That's My Story

NEW TRICKS – published January 2006 – Western Outoor News

You run into a lot of different wonderful folks when you have a fishing business and that’s the best part of this gig. But there’s one type that brings a big sigh and exhalation of breath from me when the conversation starts with, “I’m a hardcore fisherman” and usually continues on for several minutes listening to the person reciting a resume of all his fishing exploits as if applying for a job. Can’t get a word in edgewise. No doubt there’s some incredible fishing talent out there, but so often, I also find that Mr. Hardcore gets the most frustrated and surly when the fish don’t bite or others are outfishing him simply because he’s trying too hard to have fun or now has built himself up larger than life.

For the past few weeks a lot of us have been on the fishing show circuit and all of these shows feature some truly incredible talent in the seminars. You’ve seen their names; probably watched their videos; maybe been on a charter or two or read their articles. I’m still a bit in awe when I talk to them myself. I mean, these guys aren’t hardcore. They are “fishing-to-the-core” and every chance I have, I sure enjoy listening to them. They remind you of steely-eyed Clint Eastwood walking into town. Nothing to prove. They know they’re good. However, down to the man, each of them is more than willing to impart their knowledge and a lot of them are actually delighted you asked them.

I’m talking about guys like Pete Haynes of Shimano who does his long range and knot tying seminars. Abe and Angelo Cuanang have forgotten more fishing than I’ll ever know. Steve Carson from Penn Reels doing his Baja thing. Gary Graham from Baja On The Fly making you believe you can actually cast to boiling Cortez yellowfin tuna. There’s the bearded one…Dennis Spike getting all lit up about working the rocks around Rancho Leonero in a plastic kayak and having a dorado leap over him. Yea!

I can never get enough of these guys and although I’m on the water day-after-day, there’s rarely a time that something they say doesn’t spark something in my own brain where I say…”Wow, that makes sense!” There isn’t a day that I don’t learn something on the water and these guys have it in spades.

Remember when you were a kid and just couldn’t sit still while fishing? Your r dad or uncle were ready to tie you up “Cuz you’re making too much noise and scaring the fish!” Well, just before one of his seminars, Pete Haynes was telling me about one way to get lethargic fish to get interested. He told me about tossing out some chum or chunk then taking your deck hose and spraying the water. “It gets fish thinking about what’s making all the commotion on the surface.” (paraphrase) Makes sense.

Use noise to get bit! Boat motors and prop wash have been shown to attract fish. I will often chum for my client with live bait by first poking out one of the eyes of a baitfish so that it spins around and splashes on the surface instead of diving straight down. More bang for each piece of bait. One of my skippers will get a bunch of dead bait and squish it in a corner of the deck mixed with blood and water. He’ll then use his cut-off Clorox bottle to jai-lai it into the air so it falls and splashes. He does rather well, come to think of it. Steve Carson of Penn reminds us about skip jigging for tuna…throwing iron then rapidly skipping it across the surface…as a way to drive tuna, dorado and other pelagic species bonzo. I’ve seen fish literally bang heads trying to get the jig. Try taking the hooks off the jig and really have some fun! I once guided for a guy in Loreto on his own boat. On a slow day, he’d get chunks of bait and other goosh. He’d smush it into the deck and then pour in some fish scent and let it sit in the hot sun in a pile for a bit until it wasn’t “stink.” It was “STANKY.” Then, he’d flush it out the scuppers and proceed to make all kinds of noise; jumping around and banging things on the deck and kick the motors in and out’ve gear. We’d all be laughing and dancing around like those River Dance guys. But… never failed to raise fish. Noise and commotion! New chingaderas for a perro viejo (old dog)!

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.

Jonathan