Big O Comes Back Lifetime of Lures

Transcription

Big O Comes Back
Lifetime of Lures
Ish Monroe and Elite Series anglers
show Lake Okeechobee on the rise again
The go-to baits of B.A.S.S. owner,
longtime TV host Jerry McKinnis
Keep YoUr Cool
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Price includes $24 Membership dues. Details and exclusions
2 can be found online at BoatUS.com/towing or by calling.
Summer 2012
16
24 34 39
Dr. Frankenbass
Riverboat Ride
A Texan works on becoming
the Johnny Appleseed of
superior bass genetics
Flora, fauna and fantastic
fishing on the Amazon River
PLUS
With Unlimited Towing for just $149 for Saltwater, and $58 for
Freshwater, there’s no need to panic or lose your temper if your
boat breaks down. Give us a call — we’re on the clock 24/7 ready
to lend a hand when you need assistance.
15
46
Big O
Comes Back
After hurricanes, droughts
and development, Lake
Okeechobee rises again
Sanders: Remembering Wejebe
10
BoatU.S.
Angler
Reports
Jerry McKinnis’ Tackle Box
32
Elite summer
lures
3
Baron of Balsa
Lee Sisson’s 40 years of
elite lip jewelry
22
Wall of Pain
50
Zona: Two
days that stick
in my mind
BoatU.S. Angler
To enjoy summer more,
teach kids the three R’s:
rigging, reels and rods.
(James Overstreet photo)
Yes, we can protect your pooch.
Woof! We’ve Got Your
Best Friend Covered
COVER PHOTO: Ish Monroe pulls out two
fish that helped him win an Elite Series
event and showed Okeechobee is back.
(James Overstreet photo)
Finding That Rock, The Hard Way
PUBLISHER
Richard Schwartz
Chairman, BoatU.S
BOATU.S. ANGLER MANAGER
Steve Levi
Let The Fishing
Commence
I
t’s graduation season as I write, and
the kids are out of school for summer.
Time for their reel education to start.
Here’s a short list of the lessons your
kids can learn on a floating classroom this
summer. Let the fishing commence.
SELF-RELIANCE
“Bait your own hook.” (Or better yet,
“Row yourself out to that point if you
want to fish.”)
PREPARATION
It’s called a bailer. Every johnboat has one.
THE VALUE OF A DOLLAR
Those plastic worms aren’t free. And neither is the gas for that old 2-hp Evinrude.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Speaking of, that ole Evinrude sometimes
refuses to kick.
NAVIGATION
Only way trigonometry ever stuck for me.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
You have to have nightcrawlers before you
can fish with nightcrawlers. Or, for you
panfish enthusiasts, exactly how old is
that cup of maggots in the fridge?
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Michael Vatalaro
MANAGING EDITORS
STORY TELLING
You’ll never have to ask them what they
did that day.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Fish or cut bait? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
SELF-PRESERVATION
It’s called a bailer. Every johnboat has one.
TEAMWORK
The kid with the net is just as important
as the one with the rod.
Speaking of teams, 105 colleges and
universities across the country, plus one
from Canada, sent 182 teams of collegiate
bass anglers to the BoatU.S. Collegiate
Bass Fishing Championship on Pickwick
Lake out of Florence, Ala., in May. Participation in this event has grown more than
400 percent in the past few years, showing
that education and fishing can go hand in
hand with support from the schools. For
the story, see page 13.
In the meantime, make sure the young
anglers you know get plenty of time to study
the three “R”s, Rigging, Reels, and Rods,
and you’ll enjoy summer that much more. n
BoatU.S. Angler magazine is online:
BoatUS.com/angler/magazine
BoatU.S. Angler
4
Anglers who insure their boats with BoatU.S. Angler now receive
pet insurance coverage through the BoatU.S. Marine Insurance
Program. Effective June 1, the program automatically includes
$1,000 of coverage for injuries as the result of an on-the-water
accident, as well as a death benefit, for no additional cost.
“At BoatU.S. Angler we know accidents don’t just impact your
boat and ‘human’ family or guests aboard — sometimes pets get
hurt too,” said BoatU.S. Vice President of Underwriting Mike Pellerin. “If your boat suffers a covered loss and your (or family member’s) dog or cat onboard suffers an injury, we’ll pay up to $1,000
for veterinary expenses, or for final arrangements should the worst
happen, for each pet aboard.
For more information go to
This is just another way we
BoatUS.com/insurance/pets
take care of our members.”
