My New Morning Ritual
When my wife and I retired and moved to a house in the woods of northern Michigan, we fully expected a change of pace. That’s exactly what we found. Although the house is modest and unassuming, we purposely bought up a vast amount of woodland property. My first order of business was to install a large trout pond in area where the backyard meets the forest. I had the hole dug and filled and then called out a professional to get it stocked with rainbow trout.
Whereas my old morning ritual consisted of rushing around the house to get ready for my commute to work, these days I rise early and bring my tackle box down to the pond. If I time it just perfectly, I can get in an hour or two of fishing before dawn, when my wife and I take a leisurely hike through the woods. Yes, I suppose I could get used to living this way.
Fishing and Various Lures
When it comes to fishing with lures and spinners, there are dozens of implements you can use to catch different fish more successfully. In general, the standard lures are spinners, jigs, floaters, and live or scented bait. For catching bottom feeders, it’s often best to use live bait in tandem with a bobber, as this will attract fish to the bait by scent. For river fishing, using spinners is a good idea to catch fish that enjoy chasing their prey, floaters can also be ideal for trout and salmon that will go after bugs on top of the water. Jigs are a unique kind of lure that are used to catch a number of different kinds of fish, and even bass fishing with a jig can be quite successful.
It’s a good idea to ask people at the local tackle or bait shop about the best places to fish and the best fishing lures to use for fish in the area. Even fish of the same species will go after certain lures more depending on the area they live in and their natural prey.
Fishing Reels
George Snyder is believed to have been the person to invent the first fishing reel, sometime around 1820, made in the United States . A fishing reel is a device used for the deployment and retrieval of a fishing line using a spool mounted on an axle.
Fishing reels are traditionally used in the recreational sport of angling. They are most often used in conjunction with a fishing rod, though some specialized reels are mounted directly to boat gunwales or transoms.
Types of Fishing Lures
There are many different types of fishing lures, all designed to ultimately resemble prey for the fish and attract them to the hook. Types of fishing lures include:
~Jig: a weighted hook with a lead head opposite the sharp tip
~Surface lure: a lure that floats
~Spoon lure: thin and shiny, like the utensil
~Crankbaits or plugs: lures that move back and forth through the water at fast speeds
~Artificial flies: used in fly fishing with a fly rod and reel, designed as decoys for a number of different types of prey
~Bass worms: made of plastic or rubber, look like worms or lizards
~Spinner bait: pieces of wire bent to a 90-degree angle with a hook at one end and a flashy spinner at the other
Modern Day Fishing Gear
When I was young, my father used to take me fishing with pious regularity. As I have gotten older however, my angling outings have become less and less frequent. Now that my son is almost ten, I’ve decided it’s time to instill in him the same love for fishing that my father cultivated in me.
After not fishing or purchasing equipment in well over a decade, I was overwhelmed when I went to get some new gear for our first outing. There were literally hundreds of options. Instead of choosing our rods arbitrarily, I decided to do some research. Luckily, the internet is brimming with customer reviews and objective analysis of the various fishing supplies available, which made my decision infinitely easier.