Fishing

Ken Anderson

Ken Anderson

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Staff member
Fishing, hunting, trapping, and the like are not exactly sports, although tournament fishing can be, but this is as good a place for it as any. When I was a child, I hated most kinds of fishing. Sometimes my cousins, particularly my cousin Jerry, would want to go fishing, and I'd hate it if I couldn't talk them out of it. Standing on the shores of a lake or river with a fishing pole was so boring, particularly with Jerry, because he was so into it that everyone was supposed to be quiet and concentrate on fishing. I didn't have a fishing pole of my own (because, duh, I didn't like to fish), so he lent me one of his when he insisted on the two of us going fishing. The fishing went on and on and on, and finally, when I couldn't talk him into stopping, I threw his pole in the river.

At that time, either kids didn't need fishing licenses or the local game wardens didn't enforce fishing laws on kids, except for the smelt season. For some reason, that was highly regulated and enforced. I knew that adults were supposed to have licenses, but I also knew plenty of adults who didn't bother to get one unless they were fishing on a very public lake or river.

I liked smelt fishing because it was done with a net, and I could get two buckets of smelt in about five minutes, or so it seemed. Sucker (red horse) fishing was okay too, because they were speared, which was a far more interesting way to fish, but suckers didn't taste good unless they were smoked, and we didn't have a smoker. An uncle did, but no one wanted to bother him with smoking fish unless we had a bunch of them.

I also liked ice fishing because my dad had an ice fishing shack that he would put out, usually on Lake Michigan, with a wood stove in it, so any fish you could cook up and eat before the game warden came by didn't count against your limit. I'm sure the rules didn't read that way, but those were the effective rules. Plus, the scraps from cooking fish could be dumped back into the hole to attract more fish. Nothing is fresher than a fish that was swimming around a few minutes before you ate it.

Since I didn't do much pole fishing, I don't know for sure, but I think live bait was what most people used, though lures were a thing.

Now that I'm older, standing on the shores of a lake or river with a fishing rod sounds like something that might be fun, but Maine's fishing laws are so convoluted, I'd probably end up doing prison time, especially given that I can't tell one fish from another, for the most part.
 
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Ken Anderson said:
Fishing, hunting, trapping, and the like are not exactly sports, although tournament fishing can be, but this is as good a place for it as any. When I was a child, I hated most kinds of fishing. Sometimes my cousins, particularly my cousin Jerry, would want to go fishing, and I'd hate it if I couldn't talk them out of it. Standing on the shores of a lake or river with a fishing pole was so boring, particularly with Jerry, because he was so into it that everyone was supposed to be quiet and concentrate on fishing. I didn't have a fishing pole of my own (because, duh, I didn't like to fish), so he lent me one of his when he insisted on the two of us going fishing. The fishing went on and on and on, and finally, when I couldn't talk him into stopping, I threw his pole in the river.

At that time, either kids didn't need fishing licenses or the local game wardens didn't enforce fishing laws on kids, except for the smelt season. For some reason, that was highly regulated and enforced. I knew that adults were supposed to have licenses, but I also knew plenty of adults who didn't bother to get one unless they were fishing on a very public lake or river.

I liked smelt fishing because it was done with a net, and I could get two buckets of smelt in about five minutes, or so it seemed. Sucker (red horse) fishing was okay too, because they were speared, which was a far more interesting way to fish, but suckers didn't taste good unless they were smoked, and we didn't have a smoker. An uncle did, but no one wanted to bother him with smoking fish unless we had a bunch of them.

I also like ice fishing because my dad had an ice fishing shack that he would put out, usually on Lake Michigan, with a wood stove in it, so any fish you could cook up and eat before the game warden came by didn't count against your limit. I'm sure the rules didn't read that way, but those were the effective rules. Plus, the scraps from cooking fish could be dumped back into the hole to attract more fish. Nothing is fresher than a fish that was swimming around a few minutes before you ate it.

Since I didn't do much pole fishing, I don't know for sure, but I think live bait was what most people used, though lures were a thing.

Now that I'm older, standing on the shores of a lake or river with a fishing rod sounds like something that might be fun, but Maine's fishing laws are so convoluted, I'd probably end up doing prison time, especially given that I can't tell one fish from another, for the most part.
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I especially like the part of throwing his fishing pole into the river, Ken.
 
I once fished a lot. As a kid, opening day of trout season was almost as big a deal as the opening of deer season, and you could start at a much younger age. Here fishing is something almost everyone does. Alaska residents can fish for salmon in designated areas with nets. That is what gets many people through the winter food-wise. In the bush, we used drift nets. They had limits on length, depth, and opening size depending on the time of year. That was how entire villages were fed, especially elders. Our smelt season is short and essentially unregulated. We would catch hundreds or thousands in a single day if you could catch the run at the right time. We would use the large catches to feed our dogs, especially in the winter as they were a proper sized dog snack. We never go smelting now as they are not the best human food, although the ones we caught in the bush were larger and more solid. We pickled those and fed all the neighborhood boys with them. Girls weren't fond of them.

