GET A GRIP ON IT!

  I always think it’s odd when a person on my boat catches a fish and then goes all “icky” at the thought of actually touching it. Some of the time it’s because of the size of the fish. Grabbing a crappie or bluegill flopping on the dock is one thing, but grasping a salmon or trout almost three feet long is something else.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Most of the time size doesn’t matter. Many people are just plain reluctant to grip the fish they’ve just caught whether it’s a panfish or the biggest fish in the lake.

  Some of it is unfamiliarity. It’s easy to figure out how best to hold a puppy or a cat. It’s not so easy to grasp just how best to grasp a fish.

  Granted, some fish have sharp pointy things on them such as teeth, spines on their fins or sharp stingers like catfish do. These can hurt. Trout and salmon do have teeth, but no spines or stingers.

  Mostly, I think, it’s the fact fish are generally wet and slimy. Is it a human trait to have a natural aversion to grasping things wet and slimy?  I don’t know. If so it expresses itself (most often - not always) in women and youths.

  These days, I don’t even ask when a youngster or one of my female fishing guests catches a “photo-worthy” fish. Instead of trying to coach or coax the fisher person to correctly grip their fish while the photographers on board get their “happy-snappies,” I just pull out my Fisherman’s Handy Hook.

This fish has a date with the deck. Should have used the Handy Hook!

  Basically, it’s a tough plastic tool with an easy to grip handle on one side, a strong spike on the other and a plastic divider to ensure none of the “icky-gooey” stuff on the fish gets on the hands of the person holding the fish. Easy to use, all I have to do is slide the spike under the fish’s gill flap and out through the fish’s mouth. Now the happy angler has a fish with a handle on it and chances are I’m not going to have the clean the icky-slimy stuff of the floor of the boat after the fish has been dropped a few times.

  Check out www.thefishermanshandyhook.com for more details and purchasing information.  
 

OVER THE TOP

  A person catches a fish. Perhaps it’s a nice specimen. Perhaps it’s the first fish he ever caught or perhaps it’s the first musky, lake trout, name a species, he or she has ever angled from the depths. It could be the angler’s biggest fish ever or the largest musky, laker or whatever. What comes next is almost inevitable - the hero photo!
 

Dan Small's Facebook Post

You’ve seen them, I’ve seen them, I’ve been behind the camera and in front. For the most part, they are awful.  At best they are moderately interesting.

  A friend of mine posted a hero shot on Facebook recently. He’d caught a nice muskie on a fly rod and posed for the inevitable happy-snappy session to record the catch for posterity.

  The comments on Facebook were the normal, “Nice fish,” “Way to go,” “What did it weigh?”

  I don’t usually make comments like that. However, in the hero photo posted, he’d made one alteration to the usual grip and grin pose. He’d positioned his fly rod behind his neck, balancing it on his back over his shoulders.
 
 “Interesting pose,” I thought, and decided to make a decidedly different sort of comment on his Facebook post. “Nice balancing act with the fly rod,” I wrote.

  Few of the comments I make on Facebook go viral, regardless of how astute, asinine, insightful or germain they may be. This comment engendered a long list of follow-up comments.

  Who knew?  I’ve seen hero shots with fly-rodders holding their rod and reel in their teeth. Those are weird. The over the shoulder pose, less so and plenty of fly-flickers let me know the balance-on-the-back pose is now a widely accepted.

 

What’s good for one is good for all. So when Marc Garringer caught this steelhead on my boat recently, we went with the new-age pose for his hero photo.  How do you like it?

FIRST, FOG AND FUN

  The 2016 season is off with a bang. Actually, there was no bang, but it was a bang-up start. Unless I’m shooting ducks from a boat, there’s nothing involved that should go bang. Nothing did.
 
  There was a bit of noise in the form of a fog-horn. Early season fishing often entails finding the warmest water possible. These warm oasis areas are fish magnets compared to the ice-water cold liquid in the rest of the lake. The warm water also boosts the metabolism in the salmon and trout making them more likely to strike our lures.

  So I headed out from the East Chicago Marina at a comfortable 7AM and headed for the Indiana Harbor where two different steel mills pump heated water to keep the harbor ice free and extend their shipping season. Two miles out of the marina, we hit a fog bank that gave us no more than 50 yards visibility. We slowed and made our way but in the harbor, we had to watch for both other fishermen, the rock-lined walls of the harbor and potentially, giant ore boats hauling taconite pellets from the northern lakes.

  That’s when the fog horn sounded. Something was coming so I steered a course to the west (shallow) side of the channel knowing whatever vessel was exiting would stay in the deepest part of the channel. It was a tug, pushing a barge. We were plenty far away by the time the working boat passed and as a salute, the captain waved and then blew his fog horn one last time before heading into the misty, open waters.

  The fog horn must have woke up the fish since seconds after that last blast, a rod doubled down with a spunky salmon on the line, then another on the other side. The first fish of the season is always special, starting the season with a double is extra fun.  We hadn’t even got the fish out of the landing nets when another salmon bit and so went the fun of late winter/early season action on Indiana’s end of Lake Michigan.

  Minutes after the fog horn tooting tug left, the fog disappeared and a welcome, warm sun kept us toasty on board. We didn’t really have time to worry about the cold, anyway. The fish kept us too busy.

  It’s the “spring break” time of year but you don’t have to head for a Florida beach to get in on some hot action.  Give me a call.

THE PLEASANT UNCERTAINTY

Time to hook 'em up

  I love the trip from the boat launch to where I plan to set lines and begin fishing. Sometimes in early spring, that may be only a few minute ride. Other times in the heat of the summer it might be a half-hour or more. Whatever the length of the boat ride, those minutes are filled with what I call the “pleasant uncertainty.”

Check it out

  There’s no sure thing when it comes to fishing. I’ve had spectacular fishing one day go as flat as possum on I-65 the next. I’ve had days when the results of the day’s fishing far exceeded expectations. In short, each day faces uncertainty but since I’m “going fishing” it’s a pleasant uncertainty.


  Right now, I’m in a slightly different sort of pleasant uncertainty. It’s time to drag the Brother Nature out of it’s winter hibernaculum, clean out the vestiges of last season, then make sure the early season lures and other gear are stowed on board.
  Then, drag the garden hose out of winter storage, hook it up to the lower unit and see if the motor can be coaxed to life. A quick check of wheel bearings, a bottle or two of HEET in the fuel tank and then just wait for a weather report good enough to run with.

Catch some fish

  Can I get it all done?  Will everything work as well on the water as it does at home? Which marina should I visit?  What time should I aim to hit the water.

  I’m uncertain.... But it’s a pleasant uncertainty!