Not the game...practise
I was planning on hanging out with super models at posh night clubs last weekend, but instead I decided to take a quick trip up to the cottage for a couple of nights- rather than spending too much time out on the water I decided to do a few other ‘chores’ to prepare myself for the end of this season and even next season. Yes, I know it seems early to be thinking about next season at this point but I’m off to camp next week so I need to take care of what I can while I can. Sweet, sweet can...
The first ‘chore’, and I use the word loosely, was learning how to cast with a baitcaster. As you may have noticed in one of my previous posts, I don’t have a baitcasting reel- though I am interested in eventually buying one. Luckily, I found an old baitcasting reel/rod in my basement a few months ago- I believe my grandfather got it for my father. I tried casting it for about half an hour previously, but this weekend I decided to take the time to really learn how to throw it. I followed some advice found in the book Better Bass Fishing by Robert Montgomery that I received in the mail a few weeks ago. The tip is as follows: “If you concentrate on accuracy at close targets until you get a handle on things, you’ll find the ability to cast farther comes along as a fringe benefit. Do it the other way around in the beginning, putting all the emphasis on distance, and you’ll spend most of your time picking at backlashes.”
From my experience, this is definitely true. I found that after spending some time flipping and pitching at targets 10 feet away in the water, the longer casts started coming naturally as I started to get a feel for how much pressure to put on the spool with my thumb. Of course, it’s a frustrating experience, re-learning how to cast at my age- since I have exclusively used spinning reels to this point. But I figure it’s better to learn now using this old reel, so that when I get myself a new one casting will be a breeze. Also, it’s never a bad idea to practise casting once in awhile- casting accuracy is one of the traits that separates the professional fisherman from the average one.
Speaking of the book Better Bass Fishing, my second 'chore' was writing up that review I promised a few weeks back. Overall, the book is full of valuable information. However, the way the book is organized has its shortcomings. The entire book is basically just a series of short paragraphs, each preceded by the word secret- some of these are from the author and others are from various anglers. The ‘secrets’ themselves are useful, but they are kind of thrown together lazily in various sections- it almost seems as if the author scribbled down a big list of topics, and then e-mailed a bunch of contacts asking for their advice. He, or perhaps the editor, then sifted through these responses and eventually put them together in semi-coherent groupings. That's my theory, at least...
So if you're looking for various tips that will help you hone your skills, then this book is worth buying. But if you're looking for a book that will give you a thorough understanding of particular fishing techniques, then this isn't the book for you. Of course, the author might argue that the book is not meant for beginners and so he doesn’t aim to give a step-by-step guide on how to do things. But I think this is an excuse for not taking the time to organize the book in a proper way. It's a book that will make you somewhat knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics, but it certainly won't make you an expert on any one of them.
Oh, did I mention that I spent some time on the water? I started the evening covering a lot of water along the shore using a spinnerbait as a search bait (though to be honest part of the reason I did this was to keep practising my casts using the baitcaster). I didn't have any luck using this technique. Eventually I went back to shallower water in the bay where I caught two nice bass a few weeks ago using top-water lures. This week, I used the same top-water lures and spinning reel but I only managed to catch a really small bass. It's possible that the post-spawn feeding frenzy is over and the larger fish are more lethargic due to the warm water. It's also possible that the moonlight, or lack thereof, had an effect on the number of bites. Many anglers argue that fish bite more right before, during, and after a full moon (see, for example, Smallmouth bass and the moon). A few weeks ago, there was plenty of moonlight. This week, the night sky was dark. This certainly isn't a complete explanation, but, at least, it's something interesting to consider.
Anyways, I'm off to camp next week so I may not have any posts for some time- hopefully I can find some time in August to take a nice week-long fishing trip somewhere a little further north to try and snag some bigger fish. If anyone has any suggestions- I'd probably be willing to drive up to 500km away from Toronto- feel free to leave them in the comments section.
The first ‘chore’, and I use the word loosely, was learning how to cast with a baitcaster. As you may have noticed in one of my previous posts, I don’t have a baitcasting reel- though I am interested in eventually buying one. Luckily, I found an old baitcasting reel/rod in my basement a few months ago- I believe my grandfather got it for my father. I tried casting it for about half an hour previously, but this weekend I decided to take the time to really learn how to throw it. I followed some advice found in the book Better Bass Fishing by Robert Montgomery that I received in the mail a few weeks ago. The tip is as follows: “If you concentrate on accuracy at close targets until you get a handle on things, you’ll find the ability to cast farther comes along as a fringe benefit. Do it the other way around in the beginning, putting all the emphasis on distance, and you’ll spend most of your time picking at backlashes.”
From my experience, this is definitely true. I found that after spending some time flipping and pitching at targets 10 feet away in the water, the longer casts started coming naturally as I started to get a feel for how much pressure to put on the spool with my thumb. Of course, it’s a frustrating experience, re-learning how to cast at my age- since I have exclusively used spinning reels to this point. But I figure it’s better to learn now using this old reel, so that when I get myself a new one casting will be a breeze. Also, it’s never a bad idea to practise casting once in awhile- casting accuracy is one of the traits that separates the professional fisherman from the average one.
Speaking of the book Better Bass Fishing, my second 'chore' was writing up that review I promised a few weeks back. Overall, the book is full of valuable information. However, the way the book is organized has its shortcomings. The entire book is basically just a series of short paragraphs, each preceded by the word secret- some of these are from the author and others are from various anglers. The ‘secrets’ themselves are useful, but they are kind of thrown together lazily in various sections- it almost seems as if the author scribbled down a big list of topics, and then e-mailed a bunch of contacts asking for their advice. He, or perhaps the editor, then sifted through these responses and eventually put them together in semi-coherent groupings. That's my theory, at least...
So if you're looking for various tips that will help you hone your skills, then this book is worth buying. But if you're looking for a book that will give you a thorough understanding of particular fishing techniques, then this isn't the book for you. Of course, the author might argue that the book is not meant for beginners and so he doesn’t aim to give a step-by-step guide on how to do things. But I think this is an excuse for not taking the time to organize the book in a proper way. It's a book that will make you somewhat knowledgeable about a wide variety of topics, but it certainly won't make you an expert on any one of them.
Oh, did I mention that I spent some time on the water? I started the evening covering a lot of water along the shore using a spinnerbait as a search bait (though to be honest part of the reason I did this was to keep practising my casts using the baitcaster). I didn't have any luck using this technique. Eventually I went back to shallower water in the bay where I caught two nice bass a few weeks ago using top-water lures. This week, I used the same top-water lures and spinning reel but I only managed to catch a really small bass. It's possible that the post-spawn feeding frenzy is over and the larger fish are more lethargic due to the warm water. It's also possible that the moonlight, or lack thereof, had an effect on the number of bites. Many anglers argue that fish bite more right before, during, and after a full moon (see, for example, Smallmouth bass and the moon). A few weeks ago, there was plenty of moonlight. This week, the night sky was dark. This certainly isn't a complete explanation, but, at least, it's something interesting to consider.
Anyways, I'm off to camp next week so I may not have any posts for some time- hopefully I can find some time in August to take a nice week-long fishing trip somewhere a little further north to try and snag some bigger fish. If anyone has any suggestions- I'd probably be willing to drive up to 500km away from Toronto- feel free to leave them in the comments section.
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