These days we occasionally go ice fishing or salmon fishing and trout fishing, but not with the intensity of days gone by. Since we are over 65, we can sign a form and our children can proxy for us. We are entitled to 35 net-caught salmon, but we seldom use that many. We half-smoke some and can them. It makes a great dip or smoked salmon salad for winter munching.
 
I used to have a fancy-dancy, fiberglass, telescoping, unbreakable, fishing pole. I don't have it anymore.

I was going to fish with my fancy-dancy, fiberglass, telescoping, unbreakable, fishing pole and my rod and reel at the same time. I
baited my fancy-dancy, fiberglass, telescoping, unbreakable, fishing pole up, put the hook, bait, etc. in the water. I laid it down beside BIL and told him to watch it while I put a bait on my rod and reel. Just as I turned around to pick up my rod and reel, a monster fish grabbed the bait and took off with my fancy-dancy, fiberglass, telescoping, unbreakable, fishing pole up the river before either of us could grab it. He pulled it so fast that it left a wake behind it.

That was the last I ever saw of my fancy-dancy, fiberglass, telescoping, unbreakable, fishing pole.
 
There was another time that I caught a seagull. Well, I didn't exactly catch him.

We were fishing for rockfish out on the Pamlico Sound. I was using a bait that resembled a large minnow. When it moved through the water, it looked exactly like a minnow. Apparently, a seagull thought it did, too. It dived down all of a sudden and grabbed the "Minnow". It got about 25 or 30 feet up and must have realized that it wasn't a real minnow. OOPsie! It dropped the bait and flew off.
 
Ken Anderson said:
I haven't had smelt since I was a kid, but I loved the taste of fried smelt. That was one of my favorite fish.
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Did you somehow catch the smelt, or buy them at the grocery store, @Ken Anderson ? When we lived in western Washington, every year, there were smelt runs, and I think they got them in nets or something, and the grocery would carry smelt until the smelt run was over for that year. I really enjoyed cooking and eating the smelt, and also smoking them.
I had one of those Little Chief smokers, and the smoked smelt were delicious !

My folks loved fishing, and on weekends we usually drove up to some mountain lake in north Idaho, and we would camp out and fish for the weekend. Grandpa Bailey had an old wooden boat, and my mom made fried chicken and potato salad, and brought other foods along, plus we cooked breakfast over the campfire. I loved having fresh fried trout and pancakes for breakfast !
I would love to go fishing, but Bobby and I have not done that in years. There is a park just down the road where there are lots of fish, and it is free for anyone over 65 to fish in Alabama.
 
Ken Anderson said:
I don't think the grocery stores carried smelt, at least not then, so they were freshly caught.
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Did you actually fish and catch them , or trap them in nets or something ?
The smelt we had out in Washington were tiny, or at least small for a fish you would catch on a hook with bait, and it took a dozen of them to have enough to eat.
I just looked it up to see how they were caught, and apparently, it was by “dip-netting”. We never did that, but they were really cheap in the grocery store, so I usually bought some and ate them when they were in the store, which only happened for a few weeks, once a year.
wdfw.wa.gov

Cowlitz River smelt fishing

The southern distinct population segment (DPS) of eulachon, commonly referred to as "Columbia River smelt," supports a popular recreational fishery in
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov
 
Herrings preserved in salt are a favorite food for some people here, not me. People used to set nets to catch them on the Roanoke River near Jamesville where they came in to spawn. They were so over fished over the years that it's illegal to catch them now. They have to be brought here from South Carolina.
 
I've fished off & on since I was a kid. I like artificial baits because you don't just cast & wait...you're supposed to play with them. My favorite times were wade fishing and using a belly boat.

I used to wade fish in the Shenandoah River at a place where the water was chest-high at its deepest. I'd get there pre-dawn. The fog would be way over my head, so for a while I'd be casting blind. Then as the sun came up, the fog would slowly burn off. When I'd hook a fish, I was standing in its environment reeling it in. The whole experience was a good time. I think I was trespassing where I fished, so I always took trash bags with me and cleaned up stuff other trespassers had left, hoping that would be sufficient compensation for my being on someone else's property...but I was never confronted.

I've fished in lakes in a belly boat, which is an inner tube set up for fishing. It has a sling seat and bags sewn into it that held your tackle. There were also duck fins you used to propel yourself. That was fun when using surface lures that a big bass would hit as you were almost eye-level with the water. And like wade fishing, you're in the water with the fish.

The one type of fishing I never liked was deep sea fishing. I do not like getting out of the site of land, although fishing in the ocean is exciting because you have no idea what type of creature is gonna take your bait...and there's some weird stuff out there. I've fished in the ocean from a boat near land and have caught fish I could not identify and that looked prehistoric, and I've surf-fished a few times. I prefer seafood to fresh water fish, but for pleasure fishing I like rivers, lakes and ponds.
 
Usually when you get the hang of fly fishing, you don't want to do any other kind. It makes even the smallest catch seem like a battle. I don't do it for larger fresh water fish like king salmon, but for trout and grayling, it cannot be beat. Halibut fishing is like dragging a large board through 200 feet of water. It is real (reel) work and not for smaller children, but the rewards are immense. It is great eating if they are under 70 pounds.
 
