ICAST 2010 What’s New For the Angler By Gary Howey
Each year, there’s a convention where manufacturers of fishing related products get together to display their latest and greatest products.
The 2010 International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades or ICAST as it’s commonly know was held in Las Vegas recently, giving manufacturers the opportunity to introduce what’s new for the angler.
My daughter Cassie and I were on hand for this year’s convention, spending g three days working our way through isle after isle of new products.
This year, there were hundreds of new products with everything from fishing tackle to clothing and everything in between.
Here are a few of the items that caught our eye at this years show.
Humminbird
Humminbird’s 998c GPS Fishing System side imaging unit allows you to see everything that’s below your boat and the water around it.
It’s side imaging sonar uses a super thin beam, taking a sonar snapshot of the area not just below you, it can cover an area up to240 feet to the left and right on either side of your boat, giving you an incredibility accurate picture of what’s on he bottom and to either side of your boat.
Reading the screen is easy as the dark blue in the middle is what’s directly below you and off to the left and right side are your side images.
The Humminbird 998c allows you to see trees, rock piles and any other object on the bottom just as if you were looking at a photograph as anything on the bottom or off to the side appear as they are.
When put together with the new LakeMaster chips, the Humminbird 998c will put you on the spot, helping to make locating structure and fish much quicker and easier.
For more information on this and other Humminbird products check out www.humminbird.com
A Step Back In Time: Fishing with Bamboo By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal.
A few weeks ago, on South Dakota’s Enemy Swim Lake, I stepped back in time nearly 70 years.
I laid down my fine graphite casting rods and, instead, picked up a five-and-one-half-foot handmade split bamboo casting rod.
My nod to the past stopped with the rod. I was using a modern free-spool casting reel spooled with 10-pound-test mono.
I tied on a two-and-a-half inch Big O in Smokey Joe color, my favorite bass crankbait, and fired out a cast.
The lure literally flew over the boulder-studded flat and I thumbed the reel a bit to avoid overcasting the target.
The rod performed just as it had when lawn casting. Bamboo, I found, loads quickly and literally throws the lure for you, something a graphite rod does not do.
I made three cranks of the rod handle when the lure just stopped.
The smallmouth did what they usually do when caught in shallow water. It came up, one, two, three times in quick succession, and then avowed to slug it out.
Smallmouth never come to hand easily, and this one was no exception.
I finally was able to slip my thumb into his mouth and lift him from the water. He was nearly four pounds and was to be the largest of over a dozen smallies I caught on the bamboo rod that day.
I also landed a few largemouth, some of them over three pounds.
Bassin for Walleyes On Big Mac By Gary Howey
You know the saying, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”
Well, let me tell you that it can be done, because this, mature dog, I don’t like the word Old, recently learned a new trick that will not only catch walleyes, it will catch “Big” walleyes.
Last week, our film crew made a trip down to Lake McConaughy in southwestern Nebraska to film the 2010 Cabela’s Regional Walleye Tournament.
First of all, let me tell you a little about McConaughy, it’s back and no longer the largest beach in Nebraska as the water levels were so low that the lake looked more like a huge beach with a small lake in the middle than Big Mac.
According to the Central Public Power and Irrigation District, Big Mac is up 30’ since last December with the lake that is now over 20 miles long.
When we headed for the lake, we knew it held large walleyes as the state record walleye; a 16 pound 2 ounce lunker came from the lake.
The two person teams in this tournament had to qualify by finishing in the top twenty-five in their respective state.
Anglers from the Kansas Walleye Association, Colorado Walleye Association, Nebraska Walleye Trail and the Wyoming Walleye Stampede were represented in the tournament that paid $10,000.00 first place.
Slip bobbers aren’t just for walleyes By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
Slip bobber fishing may not have originated on Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota, but it certainly was refined there.
It’s many rock reefs jutting a foot or two above massive mud flats are made-to-order for bobber fishing.
They are, however, too deep at 18 to 28 feet below the surface for normal bobber fishing. Enter a bobber that slides up and down the line and is “stopped” by a knotted piece of Dacron which can be slid up or down the line.
An ice fisherman’s “bomber,” a hunk of lead with a metal clip on it is attached to your hook, most commonly an eighth-ounce jig and lowered to the bottom. The knot is positioned to pull the bobber a foot or two under the water. Now it is set to hold your bait, often a leech, a foot or two over the bottom.
Slip bobber magic.
But slip bobber use shouldn’t stop there. Anytime you need to fish a bait anywhere in shallow to deep water, over the tops of weeds or over the tangles of submerged timber, reach for the slip bobber.
Lighted slip bobbers are not new. They have been used for years by night fishermen on the walleye reefs. But Thill’s new Splash Bright bobber brings a new technology to the system.
The bobber contains a battery which causes the bobber to “ignite” when it hits the water.