Don’t leave your
lower unit behind –
slow down! (Scott
Sommerlatte photo)
Steve Bowman
Mike Suchan
ART DIRECTORS
Franklin Bachrach
Jaime McQuilkin
DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
Elio Betty
703.461.4383
INTERNET
CREATIVE SERVICES
CSE/JM Associates
1200 Scott St.
Little Rock, AR 72202
888.372.6544
Fax 501.372.0431
www.groupcse.com
The faster you get there, the more fish you can catch, but speeding through skinny water increases the chances you’ll strike a submerged stump or rock. That can lead to someone being catapulted
off the boat and injured. And it’s almost guaranteed a high-speed
encounter will destroy the outboard’s lower unit.
According to the claim files, striking submerged objects is the
No. 1 cause of loss in the BoatU.S. Marine Insurance program,
which winds up costing everyone a lot of money.
You may be able to avoid such an incident by wearing polarized
sunglasses, keeping an eye on the GPS, paying attention to water
levels and download a charting software app. But the best guarantee is to slow down in shallow or unfamiliar waters. Better to
arrive a few minutes late than not to at all.
Help at your fingertips
Are you ready to handle a boat engine
breakdown, grounding, or dead battery
far from the launch ramp or marina this
summer season? Don’t forget to download the free BoatU.S. Towing App to your
smartphone, and if you do have a problem
on the water, you’ll be able to summon
assistance. In addition to on-the-water
towing dispatch, the App can be used to
summon roadside assistance when you’re
trailering your boat down the highway.
ç The BoatU.S. Towing App is free to download.
‘It’s Been A Lifesaver’
Fishing pro Jonathon Vandam had to call for a tow on the James River
in Virginia on July 4th, 2011, when his engine cut out. Fortunately, he
remembered he had his BoatU.S.
See his complete story in a short
Angler
card in his wallet.
video at BoatUS.com/Angler
“On the 4th of July, in no time
at all, they were out to get me and tow me back to the ramp, which was
about 10 miles away,” Vandam said. “It’s been a lifesaver.”
www.BoatUS.com/towing/app
Your Membership in the
Boat Owners Association of
The United States Has Benefits
Trailer Assist: 24-hour On-the-road Towing Service
Printed in the USA
Copyright, 2012, BoatU.S. Angler. All rights reserved. BoatU.S. Angler Magazine is published
three times annually and is mailed directly to
BoatU.S. Angler members and select fi shing
clubs in the United States. Subscription is $6
annually to BoatU.S. members. No part of this
publication may be reproduced without permission from the publisher. Contact 703-461-2878.
Postmater: Send change of address of BoatU.S.
Angler Magazine, 880 South Pickett Street, Alexandria, Va. 22304.
Summer 2012
dispatched directly by BoatU.S. with f lat-tire assistance,
battery jumps, fuel deliveries, and lockout service. Trailer
Assist will provide for towing to the nearest facility or safe
location up to 100 miles from point of breakdown.
Towing Dispatch:
800.391.4869
Membership: 866.906.0013
24-Hour Water Towing: As a BoatU.S. Angler
member you receive 24 hour on-the-water towing
dispatched and paid for by BoatU.S up to the towing
service level you’ve selected. One membership applies to
ALL recreational boats you own, borrow or charter.
Tournament Incentive Program: The Weigh-to-Win
Program pays the highest placing registered BoatU.S. Angler
member in most B.A.S.S., FLW, and PAA events.
5
BoatU.S. Angler
SHOWING HER TEETH
A mako shark fights angler Conway Bowman, fishing with
Capt. Lou Fodor out of San Diego. Makos are the fastest
sharks and are considered one the world’s great gamefishes
because of their beauty, aggressiveness, and jumping ability.
Their smiles are menacing, with large, triangle-shaped,
hooked teeth on the bottom visible even when their jaws are
closed. Makos, which are found all over the world, can grow
to more than 1,000 pounds.
BoatU.S. Angler
Photo by Pat Ford
6
Spring 2012
7
BoatU.S. Angler
EARLY TO RISE
Missing some sleep can be well worth it if you get on the
water in time to enjoy one of nature’s masterpiece mornings.
GREAT GOBS
Photo by David hatfield
Photo by James Overstreet
With a mouth much bigger than its eyes, this Great White
Egret positions its catch just right, before swallowing. The
three-foot tall water birds also dine on frogs, small mammals
and sometimes reptiles and insects. These birds, which
adapt well in areas humans habitate, were chosen in 1953
as the symbol for the National Audubon Society, which was
formed in part to prevent killing of birds for their feathers.
EPA sued over E15
A suit challenging the Environmental Protection
Agency’s decision to allow gasoline containing
15-percent ethanol to be sold could be decided by
summer’s end. The National Marine Manufacturers Association, joined by oil industry, automobile
manufacturing and agricultural trade groups, filed
the suit July 13, 2011, maintaining that the EPA’s partial
waiver allowing E15 for some
engines and not others violates the federal Clean Air Act
and other laws.
