Idaho Rod & Reel Fishing Tips:
Monofilament Whiskers
Spinnerbait Side-Stingers
No Bag Limit on Cans
Use Kayak Paddle for Maneuvering
Kayak Kops
Watch Your Lip, Kid!
Monofilament Whiskers
Bullheads are among the most catchable and best-eating fish in fresh water. They're also notorious hook-swallowers. To retrieve hooks from bullheads, you can try long-shanked hooks and needlenose pliers, but it's a messy and time-consuming job. The resulting half-dead fish also don't last long on a stringer or in a fish basket.
The solution is to rig your main line with a snap swivel and simply slip a snelled hook onto the snap. When a fish is deep-hooked, unsnap the snell, replace it with another, and go on fishing. Your unhurt and extremely tough bullheads will remain lively and healthy till cleaning time, at which point you can salvage all your snells if you wish.
-- Lewis Watson
(Originally published in Sports Afield in 1987)
Spinnerbait Side-Stingers
Did you ever closely examine the wire-spreader and double-hook rig on the old-reliable Flatfish lure line? Besides contributing to lure balance, this spreader nicely extends the hook "bite" to each side, as countless short-striking fish have discovered over the years.
If you're having short-strike problems, you can field-rig your own Flatfish-style "side stingers" with common spinnerbait wires. Just remove the spinner and jighead from the wire, replace each with treble hooks, and attach the wire's center point to nearly any crankbait's tail or belly eyelet from which the hook has been removed. Bending the wire a bit might help resulting lure action. Then go surprise a bag limit of short strikers!
-- Lewis Watson
(Originally published in Sports Afield in 1987)
No Bag Limit on Cans
If you're offended by outdoor litter, hang a strapped bag over your shoulder on every outing and develop the habit of tossing in every pop and beer can you come across. Not only will you help keep favorite outdoor areas clean, but you can help save the environment by taking them in to recycling companies. More importantly, this eventually translates into a thousand or so fewer cans littering our fields and streambanks!
-- Lewis Watson
Use Kayak Paddle for Maneuvering
For maneuvering a small boat in close fishing quarters, try using a nine-foot double-bladed kayak paddle. A gentle dip of the blade on either side repositions you nicely, a series of strokes moves you quietly up the shore. Kayak paddles are less expensive than electric trolling motors, less noisy and inconvenient than having to re-start your big engine just to move a few feet. And unlike clumsy, squeaky oars which must be "shipped" after each brief use, a "long paddle" can be simply and quickly laid across your lap to free hands for casting.
(Originally published in Sports Afield, 1982)
Kayak Kops
The Northern Rockies state of Idaho has many hundreds of miles of remote rivers winding through rugged canyon wilderness. With few conservation officers to cover these hard-of-access streams, such areas are potentially a fish poacher's paradise. Or at least they were until the state introduced its "Kayak Patrol" in 1980.
Teams of two paddle-wielding COs, trained in white-water kayaking, tour virtually every navigable stream in the state. Slipping quietly along near brushy banks, the "wardens" surprise dozens of illegal anglers and other game law violators who thought they were safely beyond reach of the law.
Since kayaks can be packed with enough gear and food for five-day tours, Idaho's wildest rivers may now see a pair of badges bob around the bend at any moment.
Other states may have long since launched their own "kayak kops", so backwoods poachers beware!
-- Lewis Watson
Watch Your Lip, Kid!
A bass-fishing friend of ours is forever on some lake lifting fighting bass from the water by their lower jaws. Even when he's home, he lives and breathes bass fishing around the clock. When his wife presented him with a healthy son recently, some friends asked Bassin' Ben how much his new fishing buddy weighed. Ben scratched his head for a moment - then grinned that he really couldn't tell for sure till he had hoisted the kid by the lower lip!
-- Lewis Watson
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