Each bobber has a battery life of 30-in-the-water hours. When that expires, you still have a float which is one of the best for daytime fishing.
I predict catfishermen will be quick to pick up on the advantages of this float in our local waters. Drifting baits under floats at night in shallow water on Brown’s Lake, Snyder’s Bend, Storm Lake, East Okoboji Lake or Spirit Lake is a great way to catch catfish. A fat night crawler, a leech, a freshly killed minnow, stink bait on a ribbed worm or chunks of fresh cut bait would be baits of choice.
Like all successful fishing systems, there is more than one way to get the job done.
There are many designs of slip bobbers and bobber fishing has been refined into a near-science by its many advocates.
You can buy bobbers in many different sizes, styles and colors.
Glacial Lakes’ mixed bag By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
WEBSTER, S.D. — Our plan was to hit two lakes a day and take full advantage of the variety of fishing to be found in the Glacial Lakes area of northeastern South Dakota.
Mother Nature threw us a curve, however, and rather than fight 25 to 30 mile-an-hour winds, we fished mornings and motored off the water pounding against a spray of white caps each afternoon.
The first morning was the worst.
A south wind was blasting at 20 miles an hour by 10 a.m. We parked at the boat ramp on Reetz Lake, just south of Webster.
“We won’t last long, out there,” I said to Fran. “We might be able to get out of the wind along that west shoreline.”
I had not planned to fish Reetz. Less than a month earlier I had fished it and caught several walleyes over 20 inches there. But, with the wind I thought our chances were better here on a lake where all walleyes under 28-inches have to be released.
We lasted about an hour and a half and boated two nice walleyes on bottom bouncers and spinners fished in 12 to 14 feet of water.
The rest of the afternoon we spend prospecting other lakes and checking out boat ramps for the next day.
With the wind forecast to blow again, we launched the next morning on Enemy Swim Lake, long one of the northeast’s glacial gems.
It’s a beautiful lake. Clear water, wooded shorelines and a couple of islands. It’s 2,150 acres with a maximum depth of 24 feet. All bass between 14 and 18 inches must be released with only one over 18 allowed in the daily bag. That just about guarantees good bass fishing and that is just what we found.
We started on one of the main lake points casting crankbaits and spinnerbaits in water nine feet and less, but never brought up a bass. We moved deeper on the same point and switched to bottom bouncers and spinners with crawlers.
Again, nothing. Only perch.
We left that spot and headed for a small rocky island nearby and that’s where we found the bass.
Smallies were laying in the shallow, boulder-studded water and were more than willing to take our Big O crankbaits.… Continue reading
Catfish Take Center Stage By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
TEKAMAH, NEB. — It probably wasn’t the kind of day you would pick for catfishing, but nobody told the cats.
Pat Carter, Elk Point, S.D., and I arrived at Summit Lake in the middle of a morning rainstorm, but when the downpour turned to sprinkles, we launched my boat and headed out.
Pat had fished the lake a couple times before and was impressed with the channel catfish to be found there. When he suggested we give it a try, I was quick to agree.
For the past seven years, Pat and I have gotten together prior to Sioux City’s one and only catfish tournament and spend a day or an evening chasing “ole whiskers.”
It’s a tradition now and what began as a U.S. CATS sponsored tournament is now a local tournament with Pat as the director. Strong sponsor support from local businesses, headed by First Class Credit Union, and individuals is quickly making this event one of the premier catfish tournaments in the country.
Last year the First Class Cat Attack attracted 51 teams with entries from a seven-state area. This year Pat hopes to top 60 boats and is well on his way. Current entries exceed last year’s.
This year, the boats will blast off from the South Sioux City boat ramp with waters of the Missouri and Big Sioux Rivers eligible.
Last year’s event was won by Dean and Bruce Strobman of Sioux City with a single catch — a 56.60-pound blue catfish. Second was taken by Keith Copenhaver, Sioux City, and Chris Sharp, Merrill, Iowa with 10 fish weighing 40.90 pounds.
In all, anglers weighed in 155 fish totaling 500.15 pounds, the highest weight in the history of the tournament.
This year’s event will be July 24 with anglers fishing from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event has a $5,000 guaranteed payout. Cash awards will be given for first through 6th place with additional cash placements for over 30 teams. Seventh to 15th place teams will win door prizes. Additional door prizes will be offered including a trolling motor, depth finder and rods and reels.
Entry automatically qualifies teams for the 2010 Night Tournament from 7p.m. to 8 a.m. Sept. 4.
The public is welcome to the weigh-in at the ramp. A free cookout and drinks will be available beginning at 3 p.m.
Entry fee for the event is $100 with an optional $10 for the big fish Pot. Entries are being accepted at the Bacon Creek Country Store at 2520 Gordon Dr. Entries will also be accepted, cash only, the morning of the tournament. A mandatory rules meeting will begin at 6:30 a.m.
