fresh water fishing – Page 8 – The Fresh Water Fishing Blog

December 22, 2008December 22, 2008

The Ninth Day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me nine jigs a jigging, eight bobbers bobbing, seven sinkers sinking, six kits for rigging, … five purple worms … four rebel lures, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

I’ve always read about how effective jigs are. But most of the water near my home is too shallow for those lead headed jigs. The ones that look like this:

Though I will admit that once when I fished at the Tuckahoe-Corbin City Fish and Game Preserve in Cape May County, New Jersey, I did actually use lead headed jigs with moderate success. It was also the first time I ever caught a yellow perch. It seemed that the jig I used was exactly what they were looking for! It was a lead head jig with an inch and a half of deer hair tied to it.

That was back in the 1970’s and time has marched on. Now there are smaller jigs that are weedless and have rattles built right into them. Very nice! Berkley makes some real nice jigs with great color variations. If you’re interested, you can read about them here:

My older son was using a jig this past summer and caught some bass in our local creek. So jigs are effective if used properly. (Even here in our shallow East Coast freshwater creeks and lakes.)

What about your area? Have any of you ever fished with jigs and had success?

Here’s to a succeful day of freshwater fishing for each one of us!

Catch you later.

December 22, 2008

The Eighth Day Of Christmas

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love gave to me eight bobbers bobbing, seven sinkers sinking, six kits for rigging, … five purple worms … four rebel lures, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

Do you use bobbers? Which ones do you use? Think they’re all the same?

I use bobbers occasionally. Mostly when I take my younger son freshwater fishing. He likes to use live bait and it’s easy to tell when you’ve got a fish on if there’s a bobber on your line. But my younger son aside, I’ve been known to use bobbers as a weight when fishing flies on a spinning system. Yep, you read that right! I’ll tie a fly (wet fly – one that sinks) on the end of my 4 pound test and put a bobber 2 feet above it. The bobber gives you enough weight to be able to cast the fly and also acts as a strike indicator! I’ll usually use a small tear-drop shaped bobber to do this type of fishing. And yes – it works! I’ve used this technique to catch bass when they weren’t hitting anything else. That’s your bass fishing tip for the day! 🙂

I used to think bobbers were all the same – with variations in their size and shape. But I recently read about a new bobber “with a brain”. I was thinking “yeah… right” but when I read the write up, it actually looks interesting. Check this out:

Notice the product’s description – “This Smart Fishing Bobber is a slip & lock system without a Line Stopper. Simply: Just cast the Bobber with a Brain out and it will allow the line to slip thru until the sinker finds the bottom, then it fills with water, LOCKS THE LINE, and holds your baits inches to feet off the bottom with the sinker as the “anchor.” The hook held above the bottom can be “danced” or jigged by slightly pulling on your rod, makes dead or plastic baits ‘come alive!'”

Sounds very interesting – but come on – does it really do all this? Any of you readers ever try this thing? Would you mind writing a comment about it here please? They say they’ve been selling for over 8 years now but this is the first I’ve heard of it. If it really does work, I’d love to hear your opinions and maybe I’ll actually buy and try one! (I’m used to getting a 6 or 10 pack of bobbers for a couple bucks, and this is 2 bobbers for 9 dollars. Kind of pricey for a bobber!)

Well, I’d really love to hear any of your experiences with any type of bobbers, so please write a comment to share with everyone!

Catch you later.

December 21, 2008

The Seventh Day Of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me, seven sinkers sinking, six kits for rigging, … five purple worms … four rebel lures, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

Woo hoo, man am I getting a lot of great fishing gear! Sinkers – wait a minute, what are they for? Well I have to confess, there are times when i go cat fishing and carp fishing in our local creek and I need a weight to hold the bait down on the bottom of the creek bed. Not a lot of weight but enough to keep in down there where the bottom feeders can find it!

It’s amazing how many various types of fish our local creek has! Every June, the big carp come up from the Delaware River and spawn in our creek. How big you ask? Well I had 25 pound test line on my reel and the carp broke it like it was thread. The carp actually can get as big as in the 30 plus pound range. Not bad for a creek that’s only 20 – 30 feet wide most of the time!

I actually use whatever weight is available when I’m bottom feeder fishing. I still have some of those old teardrop shaped real lead weights in my tackle box! But mostly I’ll use a couple of split-shot weights if the current isn’t too strong. Here’s some pictures of the two:

OK – that’s it for now – have a great day!

Catch you later.

December 20, 2008December 20, 2008

The Sixth Day Of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me six kits for rigging, … five purple worms … four rebel lures, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

Have you bought any of those “bass fishing kits? You know like this:

I’ve bought a few of these and they usually are a good deal! I look for the kits that have good colored worms in them. As I’ve posted previously, I don’t really use the weights that come in these kits. I rig the worms my own special way. But if I find a kit that has weedless hooks and has good colored worms, I’ll buy it in a heartbeat!

Playing with your rubber worm bassing kit will help you experiment and try different ways to rig your worms. It will also keep your mind off the winter and the snow that we sometimes get this time of year! I can hardly wait for the warmer weather and catching some more good bass!

Catch you later.

