Fishing Articles
Perfect
Sometimes, if it doesn't look perfect you can bet
that it'll be passed on by for something that is; purchasing, making,
and then fishing with that perfect offering isn't as hard as it "might"
seem.
Timothy Kusherets
This battling salmon struck the hook while drifting
a size ten corkie. Look closely at the head where the leader line ends
at the head; that pink thing is a perfect corkie (Lil Corky). In the
sporting goods store I scrutinized every single corkie, which can take
a long time but worth the effort and the payoff is inside this fish's
mouth right now! It's perfect! It's easy to find offerings like this
when a little care and time is taken...it definitely gets more fish
on the hook!
I’ve always said “if you want to catch a fish you have
to think like a fish” and the same can be said for the way fish
see things. Even though this is the time of year when rivers tend to
run high, they eventually taper off, level out, and fall and that’s
when they’ll see things very well which is when this technique
comes in very handy indeed.
As often as I can I take the time to store those lures and offerings
that put fish on the bite and those that don’t. Taking them home
and running them underneath a scanner allows me to see flaws that might
otherwise go unnoticed. Lures that have rough spots, chips, and deformities
almost always put fish off the bite and those imperfections may not
be as plain to see as one might think. Fish get extremely close to the
things they intend to bite and that’s especially true when they
feel pressure, and when the pressures on they’re looking for something
perfect.
One day, while fishing, it seemed every fisherman on the river was getting
their limit while I stood around amusing myself with snags and retying.
I had been using the same scent, yarn, corkie, weight, leader length,
and casting to the same holds other fishermen had previously caught
steelies in, but on that day I couldn’t catch a cold in a snow
storm. Trying every trick in the book I was about to give up the day
when my line was pounded and I’d finally gotten a great looking
steelhead that weighed in at fourteen-pounds. After stringing it up
I checked the leader for nicks and found abrasions the length of it
so I stored the leader in my vest pocket retied another and went back
to fishing. From the time I’d landed the fish to the time I was
back in the water could not have been more than a few minutes, but the
bite had gone off and stayed that way for an hour. Eventually a fisherman
asked if he could fish the same slot and I agreed. In less than five
minutes he had a fish on shore and was back in the water. He had been
using a bobber-jig setup to fish a back-eddy near the slot that produced
my fish but the distance between the two was only a matter of feet and
his technique worked so I thought I’d give bobber fishing a try.
After an hour went by the fisherman next to me had gotten his limit
and bailed on out of there. Even though I’d used the exact same
setup he had used I hadn’t gotten a single nibble. Abandoning
bobber fishing I’d gone back to drift-fishing and got another
strike just before dusk. Since the fish had been landed just before
the fading light I called it a day and broke down the gear and headed
for home.
 All
of these spinners could catch fish but only the one on the right will
get hits fast. It’s perfect in every sense that matters to fish.
The other two spinners have nicks from the teeth of fish, and once that
happened the spinners stopped performing as well as they had when they
were perfect.
After all the gear and fish had been put away it occurred to me to
take a look at the two corkies that had gotten fish. I decided to look
at both of them on the scanner at 1,600 times the normal size I found
that they were absolutely perfect except for small nicks on the sides,
which I’m sure are teeth marks. All the other drift-fishing gear
I’d thrown at the darned fish such as corkies, jigs, and spinners
had some kind of imperfection that ranged from scratches, deformities,
to chips in the paint but were so small they looked inconsequential.
Perfect, the fish had been looking for something that was perfect and
I’d only thrown two things at them the entire day that fit the
bill. Then and there I decided that if that’s what they wanted
then that’s what they’ll get. The very next day I set aside
some time to do some serious shopping.
At the sporting goods store I headed straight for the corkies and began
to look at various colors all size ten. When drift-fishing corkies are
the hands-down preferred tackle and steelies will let you know it. Before
that day in the store I thought I’d been very careful about my
selections of corkies, but I was wrong. For every one that was perfect
I had to wade through ten to fifteen to find it. Don’t misunderstand
me. All of them had the potential of getting fish when the rivers rise
and waters turn turbid but the particular nature of fish in clear water
was not the same. To get all the gear I needed for the next day, including
spinners and jigs, it took me four hours and I was driving the guys
behind the counter nuts. At times I even gathered crowds wondering what
I was doing looking at baits and lures so closely; but it didn’t
matter. I knew the fruits of my labor would reveal themselves the next
time out on the water.
A week had passed since the last fishing trip before heading out. Every
corkie had been pre-tied to leaders with perfect placement of the line,
yarn, and hooks and then sealed them in a plastic bag to protect them
from any adherent odors. Everything I took that day had been given the
same care and the fish would let me know if the work was up to muster.
At the crack of dawn there were about thirty fishermen who lined the
banks all with the same intentions. From previous experiences I knew
that fishing with the glut of fishermen would soon put them off the
bite so I headed upriver to change things up. As soon the light hit
the far side of the misty river the bite was on. Each and every time
a fish hit the hook I’d change the leader whether I landed the
fish or not. With the river running clear there wasn’t an option
to do anything else and the fish let me know it. That day I took sixty-three
tied leaders with me and every leader that didn’t get snagged
on boulders, twigs, or drop-offs, produced strikes from fish, so many
in fact that the fishermen who were below me soon started wading up
to me to fish along side with me. When the bite went off I simply moved
upriver to the next hold where fish would soon start striking again.
It felt as if I had found the secret technique to keeping fish on the
bite. Yes, all the offerings had to be perfect…perfectly natural.
The direction of the cast, drift, presentation, color, sent, and size
had to all be in sync if fish are going to be routinely on the bite.
It was too easy and that may have been why it had eluded me for so long,
as it did with many other skilled fishermen. Now I’m not talking
about taking great care of fishing gear and lures, I’m talking
about taking perfect care. The time it takes to invest in that kind
of attention is painstaking but definitely worth the trouble.
If you take all the fishermen who were out that day and combined their
catches and compared them to mine they were out-fished five-to-one.
The boast is real and so were the fish and it wasn’t the last
time.
Paying attention to the perfectly natural lure or bait applies anything
you put in the water with that vital exception. When the waters run
turbid with little to no visibility all bets are off. To tell the truth,
fishing turbid water is really one of the best times to fish anyway
but if you’re looking for something to test your talents then
this is the way to go.
Pressure does put fish off the bite, but with care, investment of time,
and the willingness to go against the grain; you’ll hook into
fish when others are left to scratch their heads. The funniest thing
about all of this is you could actually share all your fishing information
with other fishermen and withhold that one little clue and they still
won’t get the same amount of fish you do. Ironically, there has
been many times I’ve told fishermen right to their faces about
the measures needed to keep them on the bite in clear water conditions
and they still wouldn’t take the necessary steps; too bad for
them but good news for you.
© Timothy Kusherets, 2005/09 |
