New Year Begins - 24 Hour Fishing Success!

Last Day, 2018: I wanted good year-ender, but the fish had other ideas. No fish caught.

First Day, 2019: 5 fish in hand, in a short time, and 3-4 strikes that failed hook up.

Location: Fly Lab II, aka, small pond

Region: SE United States/South Carolina Midlands

Water conditions - dingy clear

Weather conditions - overcast, occasional drizzle
Stabilizing after several days of rain, and unsettled frontal weather

Air temps - mid 60's

Water temps - cold

Structure - on drop off to bottom 

Tackle and Method

Medium light spinning outfit

4# test

4" soft plastic worms, in blue, electric blue and black shad

Method: finesse weightless

Target: 1-2 lb. largemouth bass, aka "rocket bass"
(I call em rocket bass because they 'rocket around' and jump out of the water several times when hooked) 

New Years Pond, High Water

Both days, the method was the same - small finesse worm on light line, weightless on the drop. 

One day nuttin' - the next, score!

I like this weightless finesse method. My fly angling friends will be happy to know it is pretty much the same as fly fishing a wet fly. You cast, then hold the rod tip up at about a 45° angle. This lets the bait fall for the countdown on a tense line - not tight, but hanging on the drag of the line itself. 

As often as not the fish take the lure on the initial fall, so you have to be ready.

If they don't take it, you let it settle down to the bottom and take up the slack line without moving the worm. After a count of about 10, raise the rod tip with a sharp twitch to get the worm off the bottom, then let it glide back down again on the tense line. Add a few "strips" and twitches of the rod tip along the way. Easy does it - it doesn't take much in Winters' cold water. 

I call it a Lift and Glide retrieve.

Sometimes the fish take it on the bottom, once it has settled - I can only guess these fish were following it on the initial fall, and waiting nearby. But this is not the usual way.
More often, they take it after 2 or 3 of these lift-glide cycles, as it drifts back down.
I fish it all the way back, too.... I've had strikes within a few rod lengths of my position.

So, since this is so much like fly fishing, well, ... you folks can stop sending me hate mail for betraying the fly fishing fraternity by flirting with ....{{{{ gasp }}}}, worm fishing!

Airetail Action Worm, Electric Blue

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The Airetail worm was a standout performer. I got hits on other worms in dark blue, and black/shad. But once this one started catching the fish, I never took it off. And it kept on giving; battered as it was, it hung in there.
And I like the color - a light, clear purple, heavy with blue metallic flake.

The Airetails are unique in that they have an air chamber molded in that helps the worm stay up and above the bottom at rest. I've always liked this idea, and cant understand why these aren't more popular than they are. They're a little pricey, compared to Walmart, and not widely available. Combined, this probably keeps them out of the limelight.

I  only know of one source: www.f'ishcandy.com 

And this site seems a little quirky, at last visit.

I hope I can get more....

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The extra wide gap hook (EWG) has to become a standard in this worm-work. 

I attribute the several missed fish to the straight shank Sproat hooks I had pre-rigged in the worms. The hooks had been in the worms from several years ago, when my last, half-assed attempt at soft plastic worm fishing went bust. 

These hooks were wrong back then, just as now, because of their hook gap... or, rather, lack of it. This is something I didn't know much about back then. And I didn't really think about it this morning.

"They'll be alright," I said to myself. "They're plenty strong, not rusted, and a hook, is a hook. Right?

Don't worry about all that 'bass hook' jazz." 

Maybe my resolution for 2019 should be to stop talking to myself. Or, at least stop listening.

The problem with this too-small hook gap is that this condition doesn't allow the worm to compress and move out of the way on the hook set... the worm fills the hook gap, instead. 

This means you set the hook, but the point can't push free to stick into the fish's bony jawbone. The fish has a mouthful of soft, chewy worm, but you end up snatching the thing from his mouth - that's it.

After three times, I got the idea.

NOTE: EWG and offset worm hooks from here out.

As Mike Head would say..." If it aint broke, don't fix it."

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I've found that 4 lb soft mono is not a good choice for this work of catching small pond bass. It is thin, so it doesn't have much water resistance. But its a little too light and wispy and sometimes gets into trouble with spooling casting these relatively weightless baits. I'm gonna switch it to a 6 lb mono, and add a fluoro leader.

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I got bit on nearly every cast, though....until about 10AM.
Then I had to work in fan cast style, and quarter-section the drop-off in 45 degree angles.
But, such a change from the day before. What a difference 24 hours makes.

We have a few more days of rainy conditions and mild temps this week, and a clearing session on Saturday. With luck, late Saturday and Sunday will be another good opportunity.

Tight Lines,

David

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Palmetto Fly N Fish, ©2018

Fishing With A Worm

One of my favorite old books is this small little work extolling the virtue of worms and worm fishing. Like the prosaic works given over to fly fishing, the 40-odd pages here treat the lowly worm and it's adherents with equal favor.
Here, then, is an excerpt from... 

Fishing With A Worm

by Perry Bliss
Houghton Mifflin, ©1904

“To make the most of dull hours; to make the best of dull people; to like a poor jest better than none; to wear a threadbare coat like a gentleman; to be outvoted with a smile; to hitch your wagon to the old nag if no thoroughbred is handy, this is the wholesome philosophy taught by fishing with a worm."