In November of 2010, the
EPA approved 15-percent
ethanol as a fuel additive, but
only for use in 2006 and newer cars and light trucks; then
in January 2011 modified its
approval to include vehicles
in model year 2001 and newer. At issue in this
lawsuit is the fact that E15 has been shown to
damage non-road engines, especially inboard and
outboard boat engines. Boaters who trailer their
boats often fill-up at gas stations where E15 gas
might be sold.
A s par t of the waiver, the EPA made it il lega l
to use E15 in any other eng ines, but concer n
remains that the public cou ld mista kenly use
the f uel in the w rong eng ines, resu lting not
only in mechanica
l damage
but in potentia
l ly
12-PT-182
QuadLink ad
Angler:Layout
1 5/24/12
Jose Wejebe, host of The Spanish
Fly, was the whole package.
(Courtesy The Spanish Fly)
Read Tommy Sanders' tribute to
Jose, P 15.
Fishing world loses icon in Wejebe
The saltwater fishing world, and especially those who worked with Jose Wejebe, lost
a great friend in early April. Webeje, host
of Outdoor Channel’s The Spanish Fly, died
when the single engine plane he was piloting
crashed shortly after taking off from Everglades Airpark.
Wejebe rose from rags to riches. He was
born in Cuba in 1958, and his family escaped
Fidel Castro’s revolution by immigrating to
Miami. He plied the South Florida fisheries
as a youth learning his trade.
“He basically quit high school to become
a captain, to become who he was,” show producer Mike McKinnis said. “He knew who
he was going to be when he was young. He
worked toward learning how to fish, getting a
boat and becoming a captain.”
Wejebe learned the intricacies of saltwater
fishing from the best, including Stu Apt, Flip
Pallot and Lefty Kreh. His travels and passion
for learning new fishing and rigging techniques took him all over the world, where he
explored new and non-traditional methods.
What made The Spanish Fly so successful
was Wejebe was the whole package.
“It’s passion for what you do. He had it like
nobody else in everything—fishing, photography, underwater photography, flying an
airplane, if you can believe that,” McKinnis
said. “He had the knack of being charismatic
and entertaining, but really down home.
That’s an interesting combination that not
many people have—star power but to be and
feel humble on TV.”
Wejebe was 54. —Mike Suchan
Mom just has to wait
Right before Mother’s Day, TowBoatU.S.
Capt. Dave Anderson made a tough call, one
that accomplished female tournament angler
Janet Parker will forever be grateful.
Anderson declined a cell phone call from
his own mother while assisting Parker
with a dead battery on Day One of the Bass
Pro Shops Bassmaster Central Open on
Table Rock Lake. Parker found Anderson’s
decision to shun his own mother rather
humorous, but there was nothing funny
about being powerless.
“On my second location, I caught a
keeper, but the fish were not really cooperating, so I decided to make a run further
north, but my boat wouldn’t start,” the
Little Elm, Texas angler said. She was forBoatU.S. Angler
tunate to have had the foresight to sign up
for the BoatU.S. Angler membership right
before the event.
“I always had the ‘It won’t happen to me’ attitude, “ said Parker, who runs a Ranger Boat
wrapped with a recognizable Minn Kota Talon graphic. “Fortunately when I was at registration, I had a little voice say I better sign
up for both the BoatU.S. Angler Unlimited
On-the-Road and On-the-Water Towing services. I figured if I never used it I’d only be out
$72, but if I needed it – it’d be priceless. Guess
what? It proved priceless.”
Tournament officials allowed Anderson to
take a new battery to Parker, who was introduced to fishing by another female angler, her
God Grandmother, Viola Lassiter.
10
Don’t
be caught
dead.
voided war ranties. T he suit contends that the
EPA hasn’t done enough to prevent the public
from misf ueling. A s a cond ition of the par tia l
waiver, the EPA requires retailers to d isplay
a war ning sticker on E15 gas pumps, declaring that its use in non-approved eng ines is
il lega l; the lawsuit declares that this measure
is inadequate.
If the court decides against
the EPA, that could delay or
prevent E15 from being sold.
However, it’s likely the agency would appeal the decision,
industry observers say.
“Regardless of what the
court decides or when the
case is finally settled, it’s
important to note that the
EPA is not requiring the use
or sale of E15,” BoatU.S.
President Margaret Podlich
said. “Many states will have to change their
laws to allow an increase from 10 -percent ethanol, but E15 could be showing up already in
some markets across the Midwest states, and
that’s why we think it’s ver y important for
boaters to get in the habit of checking the labels on gas pumps.”
No matter where you fill up, or whether it’s your
car, boat, outboard gas tank, or tow vehicle, Podlich said, “take a peek at the pump and check the
label PM
before
you1grab the nozzle.” — Ryck Lydecker
4:04
Page
Deep water
opening
A recreational and commercial fishing ban for deep water snapper-grouper in depths
greater than 240 feet in the
South Atlantic is no longer
in effect. Since Jan. 31, 2011,
this closure had a significant
economic impact on businesses throughout the South
Atlantic region, one the American Sportfishing Association
worked to lift.
