid dung you always do and you got your desired results. Happy?

Whoa, such language...

I am always happy, I lead a charmed life.

[jdmidwest]

I didn't know you were an anti-baitite until today.

Eric, I have been an "anti-baitite" when it comes to creek fishing and river fishing for about 25 years now. I also practice catch and release and have for the same amount of time. I will keep longear sunfish off some of the local streams, for the simple reason that they are a major predator of smallmouth beds in my opinion. I will keep trout out of put and take areas to eat from time to time. I flyfish when I wade and toss plugs when I float with a spin rod. If you look at most of my pics, you will probably see a F7 Gold and Black Rapala Minnow, a Crawdad Shadrap, or a twin tail mister twister jig as my go to baits. They have produced more fish over the years than any other I have fished. There are times when I go with the larger Rapalas, Sonic Roostertails, and other lures. At no time will you see a live bait unless I am sitting anchored on a lake fishing for a lake fish.

[FishinCricket]

oh wow... (backs out slowly)

[eric1978]

There is no gray area at all. We all understand the rules and regulations. You either choose to abide by them or you don't. And the old agrument of what someone can do to a creek over the summer is not a valid point. You cannot regulate "What If's".

I think it's absolutely valid.

So if (yes, "if") I took next summer off, and camped out on Dylan's favorite small creek for three months and made myself a six-smallie-supper every night, you wouldn't have a problem with that? Actually, I'd get pretty lonely, so I think I'll bring three of my buddies with me...let's see...that would be 24 smallies per day for 90 days...that's 2,160 mature, spawning fish no longer swimming and reproducing in that little creek.

Is it really fair then, that you and your boy roll up for a nice day of smallie fishing after we're gone in September, and all you can catch are 11 inch fish? I think not. I think it's totally unfair and unethical...but perfectly legal. And that's the gray area I'm talking about. MDC is not God, for lack of a better analogy...they might make the rules, but that doesn't mean their rules are good ones.

By the way, I love the name Dylan. It was on our short list for boy names.

I believe the MDC stuck their neck out when they implemented the SMA's.

Eh, not really...not in my opinion. They were half-assed from the get go. Too weak and not enough of miles of them on enough streams. And besides, as we've discussed a million times, they don't make the effort to educate people of the regs anyway, and on top of that they're hardly enforced. They wrote down some words in a booklet, threw up a couple little signs, and expected miracles to happen. Can't imagine why they haven't.

Oh, and about smallies being the most cherished native sportfish...I don't see these heated debates taking place about any other species, so maybe...

oh wow... (backs out slowly)

LOL! Oh man, you kill me.

[Guest]

deleted

[FishinCricket]

Eric, I'll be here all week!

http://www.orlandobass.com/PDF/Inside_Angles_28-6_F.pdf

If you do deep hook them with plastics or bait, there is still a way to get the hook out. Works pretty well,especially if you fish barbless.

Thank you for finding that! I was having a real difficult time coming up with a way to explain how to do that...

[Tearin Up Topwater]

That's nice, trying to back out now by saying you were joking.

You got told and were made a fool of; plain and simple.

Now guys, let's talk FISHING and not hate. I think the heat is getting to some people.

[id10t]

http://www.in-fisher...rent-smallmouth

From the article...

"Hook: Since I discovered it was possible to catch bronzebacks on circle hooks without inflicting deep-hooking injuries so common with traditional livebait hooks, I’ve used nothing else. With a simple line-tightening no-yank hook-set, over 90 percent of my bass are pinned neatly in the corner of the mouth.

Removing a circle hook from a bass takes a bit of practice, however. I use a small pair of pliers with a 90-degree bend in the tip, which makes it easier to grasp the hook shank and rotate with a circular motion. (Putting bait on a circle hook is also a bit of a trick.)

I’ve settled on Mustad Extra Fine Wire Demon Circle Hooks because they’re a true circle hook made of fine-diameter wire that does not damage delicate baits. I use sizes from #6 to #4 for hellgrammites, and riffle runners up to 1/0 and 2/0 for large chubs."

Not local knowledge, but good nonetheless...

I have found the same over the past year. My son is mildly autistic and loves to fish. His disability hampers his ability to feel what is happening at the hook. He can not set a hook because he doesn't feel or see the Smallmouth take it when fishing slow. If he uses a beetle spin,curly tail grub or fluke and the fish are hitting he has no problems. He also wants to use what everyone else is using. I read an article about circle hooks and plastics in saltwater. I started experimenting last fall with circle hooks and plastics. I had a tough time to start with because I was trying to set the hook. I learned quickly all that is needed is a bit of pressure and the hook sets itself. I started letting my some use the same rigs this spring and he is one happy kid. He yelled "I am back to my old self" when we did the Kings for a week this spring. He out fished his uncle on several days that week it really has made him a better fisherman.

Circle hooks work it just takes a bit of rethinking on hook sets. My hookups have been gone through the roof. My sons have gone to the moon.

Gut hooks are pretty much a thing of the past. The pliers I use are from bass pro. Boone Pliers

As far as rigging it can be tricky and there is a bit of trial and error.

[Al Agnew]

Eric's hypothetical example of him and three or four buddies fishing the stream every day all summer and taking a limit of smallmouth every time is an exaggeration. But it doesn't take that much fishing, and I've seen it happen. On a small stream, if two anglers fish it once a week all summer and take a limit of fish every time they go, we're talking about something like 140 adult smallmouth taken out of a three or four mile section of creek by those two anglers. And since the chances are they will be keeping the biggest fish and culling a few each time, they are not only cropping off the bigger fish (probably getting smaller and smaller fish each month) but also killing some of the culls. Think about your favorite small wading creek and whether it could stand that kind of harvest without showing a major impact on the population of legal fish.

I've seen it happen on several different creeks, but perhaps the best example was a section of upper Big River a decade or so back. This section is big enough to be marginally floatable, though in the summer you'll get out and drag the canoe at every riffle. On the year in question, I floated it three times in the spring and early summer, and found that there was a terrific year class of smallmouth on this stretch that averaged 16-17 inches. I and my partners caught 14-18 fish of that size all three trips. I was thinking that even with some mortality, there would still be a bunch of 18 inch plus fish on that stretch the next year.

But that September my brother happened to be talking to a couple local boys he knew (and knew to be serious meat fishermen) and they told him they'd been fishing that stretch every weekend since early July because there were so many good fish on it. They said they'd been keeping a limit of those 16-17 inch fish (of course, they called them three pounders) every trip. Since my brother had been with me on one of my three trips, he knew the fish were there, and he knew those guys were excellent anglers who would be able to catch them. They finished by saying something to the effect that they'd never seen another serious angler on that stretch, but apparently somebody else was fishing it because those bigger fish seemed to be getting scarcer (!).

The next summer, those fish were non-existent. Now maybe those guys weren't the only meat fishermen hitting that stretch, but it isn't a popular stretch due to the difficulty of getting a boat down it in the summer. And even if those guys were exaggerating a bit about how big their limits were, there is little doubt that they were fishing it every weekend and taking limits of the biggest fish they could cull. I truly believe that they almost singlehandedly wiped out a great year class of big fish.

[Trav]

Did I mention a cat will chase a six inch worm all over the kitchen? All you have to do is drag it across the floor.