Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i In-Fisherman

The stream sections I remember, having walked them, and fished them for decades, stretch beyond reality into imagination. Sometimes, thinking about where channel catfish hold so predictably in these waters, I dream of trips to rivers in parts of the country I may never visit. One recurring curiosity has been about fishing the Little Missouri River in western North Dakota, this because I have long been interested in the history of the Plains Indians—so I wonder about them fishing the river as they camped in those years when they freely roamed the area. There’s little record that I can find of such fishing, but I get there by leap of fact and faith: We are told about General Crook and Lieutenant Colonel Custer as they pursued the Lakota and other…

The advantage old muskie boys have in getting in on great fishing often is, no surprise, simply a matter of experience. “Yes, I’m old,” Doug Johnson will fess up. Johnson, a fixture on the Northwest Angle of Lake of the Woods, has long been a contributor to our knowledge bank at In-Fisherman. He has become one of the most respected muskie anglers of our time, his thinking often serving as an island of logic and simplicity in a sea of technical inebriation. “Got my first social security check a month or two ago. Quite cool, this getting paid to be old. By the way, the social part of the deal might be right, but the security thing, well, I think that’s a misnomer. “But then what’s old? I can still…

In recent decades fresh cutbait has become the default bait for tournament and “serious” channel catfish anglers. Many amateur catfishers have the impression that they fish at a disadvantage if they don’t have time or opportunity to obtain fresh forage fish to use as cutbait. But then why do catfish guides like Royce Simmons at Richland Chambers Lake in Texas, who must provide consistent catfishing action for their clients day after day, use stinkbaits? “If you’re willing to fish all day to catch the biggest catfish possible, then cutbait is probably the way to go,” Simmons says. “But if you want to catch lots of catfish as fast as possible, without a lot of extra work, I recommend commercial catfish baits. I buy Danny King’s Blood Punch Bait in 5-gallon…

“When you go way up there in Canada, what happens when it rains?” Aunt Lucy said. “We go fishing,” I said. “That’s why we’re there.” “Well, I don’t unders tand that at all,” Aunt Lucy said. “Why not?” “Put yourself in the fis h’s shoes. Would you be biting if the weather was awful?” While Aunt Lucy onl y wears shoes to bowl and to do the Boot Scootin’ Boogie down at the VFW, I can’t quite get my head around shoes on a fish. But I do understand her basic message. Why venture outside when outside is un-comfy to the nth degree? Forty years ago when we began fishing Knobby’s fly-in lakes, weather simply wasn’t a concern. Sure, it rained some years. It does that in early June, which…

Editor In Chief Doug Stange has long enjoyed pike as the fish for this recipe, but it works well with other fish. He most recently used striped bass from a trip to Lake Texoma, but he suggests also white bass and hybrid stripers, and catfish, and try freshwater drum—any fish really—and especially eaten outdoors at a picnic table along with seasonal fresh sweet corn, which goes superbly rolled in the cajun sauce for the fish. Cajun Your Catch 3 strips bacon, diced2 cloves garlic, crushed2 tbsp. onion, chopped2 sticks butter1 tsp. cayenne pepper1 ½ tsp. Grey Poupon mustard1/4 tsp. dried basil1/4 tsp. dried thyme1/4 tsp. dried oregano5 squirts Tabasco sauce2 tbsp. crab boil (or fish boil) seasoning1 ½ pound of fish fillet, 1-inch cubes Heat the oven to 375°F. Saute…

The river erupted 150 feet away in the shadow of overhanging hardwoods. We scooted over there and rifled sidearm casts under the branches. Two poppers hit the water and rested for half a second before being engulfed in twin explosions. About 25 curious, aggressive smallmouth bass followed the two hooked fish to the boat. So we embarked on one of those days you never forget. Bass came up all day under a clear, bright sky, and no matter how prepared we think we are, a visceral assault on a surface lure stops the heart for a moment every time. Even the fiftieth time. Especially on a river or stream. Smallmouths living in current pump iron by swimming against the flow to migrate—often for many miles. After chasing prey out in…