“The deep water snappergrouper ban demonstrated the
severe impacts that can result
from faulty science and inadequate consideration of socioeconomics,” said Mike Leonard, ASA’s Ocean Resource
Policy director. “Thankfully,
the South Atlantic Council and
NOA A Fisheries acknowledged
the severity of this ban and are
now contemplating other, less
restrictive measures to address
overfishing issues without
closing off a massive area of
the ocean to fishing.”
Works with
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Keeps four 12V batteries
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“And I reminded Capt. Dave that he’d better call his mama back,” Parker said.
Summer 2012
www.PulseTech.net • 800-580-7554
Use promo code FSAM212 for
FREE SHIPPING (excluding AK and HI)
11
BoatU.S. Angler
Most anglers
not deterred
by lost access
Nathan Adams of New Zealand
manned the pole on this record
bluefin tuna. (Courtesy houhora
Big game & Sports Fishing Club)
As a Construction Management major at Georgia Southern University, Tanner Parker has made a study of tensional stress and
load factors. However, a high-speed collision with a piece of floating debris shortly after takeoff at the 2012 BoatU.S. Collegiate
Bass Fishing Championship on Pickwick Lake introduced a load of
stressful tension the 21-year-old never could have expected.
“The boat behind me saw the whole thing, and they said my
boat did a 360 when I hit whatever it was that I hit,” said Parker,
fishing solo and grateful to be unhurt. “As soon as I realized I
wasn't hurt, I dialed TowBoatU.S. Captain Shane O'Neal, who I
had met the night before while signing up for a membership. My
hope was to get off the water quickly, fix was what was broken,
and get back out there fishing.
“TowBoatU.S. got me off the water very quickly and was able to
make trips to three different marine dealers, one of which was an
hour-and-a-half away, but I eventually realized I didn't have the
time to get back out there and fish the ledges that day.”
Parker wasn’t the only one singing the praises of BoatU.S. Angler. University of Texas angler Kyle Marek found himself broke
down at the opposite end of Pickwick from the launch ramp. It
took 45 minutes for TowBoatU.S. to get him and over two hours
to pull him back to the launch ramp. Still he couldn't have been
more grateful.
One in five anglers polled by AnglerSurvey.com reported having to cancel or
quit fishing a particular location last year
because they had lost access to a favorite
fishing spot. While most were able to move
to a different location, about a third of the
affected anglers – or seven percent of all
survey respondents – said it caused them
to quit fishing altogether.
Besides the seven percent who said it
caused them to quit, 35 percent admitted
they fished a little less frequently.
“While access issues can often be overcome by fishing somewhere else, we are
still losing some anglers each year due to
problems with fishing access. When we
add up the anglers lost year after year,
whether as a result of marine fishery closures or dilapidated boat ramps, access remains a major long-term problem for sportfishing and fisheries conservation,” survey
designer Rob Southwick said.
To help prevent the loss of more fishing
areas to development, budget cuts or government closures of fishing areas, anglers
need to speak up and let leaders know that
quality fishing access is important to them.
Pole Poll
Have you ever had
to cancel a trip or
stop fishing specific
locations because
you could no longer
access them?
No 79.7%
Yes 20.3%
Weigh in at AnglerSurvey.com
College anglers grateful
for BoatU.S. Angler
22ND ANNUAL
BOATU.S. TOP 10
BOAT NAMES
Pacific Bluefin Tuna
Could Be Biggest Ever
“Big Tuna” is a nickname that has graced
everything from NFL football coaches
(Bill Parcells) to mafia hit men (Anthony
Accardo, 1940s Chicago mob boss) and
even a documentary, but they pale in comparison to the real thing caught by a New
Zealand angler.
Nathan Adams, referring to the catch
as a “fish of a lifetime,” recently boated a
738-pound Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus
orientalis) that could become a new world
record. If the fish is approved by the International Game Fish Association, it will
set an all-tackle world record, replacing a
716-pound, 8-ounce Pacific bluefin landed
off Westport, New Zealand, in 2007.
Adams, 42, of Muriwai, just outside of
Auckland, was competing in a tournament
when he caught the fish, but that was only
part of an amazing day of fishing he and
partner Alan Langford experienced.
They also boated a 788-pound black marlin
to set a Muriwai Sport Fishing Club record,
while the pair’s group battled 12 billfi sh in 11
12
days as part of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council Nationals competition.
The fact the fi sh was caught in competition
with stringent rules has fi shing fans believing that the IGFA will verify the catch. The
big fi sh are slated to be mounted and displayed at the Muriwai Club. While the display, compared by Adams’ wife to “mounting
a sofa,” will take up a lot of wall space, in a
different venue it could pay for a lot of walls.
