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Archive for the ‘Angling’ Category

Teaching a kid to fish does not have to be difficult, if you follow the right steps. There is an old Chinese proverb that states:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. How true that is, teach a kid to enjoy fishing and you will have a lifetime fishing partner! I taught my kids to fish, while pulling out my hair, and now they love it. I will show you how to take the pain out of this task so that they will come to love fishing and the outdoors.

First and foremost you must be patient with your kids as they learn to cast for the first time. They become aggravated when they can’t cast as far as you can, then quickly want to move on to another task that they already have an interest in. Out comes the Game boy. I created a game for my kids that we played at home in the yard; you may find this fun and helpful.

Make three targets and set them out in the yard at ten, fifteen, and twenty feet away. Then assign a point value for each target, say ten, fifteen, and twenty points. We always played to a score of fifty. They may only play once or twice a week so let them win some too! Now you have a game they can play to learn the task of casting before you go to the lake.

Now that you have a cast master, it’s off to the fishing hole!

Show them how to properly tie a fishing knot by tying on your hook on your line as they follow along, tying on their own hook. This can be done in conjunction with the casting game. In steps frustration, don’t let them struggle with this task too long or they will lose interest. Out comes the Game boy. Ask them if they want you to do it, remember it has to be a fun experience.

Now for the prey, be sure to target fish that are easy to catch. Bluegills for example are abundant around most docks and marinas, and are very easy to catch. Use very small hooks and a small piece of worm for bait with a bobber.

Crappies are also easy to catch, and eat; they are located around boat docks with brush piles under them. Check with local marinas to see if they have a crappie house, if you don’t have a boat. Using live minnows for bait and a bobber so they can see when they get a bite.

Catfish are also simple to catch. They are bottom feeders and eat minnows, stink bait, and a host of over the counter and home made baits as well. I recommend a sliding weight above the hook. Let the fish take the bait on a free line, if they feel the resistance they will drop the bait. Set the hook while the line is moving and you will catch the fish almost every time.

Don’t try to make them a bass pro on the first trip, keep the action fast. I recommend a Zebco 33 spin cast reel. It’s very dependable and near indestructible, it will last them for many years. Use a light rod not more than 5′6″ long, any longer than that and their casting accuracy goes way down. Also with a light rod that one pound crappie seems to be as big as a whale. I would buy monofilament line not larger than 10 lb test in strength. Heavier line will make it more difficult to cast, and I believe lighter line catches more fish. A small tackle box is a must have for every junior angler!

Don’t go out there and set junior up with a crappie rig and you tie on this pretty spinner bait, they will want to use the same bait as you do. Stay away from treble hooks! There are way too many points to stick into too many different places.

As I close be sure to teach them about conservation. Keep only what you will eat. Don’t throw your excess bait into the lake, give them to another fisherman. Don’t keep them out there all day, if the fish aren’t biting try skipping some rocks. You may also consider hiring a fishing guide! They get paid to catch fish.

The Fishing Vacation Guide- All the very best fishing vacation destinations, fishing tips, fish recipes, and so much more!

Let’s face it, we dream in Technicolor of size 10 green drake hatches or Hexagenia Limbata as big as beavers – but the reality is Winter Time Is Midge Time. Often the only bugs on the frigid water are so small; they challenge most anglers to consider LASIK. And as you already know, much of the eating is under the surface.

At a fly-tying class, I once heard a locally famous fly tier named Pops quip something along the line of “my second best fly tying material supplier is Hobby Lobby”. This, of course, assumes that Blue Heron Fly Shop where we were sitting is his “first best”. This guy is also well known for the quote “it ain’t no use, if it ain’t chartreuse” but that, as they say, is another story.

Armed with this nugget of wisdom, I scoured every section of Hobby Lobby. Eureka! Great little wires for tying “ribs” of nymphs, wonderful foam sheets for terrestrials, assorted yarn varieties for ‘buggers, and beads, beads, beads! All this is available at a fraction of the cost of their fly-shop counterparts. Bingo!

From this magnificent Wall-O’-Beads, I found some fine little metal ones in a small pinky-sized cylinder. They came in a variety of colors like olive, purple, copper, and brown. Many had fancy names like Brown Iris Metallic Beads (the one I took home) and numerous others. Perfect. We ARE talking tiny here. Just the right size to barely squeeze on to barb-less size 20 hooks and be proportionate.

Armed with these at my fly tying station, I began to experiment. If you have ever collected and looked at tiny water bugs, you will note their appendages and segmentations are not distinct unless under a microscope. So, I combined the little bead heads with many simple body materials trying to find a simple-to-tie solution. I wanted to approximately match the hatch from recent trips to the stream. I finally boiled it down to dyed goose biots. I had originally experimented with biots to tie Prince Nymphs at a much larger scale and certainly a different application. My favorite biot color is olive, and man, what a great subtle segmented body biots make. Ultimately, I designed Duff’s Bead/Biot Midge – perfect for fishing Winter’s cold waters. More than just this emerger, I developed a powerful One-Two Punch combination that has proven itself over and over in many tailraces throughout Texas and Oklahoma.

Though the tiny bead/biot midge is a killer as a dropper below a larger nymph, the One-Two Punch consists of a dropper below a similar looking dry. Before I give you the recipe, let me describe the simplicity of these two flies. The dry fly is: olive thread, olive biot, and olive/gray hackle on a size twenty barb-less hook. The dropper, often fished just 6 inches below the dry, is: olive thread, olive biot, and metallic bead on a size twenty barb-less hook. Simple, right? It’s really easy to tie too. But don’t let that make you feel guilty when you when you catch numerous trout with it.

Duff’s Dry Midge – Olive
Materials –

• Hook: Size 20 dry
• Thread: Olive 8/0
• Body: Goose Biot dyed olive
• Hackle: Olive/Gray sized to match hook gap
• Head: Olive Thread

Technique – Crush barb, put hook in vise, jamb knot thread and wrap back to bend, tie in point of biot, wrap thread forward, spiral biot forward leaving segmentation and tie down with half hitch, tie in single hackle, trim base, wrap hackle and tie off, whip finish forming head, add cement.

Duff’s Bead/Biot Midge – Olive
Materials –

• Hook: Size 20 dry or scud/nymph
• Thread: Olive 8/0
• Body: Goose Biot dyed olive
• Head: Brown Iris Bead

Technique – Crush barb, place bead head on hook, put hook in vise, jamb knot thread and wrap back to bend, tie in point of biot, wrap thread forward, spiral biot forward leaving segmentation and tie down with half hitch (optional – tie in a few strands of crystal flash as a wing and clip close), whip finish behind bead head, add cement.

For those who are not into fly tying but are into fly fishing Scott has put together an assortment of dry flies and nymphs that no fly fisherman should be with out. See Duff’s Ultimate Midge Pack.

Scott is a lead editor and contributor to SouthwestSportsman.com, a website dedicated to the enjoyment of the great American outdoors.