Sophisticated setups might raise eyebrows and grab headlines, but keeping it simple is often your best bet for putting panfish in the boat. With that in mind, we feature the following collection of uncomplicated yet highly efficient tactics for catching more sunfish and crappies this summer. Schmidt’s Systems In-Fisherman Field Editor Cory Schmidt is a longtime fan of simple but deadly panfish strategies. When we caught up recently, he shared a trio of go-to moves, along with his guiding philosophy when pursuing summertime panfish. “In spring, everyone goes panfishing and most everyone can find them,” he says. Indeed, figuring out the locational part of the fish-catching formula isn’t rocket science when panfish pile up in predictable hotspots. “Things change in summer,” he says “Panfish shift deeper to weededges, rockpiles, and…

Boats are dear to anglers’ hearts and the magic carpets of our sweet fishing dreams, but the trailers that keep their precious hulls off the ground and rolling down the road are every bit as crucial to safe and successful fishing adventures. A well-maintained trailer suited to your fishing platform is a must-have. While many boats come with suitable matches, tricking them out with a few key accessories can enhance performance, safety, and enjoyment. With that in mind, here’s a tour of a few top boat trailer accessories for 2024. Weed Warrior Transporting aquatic vegetation from one lake to another is morally, ethically, and legally unacceptable. Still, the process of crawling on all fours to remove leafy hitchhikers from the far recesses of your boat trailer can be a real…

How Fish Orient in Moving Water Fish Brain Breakthroughs—Anglers and biologists often take for granted the ability of stream and river fish to orient themselves in water that’s continually moving past and pushing them about. For the brain, it represents a complex problem and solving it allows stream fish to move about their environment and thrive. Recently, a large team of scientists from Northwestern University led by Dr. Emma Alexander combined field observations of stream fish with their brain activity to understand their ability to operate in these environments.* As water moves, fish are constantly trying to self-stabilize to stay in place or swim directionally. Their brain needs visual information to accomplish this. Alexander compares the situation to sitting in a train that isn’t moving. If a train next to…

If you’re like a lot of walleye anglers, you spend plenty of time rigging rods based on hunches, history, and hearsay. Sure, sometimes we get it right, but other times we don’t. Turn back the clock, and walleye fishing’s pioneers fished a lot of livebait. The Lindy Rig has boxed probably millions of walleyes over the decades, and spinners, ‘crawler harnesses, slipbobbers, slow-death rigs, and jigs with livebait still catch tons of fish. Old school in an era flooded with lifelike and finetuned artificial walleye presentations? Sure, wooden, plastic, and metal livebait mimics sometimes crush walleyes, but the opposite is also true. When walleyes are in a neutral or negative mood, livebait can persuade walleyes into biting—especially bigger, older, and condi-tioned fish. Minnesota-based guide Brian “Bro” Brosdahl, for instance, never…

There was a day when simple mapping—to the tune of 5- or 10-foot contours at best—were feared to be the downfall of modern fishing. The technology certainly shortened the learning curve and made staying on fish and replicating patterns much easier. Gone were the days of triangulating your position between the green pontoon by the tattered red-and-white-striped boat-lift cover with the tilted weeping willow on the secondary lake point. Now, it’s all digital and at your fingertips. Funny thing is, we’re still fishing today, and most fisheries seem to be as good as they’ve ever been. However, even in a world of rapidly advancing technology, mapping still reigns supreme on many levels. Yet, there are countless fisheries across the country, especially in our neck of the Minnesota woods, where mapping…

No doubt Dad’s inclination to fish in any weather was influenced by his time in the service during World War II. After sleeping on frozen ground in France and Belgium, or burrowing into a foxhole surrounded by snow piles at the Battle of the Bulge, nothing dished out by Mother Nature in the Blue Ridge Mountains would seem worse. He worked in a machine shop rewinding motors to keep the furniture factories running. That meant he was often called in at all hours when one had gone down abruptly. These motors looked huge to me as a child, some standing shoulder high, and I could only imagine the machinery one of these monsters would drive. So, his time off was special to him and when it arrived we went to…