Last year a 700-pound plus tuna, in perfect
condition, was sold in Tokyo for $396,000.
The pair hooked the bluefin near
Houhora off Northland's east coast and
then the black marlin off Ahipara on the
west coast as part of the nationals tournament, February 18-25.
The two big fish cleaned up several major prizes, including Langdon winning the
New Zealand champion angler billfish title.
The record Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) was a 1,496-pounder caught
by Ken Fraser in Aulds Cove in Nova Scotia, Canada in 1979. —Steve Bowman
Summer 2012
1. Seas the Day
2. Nauti Buoy
3. Aquaholic
4. Dream Weaver
5. Pegasus
6. Serenity Now
7. Second Wind
8. Liquid Asset
9. Miss Behavin'
10. Blew By You
“BoatU.S. Angler's towing service is the greatest thing ever,”
Marek said. “If I could buy a lifetime membership, I would.”
The 2012 BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Champions, Ben Dziwulski and Ethan Cox of North Carolina State, didn't need a tow,
but they did haul home a $1,000 Weigh-to-Win bonus check from
BoatU.S. Angler as a result of their membership. Signing up for the
programs is simple. Just dial (918) 742-6424 between 8 a.m. and 5
p.m. CST, Monday-Friday and ask for Kendell.
What’s in a name?
tallying its Top 10 Boat Names for
more than two decades.
"When you get a boat, there
are certain things you have to
do, such as registering it and
buying insurance or towing coverage," Trotter said. "However,
picking a boat name opens up a
creative side."
This year's list included
three newcomers: Nauti Buoy,
Serenity Now, and Blew ByYou, a
popular racing sailboat moniker
and clever word play on an old
Roy Orbison song made famous
Making the decision to buy a
boat comes easy for some people. Picking out a name for the
boat, however, can prove to be
much harder.
"A boat name reflects the life
and loves of the owner," says
Occoless Trotter of the BoatU.S.
Boat Graphics department in
Alexandria, Va., which helps
boaters design their own boat
names. "But, it's hard to sum it
all up with just a few words."
BoatU.S., the half-million-member boat owners group, has been
by Linda Ronstadt. Two other
boat names made the list for the
second time: Dream Weaver and
Pegasus. All others are multiyear repeats.
Some names that did not make
the list but appeared more than
once include Pandora, a reference to the planetoid at the center of the fi lm Avatar, as well as
boat names that invoke favorite songs—with Margaritaville
and Dream Weaver resonating
strongly among boat owners of
all types.
Can boaters learn anything from the Titanic?
As the world marked the April 15 centennial of the Titanic, boaters
should appreciate the improvements in safety. In 1914, two years
after Titanic's loss of 1,503 lives, maritime nations gathered in London
and adopted the International Convention of the Safety of Life at Sea
(SOLAS Convention) to put in place measures learned from the tragedy.
Do those lessons learned relate to today's recreational boater?
BoatU.S. set to find out.
Slow down: Excessive speed
and ice combined in the disaster, teaching boaters to slow
down in unfamiliar waters or at
night or in fog.
Call for help: Titanic’s radio
had a range of 200 miles and
“crackling” airwaves led rescuers to
misinterpret her position. Today's
U.S. Coast Guard Rescue 21 system covers over 40,000 miles of U.S.
coastline. Accurate location information is available if your boat has a
DSC VHF radio and it is properly connected to your GPS/chartplotter.
If you travel offshore or boat alone, an EPIRB or personal locator
beacon can speed your rescue. Always have your VHF on and tuned to
channel 16, and cell phones should only be considered a back-up device.
Give guests a safety briefing: No lifeboat drills were
held on the Titanic, the crew lacked training and there
was no public address system. Today, recreational boaters
can show guests where and how to use safety equipment
like the VHF radio, distress flares, fire extinguishers and
inflatable life jackets.
Have a life jacket for everyone aboard. The Titanic
did not have enough lifeboats for all her passengers. Do
you have enough correctly-sized life jackets for everyone
aboard? Are they readily accessible?
13
BoatU.S. Angler
Mexico ‘Sea Visa’ Leaves Confusion In Wake
Recreational fishing trips into Mexico from California have
declined 50 percent since the need for controversial “sea visas”
went into effect at the beginning of this year. That’s according to
the Sportfishing Association of California, which says the inequity,
added expense, and confusion over who exactly needs a sea visa
have led to many canceled trips.
Foreign boaters now need the costly visas to travel within 24
miles of Mexico’s mainland. Previously, boaters entering those
waters from the U.S. and returning without visiting port needed
only to provide identification and proof of vessel ownership,
if stopped at sea. Those visiting Mexican ports by private boat
needed inexpensive visas similar to those used for land travel.