It’s “Knot” Funny When You Loose A Fish By Gary Howey
If you’ve spent much time on the water, it’s happened to you at least once, or maybe even a dozen times.
You’ve hook into what you believe to be a good fish and it’s peeling off yard after yard of line, you’re thinking, I hope the line doesn’t break!
Just about the time you think you have everything under control, your line goes limp and the fish, a state record in your mind, swims off with you lure.
If you’re like me, you jump up and down, holler and you use several of those “descriptive” adjectives your mother told you not to use as a kid.
“Darn line, broke again”, any way that’s where everyone places the blame!
As you reel line in, you notice that the line’s corkscrewed, the end of it looking similar to a pigtail.
Well, that’s a good indicator that it wasn’t a line break, your knot has either slipped or burned through!
Poorly tied knots are the main reason people loose fish, others are that they tried to drag the fish in, not allowing the drag on the reel to work properly or they hadn’t allowed their rod to do it’s job and not fighting the fish until it was tired.
In this article we’ll talk about knots!
I know, everyone knows how to tie knots right, because we learned as kids when we learned how to tie our shoes!
There are several knots out there that really work well and the old overhand knot like you tied as a kid is not one of them.
When you tie a knot, you’re taking away from the strength of the line; actually reducing it’s strength.… Continue reading
Smallmouth: The gamest fish that swims by Larry Myhre
Reprinted from Sioux City Journal
ISLE Minn. — “Inch for inch, pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims.”
That’s a quote from Dr. James Henshall’s “Book of the Black Bass.”
Dr. Henshall’s book was published in 1881.
That was 129 years ago.
And you know what? It still holds true today.
The smallmouth bass is, without question, the gamest fish that swims.
Dr. Henshall, a midwestern medical doctor and devotee of bass fishing was writing at a time when trout was the kingpin of angling endeavors throughout the populated East.
Fly fishing was the method of choice and native brook trout was the quarry. German browns were soon to take over the limelight, but they were not stocked in any numbers until 1884.
Henshall’s book was the measuring stick of all books written about the black bass through the nineteenth and most of the twentieth century.
But trout fishing held sway until the mid 1950s when another writer, Jason Lucas, angling editor or Sports Afield magazine, finally swayed public opinion towards the black bass.
In the South, largemouth bass is king. In the North, the walleye holds sway.… Continue reading
Water Released Downstream Means The Bite’s on! By Gary Howey
High water with heavy flows following a rain makes for tough fishing.
These seem to be the norm this year as there’s high water everywhere, coming down every creek, river as well as in all the ponds and lakes.
The bad side of this is that all the water running into the lakes and rivers, muddies up the water, making it hard to fish without getting your crankbaits, jigs and livebait rigs all gunked up.
The old wives tale, “with every bad there comes some good” is very true in this instance as water flowing into any body of water means the fish will start will be on the move.
It might take a few days for the water to settle down and the swift current to subside, but you can bet when there’s a rise in the water level, with water being released downstream the fish will become active.
The reason for this is pretty basic; the influx in water will bring new food sources down stream. 
Worms, insects, zoo plankton as well as the baitfish and fingerlings that were tucked safely into the creeks and backwaters are now being flushed downstream into the rivers and lakes, bringing a smorgasbord to the fish that will be moving towards the incoming water on their way to see what’s on the menu.
In the river, sandbars and vegetation that were once high and dry will now become flooded and the insects and other material that was lying in these areas are now in the water.
In a river, this influx of water and new food sources will attract the fish to the slack water located behind sandbars and points.
Fish, both big and small will move towards the incoming water to feed on what’s being washed or forced downstream.
The biggest benefit of high water in reservoirs located on the Missouri River will reach capacity and water will need to be released through the dams.
Some of the deepest water in the system with the most hospitable water temperatures is located directly above the dam and because of this, there will be large concentrations of fish in these areas.… Continue reading
Wrangler Rugged Wear® Fishing Tips
Does your hand twitch?
Bassmaster Classic champion Woo Daves of the Wrangler Rugged Wear Outdoor Advisory Team says the best fishing comes from giving the lure the best action. “Remember the factory can only put so much action into it. It is up to you to make the lure produce,” said Daves. “Twitch the rod tip. Change speeds of retrieve. Work the lure erratically. If you’re catching fish you are working the lure. If you’re not catching fish the lure is working you.”
Step on lure to set reel drag
To set reel drag, Ron Schara of the Wrangler Rugged Wear Outdoor Advisory Team steps on his lure with one foot then applies pressure on the rod, adjusting it to a point where the line does not break but the rod is bent appropriately. “At that point, I usually back it off just a smidgeon to allow for quick moves by a big fish that could snap the line,” said Schara, host of the Outdoor Channel’s popular TV Show, “Backroads with Ron and Raven.”