Saturday, Jun. 21^st, 2008

This Week's Hot Lures

Here are some hot lures we used during our trip recently, as seen in Episode II of the Fishing with Don Meissner Video Series, Using Plastic and Being Flexible.

1. The white spinner bait

The example shown was made by Jim Ingram, one of my fishing accomplices. While the lure is basic, it has so many applications that it should be part of every angler’s arsenal. As you can see from the photo, Jim attached a trailer hook to help with short strikes. Notice how the hook is attached with a short piece of surgical tubing. Take a close look at the way the tubing is used as it allows the trailer to flex. This helps assures that each time the fish moves, it can not leverage a rigid hook.

The reason that spinner baits are so effective is that they combine lots of flash and sound. It is important that as the bait comes through the water that the skirt and blade lie in a straight line with the blade directly above the skirted hook. The angle of the bend of the wire can have an... MORE

Wednesday, Jun. 18^th, 2008

Fathers Day

This site has given me a fantastic opportunity to share a lifetime of fishing experiences. I have always felt that fishing has empowered me with something much more grandiose than I have the ability to express. It has given me an existence so rich in incalculable rewards that I am usually reduced to a state of utter humility when attempting to describe my feelings.

To make this even more difficult, a few days ago I was blessed with the gift of spending Fathers Day with my 85 year old dad. Somewhere around half a century ago, he first sat beside me on the dock at my grandparents’ cottage, patiently helping me as we watched a small red bobber dimple the surface below. He opened the gateway to the most magnificent world a five year old boy could behold. I still can feel the shiver of pleasure ripple though me as a five inch bluegill challenged me to what was to become a never ending tug - of - war.

A few years later, my Dad and I embarked upon a schedule that would stay with us until I left home for college. Each weekend we would disappear into some distant stream or lake in search of new fishing adventures. The fish were usually small, but the time spent was always wonderful. There wasn’t a trout stream in our state that we didn’t explore, and Monday through Friday became unbearably difficult to endure. As was the tradition in those days, we kept everything we caught, partly to substantiate our stories to my incredibly understanding mother, but also to provide food for the family. I must have consumed thousands of pan-fried trout by the... MORE