But all that changed January 1, 2012, when Mexico began to
enforce a new federal law requiring visa cards and passports for
all foreigners entering Mexican territory in an effort to tighten
the country’s own homeland security.
Entering by sea suddenly became pricey, especially for U.S.
recreational anglers who typically run multiple single-day trips
per year. Sea visas currently range from $28 for one- to three-day
travel, to $250 for one year, according to published reports. Visas
for those visiting Baja, Calif., by land and staying less than a week
cost nothing, but aren’t accepted at sea.
Inconsistent enforcement further complicates matters. In one
well-publicized case, a Mexican patrol boat turned back a forhire fishing vessel despite the fact that it had sea visas for all
passengers. The incident cost the skipper of Malihini more than
$6,000 in fuel and ticket refunds. Word of similar incidents
involving recreational boaters has anglers, cruisers, and sailboat
racers wondering which rules to follow.
“Most cruisers and sailors are confused," said Tony Olson, a San
BoatU.S. Angler
Diego Vessel Assist captain, "but some boaters I've talked to aren't even
aware of the new requirements."
Pressure from the recreational boating community and the U.S.
State Department has compelled Mexico’s Consul General office in
San Diego to meet with various Mexican federal and state agencies
to find a clear and fair way to implement their law and to clarify the
rules for the boating public. Until Mexico irons things out, few boaters
are venturing south of the border and, sea visas are only available at a
handful of for-hire fishing landings in the San Diego area.
Boaters should keep in mind that Mexico is a sovereign nation, says
David Kennedy of BoatU.S. Government Affairs.
“Ultimately, it’s a foreign-policy matter between Mexico and the
United States,” Kennedy said. “We’ve been in communication with
the U.S. State Department’s Mexico Desk voicing our concerns about
what this may mean for recreational boaters. We’re urging the State
Department to help clarify for American boaters what’s actually
required and how to comply.” —Jack Innis
License sales up 30 percent
From January through March 2012, fishing license sales increased
30 percent compared to the first quarter in 2011. Southwick Associates, in a project with American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and
the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation, attributes the increase to the warm weather and largely favorable fishing conditions
across the country compared to the cold, wet first quarter in 2011.
This report is based on license sales reported by 13 states strategically selected across the U.S. Twelve of the 13 states reporting
into the fishing license sales index recorded sales increases in the
first quarter.
14
Summer 2012
We Lost
A Lot
Remembering
Jose Wejebe
Jose Wejebe had a
real passion for the
sea. (Courtesy The
Spanish Fly)
T
he human mind will go through some incredible contortions
when it’s confronted with something it cannot and does not
want to come to terms with.
It will grasp for things like disbelief, denial, and the
hope that somehow what’s happening is all a bad dream from
which you will soon awaken.
That’s the way it felt for all of us who knew
the one and only Jose Wejebe. That’s the way
it still feels, a few weeks into the aftermath of
his passing.
We lost a lot.
We met Jose 20 years ago at an event called
the S.L.A.M. tournament in Key West, Fla., a celebrity event that paired famous sports and media figures with a local saltwater guide to make
up a two-person team.
We were just getting started in the business of producing fishing tournament shows
in those days, getting to know the players and
how their personalities mean so much to the
success of a show.
Jose was paired with Kim Bokamper of the
Miami Dolphins. Jerry McKinnis took a cameraman out to shoot tape of their first competition
day. The boat driver for Jerry was another
Florida f lats guide. Jose was convinced that
the place he was going to fish was the absolute “ juice” as they say, so he was none too
happy about a rival guide seeing this place. So he requested that
the boat driver wear a blindfold. A lso, Jose had scratched the
lens of his eye just before the tournament and was wearing an
eyepatch himself.
That night as we all gathered for the scoring event, Jerry was
asked to stand up and say a few words about his day.
Jerry: “Well, it was pretty rough—there I was in the boat with
my driver blindfolded, trying to follow a one-eyed Cuban.”
Funny stuff, but we were convinced that this guy Jose was one
of the stronger personalities we had ever come across. That would
turn out to be one of our most prominent understatements of the
late 20th century.
Two years later we were working with him on the first season of
“The Spanish Fly,” his television show that came to set the standard for its category, and was truly one of the very best things on
television regardless of category.
Jose, who was born in Havana and fled with
his family from Castro’s revolution to start
anew in America, had a singular passion for life
under the sea.
True, he had amazing fishing skills, both self
taught and learned from befriending the greats
of the sport like Stu Apte and Flip Pallot.
But he also was endlessly curious about
all aspects of saltwater life, seeking out and
soaking in that knowledge like a sponge, so
to speak.