December 20, 2008

The Fifth Day Of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me … five purple worms … four rebel lures, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

Purple worms? Yes, purple worms! I love fishing with rubber worms and my most favorite color for them is purple. I’ve caught so many large bass and pickerel on purple worms. Don’t ask me why the fish like purple – they just do! When the water is clear and it’s sunny or cloudy, purple worms out-fish the other colors by almost 2 to 1! The only other color that I’ve found that comes close is a black rubber worm.

So what kind of rubber worm do I use? My favorite has always been the Mann’s grape jelly worm. Here’s a picture of what it looks like:

I also like the Berkley power bait rubber worms. In fact, I have a whole tackle box full of different color and different manufacturer’s rubber worms! You can never have enough rubber worms!

So what about you? Do you have a favorite color worm? Drop me a comment please?

Catch you later.

-Mark

December 15, 2008

The Fourth Day Of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four rebel lures, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

Rebel fishing lures! Do you have any? Have you ever used any? I can answer with a resounding yes to both questions. Though you’ll know I’m mostly a rubber worm person if you’ve been reading my posts for a while – when the season first starts in the spring I like to use rebel lures. The floating ones with a small lip work best in my area of the country.

When I was younger (back in high school) my brother and I couldn’t wait to go fishing once the lake thawed out and it warmed up a little. It had to be warm enough so that we didn’t need gloves to fish! We tried many different lures and usually ended up with success using either small spinners or a rebel humpback lure. You can see the humpback at the rebel site here:

http://www.lurenet.com/productdetail.aspx?id=7180

Just why we chose the humpback over other lures when purchasing them is not really clear, but it was a wise choice. The humpback was perfect for our favorite lake. A floating lure that goes between 2 – 4 feet deep when reeled. The bass seemed to love it. We could catch bass with it when no one else was having any success. I still have my old rebel humpback – silver with black trim! And yes, I still use it from time to time. It’s earned it’s place as one of my favorite lures!

So that’s it for our fourth day of Christmas, fresh water fishing style! Hope you have a good day.

Catch you later.

December 12, 2008December 12, 2008

Third Day Of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three weedless hooks, two spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel.

Weedless hooks – I used to hate them. It seemed to me that those little wires that hung down were just something that made it harder to hook a fish! And in all actuality, I guess they really do! But you have to weigh the good against the bad when using them for freshwater fishing.

On the bad side there is the fact that it’s harder to hook a fish, plus they are also harder to work with when rigging lures. You know like when you try to push them through the rubber worms or jigs – it’s much easier when you use a non-weedless hook!

But on the good side there’s the fact that most of the time you can fish the lure that they are attached to without being worried that you’ll get snagged on every little obstruction that your lure happens upon. Yes, they’re great for fishing in lily pads, heavy cover, and weed infested waters. There’s also the added benefit that you won’t lose your lure very often when it’s got a weedless hook on it. Quite often I’ve lost lures that got snagged on under-water logs and such. So in my opinion, the reduced hooking ease is out-weighed by the ability to fish where I want without losing my lure!

So what types of weedless hooks do I use? Check these out, they’re my favorite:

Do you use weedless hooks? If so, post a comment and let me know what for or how you use them?

Thanks!

Catch you later.

December 10, 2008December 10, 2008

The Second Day Of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, 2 spools of line and a fishing pole complete with a reel!

You know, I still have spools of mono filament line from back in the 70’s! Really! I used to buy the 1000 yard spools at J M Fields and they still have lots of line on them! What line do I recommend? Well I use 4 pound test for most of my freshwater fishing. If I’m going into weeds and lily pads, I’ll use a 6 lb. test. Sure it’s challenging using a lighter test line – that’s why I do it!

Do you need a “big name” fishing line? Not really. I’ve heard complaints about some cheap types of line always creating birds nests but my experience hasn’t proven this. So go ahead – get yourself one of those big spools of fishing line. I found some online here:

So … what will the third day bring? Stay tuned!

Catch you later.

December 9, 2008December 9, 2008

The Fresh Water Fishing 12 Days Of Christmas

I was thinking about Christmas and more specificlly the 12 Days of Christmas and relating that to fresh water fishing. So what would you get for the fresh water fishing enthusiast in your life? So … here’s what i was thinking.

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me … “a fishing pole complete with a reel”. Now to make this more authentic, you’ll have to sing the original tune while using my lyrics! LOL – didn’t know I was a song writer eh?

So what kind of fishing pole? I’ll leave that to you! But don’t get cheap now! A nice rod and reel combo can usually be found for $20 on up! I’m partial to the old Garcia-Mitchell combos, but they are no longer together. 🙁 However check out the item below – it’s only a suggestion though!

So what will the second day of Christmas bring? We’ll discuss that tomorrow!

Catch you later.

November 11, 2008November 11, 2008

NJ Freshwater Fisheries Forum

Found this post on Trout Unlimited website http://www.njtu.org/2008/11/10/nj-fw-freshwater-fishing-forum/

and thought you might be interested in it.

NJ F&W Freshwater Fishing Forum

December 6, 2008
10:00 am	to	1:00 pm

NJ DEP Division of Fish & Wildlife will be holding its annual freshwater fisheries forum on Saturday, December 6th beginning at 10 am at the Charles O. Hayford Hatchery in Hackettstown. Come on out and make your voice heard regarding the management of New Jersey’s freshwater fisheries, including trout management. This is a public meeting, open to all.