Let's talk fishing...

[paul]

Let's swap a few fish stories. I'll start us off with this:

As a teenager I had some fun taking "utlralight tackle" to the extreme. On a ultralight spinning outfit I spooled up with 4 pound test just to fill the spool, then added a full spool of nylon sewing thread from a fabric store. The stuff I used was basically mono with a breaking strength of somewhere around 3/4 of a pound. I would rig that up with a rubber and marabou jig with a 1/64 oz jig head. That's too light to cast well even with 4 pound line but with the sewing thread it flew just fine. I went fishing for bluegills, and I can tell you that an 8 inch 'gill is a real challenge on that line. Even getting a good hook set is tough, and you certainly wouldn't lift a fish out of the water by the line. Silly, sure. But fun.

Anybody else ever use anything lighter than 2 pound test?

Paul

[Barns]

Hi Paul and all crazy fishers

In Scotland here we fish for Grayling,using 1 to 1.5lb nylon. We use a bung and 3ft nylon with size 24 gold head hares ear.

The fish we usually catch are between 8 and 15 ins. Sometimes we have a battle on our hands when we catch a late running Atlantic salmon or Grilse.

The heaviest i have managed to land was 12lb.

All the best

Barns

[Justin Douglas]

I haven't gone less than 4 sorry to dissapoint used that snagging suckers and crappie fishing a few years back 2 1/2-3 pound suckers are pretty hard to land. I had to bum some 6 pound test off a buddy on a trip I forgot to bring my own. I ended up trying for stripers that ran up a smaller river with it since i didn't think to buy any. That didn't go so well it casts 4 inch zoom flukes pretty good though. The next time I went to 8 pound flourocarbon and landed about a 26 inch striper on it.

[Yellowstone7]

Hi All:

This is one of my favourite fishing stories. Years ago I was camping on the banks of the Yellowstone River and I had this brilliant idea. Why not make a fly out of Velcro and catch fish with it? The trout species had smallish teeth and if they take the Velcro flies their teeth would get tangled up with the Velcro and I can then catch the fish. I tied several flies imitating the cased caddis and painted them with a permanent marking pen. They turned out pretty nice, I thought. I clipped the hook off the fly just to test the new theory.

Then I showed this new fly to my good friend and famous Yellowstone River fishing guide, Ray Hurley. Ray always had a great sense of humor and you can count on him for some funny and well considered remarks. He looked at the fly, went silent for a moment and then broke out in a loud laughter, Then he looked at me right in the eyes and said in all seriousness, "Stan, if the fish would hold his mouth shut after he takes your fly you can surely land him. But then you can do that also with a rock fly!" Hahahahaha! We were laughing so hard that we were almost rolling on the floor.

Just to prove him wrong I took my new Velcro flies and went fishing the next day. I got many interested bumps and even some hard strikes but I failed to land a fish. The longest I had the "fish on" was about two or three seconds. So much for another brilliant idea!

I got my reprieve the following year when I visited the AFTMA show. The Annual Products Show for fishing gear manufacturers. I saw many large salt water lures and plugs with Velcro tape on them and they claim that the addition of the Velcro increased the window for a fisherman to hook his fish before the lure is rejected. I said " Ah So", and left the stands smiling to myself. My dear friend Ray is now fishing in the streams of the Heavens but I am sure he is still keeping everybody laughing there.

Regards,

Stanley

[paul]

I hadn't heard of the Velcro fly idea, but I can see good sense in the theory. I've heard of people using strips of nylon stockings as hookless flies for gar. Gar have a nasty snout full of teeth, and a tendency to roll over wrapping line or in this case the nylon around their long, skinny jaws. We've got gar around here that I've caught when fishing for other stuff, but I've nevered tried the nylon trick. Your Velcro story got me thinking about that again. Next year I'll have to give that a try.

Paul