In the space of a 30-minute show, he could
explain to us how a certain species of fish lives
its life, how it fits into its world, and then
show us the most unique and meaningful way
to fish for it. And as if that wasn’t enough—by
the end of the program, we would have a better
understanding of one of the most difficult to
explain passions on earth: Why we sportfish.
He had friends all over the world and legions of fans, of course. He lived for them
and he wanted them to experience it all. His
generosity of spirit made him become, not a gatekeeper who
doles out bits of knowledge and keeps most of it for himself, but
someone who gave us pretty much everything he had in that
great repository of saltwater knowledge that was his mind. He
let us all take off the blindfolds.
Gone too soon, of course. But we don’t weep for the life of
someone who realized that we are all here for just a short time,
so the thing is to grab hold of life and live every minute to the
fullest. We celebrate that life and take that joyous memory with
us as we go forward. n
15
BoatU.S. Angler
COOLIDGE, Texas — It takes a
lot to get Texans to turn their
attention away from trophy
whitetail deer. Indeed, you might
consider big bucks to be part of
the Lone Star State’s holy trinity–
deer, barbecue and high school football–
about which every resident worth his boots
has an opinion that he’ll take with him to the
grave. It’s not just passion, it’s religion, too.
So when you learn that Mike Frazier went
to a deer show in Mesquite three years ago
toting an aquarium, of all things, you might
think that the hot sun had addled his brains
into a stringy mixture reminiscent of brisket
that’s sat on the smoker too long. But then
a strange thing happened at the show. Deerobsessed Texans gravitated toward the big
tank, first one or two, then a few more, then
so many that they threatened to cave it in.
By Pete Robbins
This Texan works on becoming
the Johnny Appleseed of
superior bass genetics
BoatU.S. Angler
16
Summer 2012
17
BoatU.S. Angler
Mike Frazier overlooks his forage pond and the larger Camelot Bell lake in the background.
They’d come to see mammalian genetics but it was fish that held
their attention.
That’s because Frazier, who raises trophy deer himself on his
Camelot Bell ranch in the small hamlet of Coolidge, had taken
the three-legged stool of Texan obsessions and added a fourth
leg. No deer, no barbecue, certainly no pigskin prodigies, but
he’d brought along four teen-class largemouth bass that made
jaws drop. Those four bass, between 13 and 16 pounds apiece,
represented a decade’s worth of work toward building the staterecord bass. He can’t quite get the words out, but it’s clear that
if things go according to plan, his 40-acre pond may end up
responsible for the world record too, thereby giving credence to
the idea that everything is indeed bigger in Texas.
Meet the Man
The mild-mannered Frazier, a metallurgist by trade, would
seem to be an unlikely man to become obsessed with building
the biggest bass to swim the earth. Likewise, Coolidge would
seem to be an unlikely spot for his experiments. It’s a town of
fewer than 900 people. Waco is 40 miles away, Dallas is nearly
90 and the bright lights of Sixth Street in Austin are just under
100. It’s close to nothing but central to many things. The closest
town with any amenities to speak of is the booming metropolis
of Mexia, best known as the hometown of the late Anna Nicole
Smith.
To the extent that there’s any sense to this story whatsoever,
it’s the Playmate connection that explains it all. There’s something in the water here in east-central Texas that produces bigger,
curvier, sexier females than anywhere else on earth, and Frazier
has happened onto that magic recipe, just with largemouth bass
instead of blondes. Now he wants to take what he has learned
and spread it, to become, in his own words, the “Johnny Appleseed ” of superior bass genetics.
“My goal when I started was 12 to 15 pounds, but my goal has
changed,” he said. He turned 61 earlier this year and has worked
on family ponds for decades, and this 40-acre pond is the culmination of a lifelong effort to raise big bass. “I’m glad I waited as long
BoatU.S. Angler
18
Frazier shows off the aquarium where he hopes to display
record largemouth bass.
as I did to build my dream lake. I did a lot of things wrong with my
dad’s ponds and I learned a lot.”
He’s distilled the lessons down to three key elements – environment, genetics and forage – but within each of those categories he’s
worked diligently to build a plan that generates double-digit bass
like clockwork.
It’s All in the Genes
Frazier readily admits that “baby fish is not my expertise.” He was
fortunate to get a genetic strain that has the potential to grow this
big, because unlike Anna Nicole, whose God-given good looks could
be enhanced by silicone, makeup and no doubt a bit of airbrushing,
the size of an adult largemouth is strictly limited by
genetic constraints.
“Harrell Arms, who managed ponds for Ross Perot
and George Bush, he got
the fish for me from a man
in Florida,” Frazier said. “I
got 250 out of a group of
60,000, but I got the first
seining, which holds the
bigger fish.”
Indeed, the fry that
come from what he now
calls the “Camelot Bell
strain” of bass are not
pencil-necked pipsqueaks. They’re super-predators in training.
