That's My Story

FISHING THE JUG!

Originally published the week of July 22, 2007 in Western Outdoor News

Fishermen are an inventive lot. If you ever have any doubt, take a look sometime in a fishing gear catalog like Bass Pro, West Marine, Melton’s or any of a number of online websites that cater to the needs of us anglers to have the coolest gadget, device or “next hot thing.”

The best example is to just take a look in the lure section. The lure section for bass lures is a prime classic example. I mean, how many types of crankbaits, jerk baits, plastic frogs or wiggle worms can there be? How many do you really need? Ask any good bass fisher and, of course, he or she will say, “All of them!” Each touts to be the most “deadly of the deadly” or my favorite, “made for fishermen BY fishermen!” (Of course they area!)

But if any garage-tinkering angler can come up with a better idea, we certainly will! We anglers are constantly plagued by the “What if?” disease and off we go to mold, hammer, construct the “next best thing!”

Well, being down here at “ground zero” I certainly have seen some interesting inventions and gadget. Not all of them are bad either and a number of them work! Some are actually marketing commercially now, but others are as homemade as your grand daddy’s sawhorse.

One amigo came down with a pair of shorts where the clips on his fighting belt/rod holder were already built into the reinforced waistband of the shorts. When he was ready to fight, he merely clipped his fighting pad into the two drop clips on either side and he was ready to go. That was a good one.

Another guy came down who was convinced that the faster the jigging the more fish you would catch. So, he took his Penn 500 reel and turned it into a virtual dragster of 15:1 ratio! It had a sideplate that stuck out a good 2 extra inches on the side of the handle to accommodate the extra gears as well as a larger handle and the whole contraption looked every-bit like it came out’ve a high-school shop class. It sure made a lure buzz through the water. Only problem was that when it got hit by even a bonito, it was almost impossible to turn the handle and get any torque. I think he went back to the drawing board.

My vote, however, for the best and most humorous of the year (so far) is something called “jug fishing.” That got my eye-brows raised when I first heard of it. Our amigo, Bill Kennedy and his sons brought it down and swore that it slayed the fish in Panama. OK…I’m all ears and eyes!

Let me see if I can explain. They showed up with a 5 gallon jug. Affixed to this was a length of heavy leader. To this leader was attached either a trolling feather or hook for live bait. There was also a clip whereby this huge device could be clipped to a rod.

If they were trolling and a fish hit, the big jug would disengage itself from the rod. Same if they were drifting a live bait.

Follow me on this. The fish would grab the bait or lure. It would then go swimming off trailing this ultra buoyant jug usually unable to drag it underwater. It would go zipping off and around as it tried to escape. Do you remember the movie, “Jaws” where huge buoys were attached to the line and the shark swam off with it?
Same idea! Even if the fish pulled it down for awhile, it would eventually pop up!

In the meantime, back on the boat…

The fishermen popped beers and watched the jug go this way and that. They would high five each other and pop more beers. The “size” of the fish was described in terms of being a “1 beer,” “2 beer,” 3 beer,” etc. fish by how long the fish fought. Or judged by how deep the jug was pulled underwater via dark black hash marks on the side of the jug that could be seen from the boat.

When the jug stopped moving, they moved the boat and simply handlined the fish. No sweat! The swore they got tuna and wahoo in Panama “jug fishing” and got several dorado fishing with our own fleet here.

At some point, I think the beer drinking began to take precedence over the fishing. The clue for me was when one of them got off the boat happily proclaiming they had drank “24 beers before noon” yet only 1 medium dorado ( certainly rating no more than a “1 beer” status) was in the fish box. These guys knew how to enjoy themselves and that ultimately is what fishing is about.

Me? I prefer to battle my fish old school style. Maybe I’m just funny like that, but I like to have a bent rod in my hand. However, I can certainly think of a lot of guys who would consider any device which kept your hands free to pop another cerveza while catching fish smacks of inspired genius.

I’m sure one of you readers is now hustling down to the basement to build your own and we’ll see these in the 2008 catalogs and at all the fishing shows!

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