Trout feed upon an extraordinary variety of crawling things, as all fishermen know who practice the useful habit of opening the first two or three fish they catch, to see what food is that day the favorite.

But here, as elsewhere in this world, the best things lie nearest, and there is no bait so killing, week in and week out, as your plain garden or golf-green angleworm.
Walton's list of possible worms is impressive, and his directions for placing them upon the hook have the placid completeness that belonged to his character.

But the fact remains that these words were his...

"The last fish I caught was with a worm," says the honest Walton.

Such questions, like those pertaining to the boots or coat which one should wear, the style of bait-box one should carry, or the brand of tobacco best suited for smoking in the wind, are topics for unending discussion among the serious minded around the camp-fire. Much edification is in them, but they are mere moralities, counsels of worldly wisdom. They leave the soul untouched.

A man may have these answers at his finger tips and be no better fisherman at bottom; or he may ignore most of the admitted rules and come home with a full basket.
It is a sufficient defense of fishing with a worm to pronounce the 

truism that no man is a complete angler until he has mastered all the modes of angling.

But ah, to fish with a worm, and then not catch your fish! Disaster!

To fail with a fly is no disgrace: your art may have been impeccable, your stance perfect, your patience faultless to the end. Indeed, all of fishing with flies hinges upon this interpretation.

But the philosophy of wormfishing is that of Results, of having something tangible in your basket when the day's work is done. It is a plea for Compromise, for cutting the coat according to the cloth, for taking the world as it actually is.

And all over the world, the fly-fisherman is the epitome of anglers.
He is the natural Foe of Compromise.
He throws to the fish a certain kind of lure, one he has masterfully chosen, or perhaps made, himself.
They may take it, and the battle is joined!
If they do not rise; if they scorn his efforts, well, to hell with them.
They have missed their chance for fame at his hands.

The fly fisherman, then, knows nothing of sitting on the fence.
He revels in the purity of his craft.
His handling of the rod is alwats impeccable, his patience boundless to the end.
The joy of utter dependability is his. He scorns the indifferent earth.
All honor is his, even when he alone is cheering!

When he comes back at nightfall and says earnestly, ‘I have never cast a line more perfectly than I have today,’ well, it is understood he caught nothing, and it is almost indecent to peek into his creel.

By contrast, the philosophy of the angle worm is one of Grave Results.

Artifice and Contrivance are not in the worm fisherman; he is not a proud and isolated soul. He is a "low man,” rather than a high one.
He cares greatly what his friends think when they look into his basket.
He wants to have something to show for his day's sport.
Breakfast calls to him from his bed at night, flour and meal without fish is an insult to him...

He watches the Foes of Compromise wade forward into the foaming rill. 

They splash wetly in the water and occasionally go down, bested by a slippery rock.
When they come up, they offer the smug smile of the pious. 

Meanwhile the worm man, with courage more flexible than theirs, manages to keep his feet on the dryer rocks or graveled shore. 

His concern is for a pipe well lit; he wants only a quiet pocket or fallen log where he may dip his wriggling bait.

His driving aim is to score.
Giving a pretty exhibition of things is not in his mind.
Some men fish as if the camera is watching their every move.
To be seen, and have others know it, that drives them on.
The worm fisherman is a little different; he is the Friend of the Frying Pan.
Picture perfect casts and the proper pose are for the other chaps.

But do not despise him; he is not despicable.
Nor is he a fish hog, or the enemy of Nature.
He values conservation and stewardship as much as the next man, and he returns to the water undersized and unfit fish.
His greatest sin is that he measures his efforts by tangible, legal fish in the basket at the end of the day.
Anything less is abject failure to him.

The Foes of Compromise, on the other hand, well, they like a good fish, too.
But having tried and failed is its own reward in their eyes.
He who strikes out on the rugged and lonely road, and ends short of the hearth, is forgiven.

But, should one give over to plebian pursuit and the vulgar Spirit of Results, the only outcome worth telling is Success.
Unlike the feather and tinsel of the artificial fly, the worm is the natural food of the fish.
To fail with it, then, when all is assured – this is the height of effrontery.

No one forgives the worm fisherman, when he has nothing to show.
Tossing a worm brings Expectation and the want of Success to both friends and Gods alike.

To fail with a fly, why, that is no disgrace. One might even say it's a welcome outsome.

Casting the fly is key. It is about Art, Hope and Release - these are enough.
"The fish just did not like my flies," is not an excuse for an empty creel.
No, it is a valid, unassailble REASON.

The fly-fisherman, then, always has his rigid and unyielding Art Craft to back him up, should the day end without fish.

But the worm caster, once he has crossed over, faces the unwavering demand of Success. There are no excuses for him. His only reward is the base pleasure of a full belly.
He may delight in simply catching fish, and each one caught takes him back to his youth. But, that is not enough.

When he fills his basket, it is by using the grubby inhabitants of dirt, mold and damp.
The Foes of Compromise peer at him over glinting lenses and scoff; the worm man took the easy way out.

As long as he persists at this, he forever forfeits the rewards of Art, Purity and Reasons.

That he chooses this path when the fly rod offers a handy way out makes him, perhaps, the sturdiest of all his brother anglers.