Casting into the trees

• • This can be due to wind or a poor cast. It is best to error on the safe side and stay away from branches.

Slamming the car door on fishing rod

• • Do your best to keep rods away from car doors, trunks, and hatches. Cars have an internal hunger for snapping fishing rods. 

Tying poor knots and losing fish

• • It is always best to tie great knots. Here are 2 of the best fishing knots and how to tie them.

My Greatest Failures

Losing my tackle box

• • I was fishing at the Oswego River in New York in January for steelhead trout. It was so cold that my hands physically were barely able to move.  I put the tacklebox down outside the car, and planned to warm up in the car for round 2 of fishing. After I warmed up, I decided to drive for lunch and left the tacklebox in the parking lot.  It was lost forever.

Can’t get back to the dock due to under-powered outboard motor

• • Chautauqua Lake is a great muskie fishery in the western tip of New York State.  My dad, his friend and I were fishing in cold, blustery weather on the lake.  We had reached our limits on the weather but were unable to get back to the dock as our 3HP Johnson motor was not strong enough to move the boat against the wind.    After many tries, and twice as many curses, my dad found a solution.  We followed the ferry that crossed the lake which broke the wind gusts, just enough to get us home.

Falling through the ice at Salmon River

• • The Salmon River, near Pulaski, New York is widely famous for its salmon and trout fisheries and given this notoriety it is crowded much of the year. It is much less crowded when there are feet of snow on the ground and temperatures in the single digits.  I was at the river in these weather conditions.  The river levels also vary dramatically.  As I was walking to the river, I fell through the ice which had frozen at the high water line and then the water receded under the ice cap.  I was trapped in the gap between the neck high ice and the riverbank below.  I was able to chip through the ice dam and escape but decided that fishing was a lesser priority than safety that day.   It is best to have a fishing partner and be extra cautious on river ice.

Losing rod in the reservoir

• • I had been using my favorite Fenwick fishing rod and a Acme Phoebe (one of the best trout lures ever) in a large reservoir. I took a break from casting, laid my rod down in the boat and as I stretched out, I heard a splash.  My rod had fallen, or as we discovered, was pulled into the water.  My dad and I dragged the bottom of the reservoir with large treble hooks.  After a few tries we snagged something.  When we pulled up the rod, the lure and a 4 pound lake trout that had grabbed the Phoebe that was just barely in the water under the boat.

Lose the fish while cleaning it

• • My younger brother and I were fishing with my dad in a small rowboat in a local lake. We did not catch much that day, but my brother was enormously proud as he caught a nice sized brown trout, the prize of the day.  As we were close to the end of the day, my dad decided to start cleaning the catch, so we could have it for dinner that evening.  He gutted the fish and then tried to rinse it in the lake.  Fish are slippery and wet fish are very slippery.  He dropped my brothers prized catch back in the lake.  It is a story that has lingered in our family for over 30 years.  It is best to wait until you get to the dock to clean your catch.

Losing fish due to defective line

• • It is hard enough finding and hooking large fish, but it is totally exasperating to lose 9 of them in a row due to defective equipment. I had just spooled my reel with “new” 8 pound line to fish in the Salmon River for Winter steelhead.  The fish were all laying at the top of a large pool and with every hookup the line broke way before the labeled 8 pound rating.  No matter how carefully I tried to play the fish, I lost 9 fish in a row and cursed beyond reason.   It is important even when using “new” line, hooks, or gear that you do basic testing before you are on the water.
  • Here is our article on fishing gear preparation and repair.

Tight lines …  Captain P.