Don Alaska said:
Usually when you get the hang of fly fishing, you don't want to do any other kind. It makes even the smallest catch seem like a battle. I don't do it for larger fresh water fish like king salmon, but for trout and grayling, it cannot be beat. Halibut fishing is like dragging a large board through 200 feet of water. It is real (reel) work and not for smaller children, but the rewards are immense. It is great eating if they are under 70 pounds.
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I've never tried fly fishing. I had a bait cast reel when I was a kid, but likely just manually unspooled the amount of line I needed. I bought one as an adult and quickly went back to an open-face spinning reel.
 
John Brunner said:
I've never tried fly fishing. I had a bait cast reel when I was a kid, but likely just manually unspooled the amount of line I needed. I bought one as an adult and quickly went back to an open-face spinning reel.
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Bait casting is a pain except for really large fish or trolling, which isn't really casting but uses a similar reel. Spinning is better for most stuff, but you should give fly casting a try @John Brunner if you enjoy fishing, especially for pan fish or trout.
 
I never had the opportunity to fish a lot but when I did I loved it. Started fishing at a young age my father would take me and my brother to Rockaway we would fish off of piers, bridges and at least once from a hidden beach. We did crabbing with a long pole net(20-30 ft.) and a powerful flashlight off the Cross Bay Bridge. Between me and my brother one of us would hold the flashlight to shine on the crabs floating under the bridge and the other would have the net to try and net the crab. Most times because I was bigger and stronger than my younger brother I did the netting. I could not use the net like you could on a boat where you can sweep it under the crab, instead you had to hold the net steady and let the crab float into it and then pull it straight up. If you missed the crab it would float under the bridge and come out the other side which meant you had to cross a heavy traffic Crossbay Boulevard with a 20 or 30 ft net and try to catch the crab when it came out on the other side. I would carry the net over my head as I'm maneuvered to get to the other side of the bridge. Crazy but fun, after about 4 hours we would catch between 25 and 35 crabs. Sometimes we would see an eel swimming on the surface and try to catch it they always had an eerie green look to them.
 
I've done tons of crabbing the old school way...chicken necks tied to a line with a big sinker affixed. When you take the slack out of the line and stretch it tight, you can feel the vibration of the crab picking at the bait. You slowly pull the line in, lift the bait off of the bottom, and when the crab swam up to it, you scooped it in the net. Sometimes the crab would have a death-grip on the bait all the way in, and sometimes it would let go as you retrieved the bait so you would retrieve the line in increments, giving the crab a chance to swim back to it bit-by-bit and follow it to shore.

We camped outside of Ocean City MD for a number of years, and I would be crabbing twice a day (every time the tide came in) nearly every single day. I think that's why I got skin cancer on my nose. Whenever there would be a hurricane off shore and the tide would be exceptionally high, puffer fish sometimes followed the bait and you could net them.
 
John Brunner said:
I've done tons of crabbing the old school way...chicken necks tied to a line with a big sinker affixed. When you take the slack out of the line and stretch it tight, you can feel the vibration of the crab picking at the bait. You slowly pull the line in, lift the bait off of the bottom, and when the crab swam up to it, you scooped it in the net. Sometimes the crab would have a death-grip on the bait all the way in, and sometimes it would let go as you retrieved the bait so you would retrieve the line in increments, giving the crab a chance to swim back to it bit-by-bit and follow it to shore.

We camped outside of Ocean City MD for a number of years, and I would be crabbing twice a day (every time the tide came in) nearly every single day. I think that's why I got skin cancer on my nose. Whenever there would be a hurricane off shore and the tide would be exceptionally high, puffer fish sometimes followed the bait and you could net them.
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I've used the killi-ring with a sinker. I remember the fun and bringing the line up slowly as to not let the crab drop off. You could feel you had something on, bringing the Killi-ring to the surface was exciting I couldn't wait to see what was on the line. Sometimes you had more than one crab, occasionally the throwback fish like a Hacklehead.
 
Tony Page said:
I've used the killi-ring with a sinker. I remember the fun and bringing the line up slowly as to not let the crab drop off. You could feel you had something on, bringing the Killi-ring to the surface was exciting I couldn't wait to see what was on the line. Sometimes you had more than one crab, occasionally the throwback fish like a Hacklehead.
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We were midwestern boys who had never seen the ocean, so we had no idea what type of fish we were reeling in (except for maybe the occasional flounder.) A common fish where the Sinepuxent Bay dumps into the Atlantic is the Northern Puffer (we called them blow fish.) When it gets pulled out of the water, you hear it puff and wheeze as it inflates.

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Having never encountered such a thing, we assumed it would rather blow itself up (and explode all over us) than be captured. So we would immediately throw them back in the water and watch them float away until they deflated and swam off. I don't know how many we threw back until a local clued us in to the fact that they were the best tasting, easiest-to-clean fish out there.
 
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