Frazier said his friend Richard Doss, an aquaculturist in Grand
Saline, Texas, said “these fry have shoulders on them. Fry are
either a razor blade or a stump and these ones are stumps.”
It was a matter of timing, too. Th ree years after getting Frazier his
fry in the late 1990s, Arms made a comment that the genetics of the
farm-raised strain were deteriorating. “It was a particular group of
fi sh that went through there at that time,” Frazier said. “They had
that deep girth, which enabled them to put on a lot of extra weight.”
Summer 2012
Frazier has two “offices” – the front seat of his
truck and the front seat of his bass boat.
Fishing at Camelot Bell is a team effort – Mike Frazier is every bit as excited as his guests when someone
catches a big fish.
He added that their ability to grow so big is partially the result
of the fact that they don’t have a bookend at either the mouth or
the tail.
“Most fish turn up at the butt-hole, but these continue to grow
deeper, past the bottom fin,” he said. Additionally, their enormous heads give them an advantage even over other oversized
largemouths. They seem to grow at fairly typical rates for Texas until they hit about 10 pounds, at which point these kick it
into another gear. The jumps from 10 to 12 and from 12 to 14
move forward more like time-lapse photography than the typical
growth pattern for pond-raised largemouths. “As their head gets
bigger they can eat bigger forage,” which he has provided to them
on a silver platter.
Building Bigger Bass
Genetics alone does not ensure trophy bass, though, at least
not in the numbers that Frazier’s lake holds. He’s worked hard to
build an ecosystem ripe for a big fish freakshow. First, he wanted
to ensure that there would be no super-predators other than big
bass in his lake. No gar, no big catfish, nothing else that could
dip into the bait population or feast upon the smaller bass.
“It’s so easy to mess up on where to build,” he said. “Never build in
a place that catches a lot of water or you’ll get invasive species from
downstream and upstream. We built our lake on a hill and filled it
entirely with runoff. It took five years to fill.”
Invasive species aren’t just water-borne. He’s also made an effort to keep out hydrilla and other hitchhikers like zebra mussels.
Accordingly, no outside boats are allowed on the water, because it
would take only one inadvertent foul-up to irreversibly alter his
carefully manicured ecosystem. Every double-digit bass caught in
his lake – he’s caught 200 to 300 of them himself – has come over
the side of his own Champion bass boat.
Halfway down the earthen dam, which is reinforced with riprap,
there is a T-shaped pipe with screens at both of the otherwise open
ends. That pushes the dead water out. The lake has only run over
once in its history. “If you have run-over, you’re losing the best water,” Frazier explained. “The top four feet is the most fertile water.”
Frazier leads his clients on a guided tour of his 40acre lake, demonstrating where to cast and how
to approach the key structure and cover.
Frazier said that the fish on his lake have a distinct pattern of coloration. When one eventually produces a state or world
record, he’ll know it’s one of his on sight.
The Camelot Bell lake was designed specifically
with big bass in mind.
Just as he invested in the proper fry to build his dream, Frazier has likely spent a fortune in dirt work to create the perfect
habitat. He’s built spawning coves and water that extends down
to 35 foot depths, and placed some of the gnarliest, lure-catching
cover known to man in his pond, to complement the brushpiles,
standing timber and shoreline reeds that also provide habitat. Just
as important as the cover, though, is the structure he’s built into
the lake, long grooved ridges he refers to as “church pews” or the
dredged out bay he calls the “clay pit.” There’s also an old tank
dam and points and ridges galore. It’s not the size of Lake Fork or
Falcon, but it has their characteristics compressed into a smaller
arena, a fantasyland of bass fishing, if you will.
Even with the right genetics and the proper playground, the bass
couldn’t grow to gargantuan proportions if they weren’t fed properly. “Your log jams and other cover, none of that makes fish grow bigger,” Frazier opined. “But your cover is your fertile water.” In order
to provide the calories that big bass need to grow bigger, he started
off with no bass at all. That may seem illogical, but he wanted the
prey to get a foothold before the super-predators came along.
At first he put in redear sunfish and coppernose bluegill, which
serve to keep the pond in check through their different diets, with
the former primarily feeding on snails and other crustaceans and
the latter eating the pellet fish food that Frazier dispenses daily from a feeder at lakeside. Indeed, if you’re a panfish fanatic it
seems downright shameful to see that these plate-sized one- and
two-pounders going crazy by the feeders only to see the big green
orca shapes come up behind them and start cutting into their numbers. They’re bass food, pure and simple and they reproduce at a
rate that virtually forces the bass to gorge on them.
The panfish were just an appetizer, though. Shortly after the
bass took hold, Frazier added both threadfin shad and the larger
gizzard shad to diversify the food chain. The shad spawn twice
a year and provide tons of protein for the growing bass. While he
worries that there is no super-predator besides the largemouths
to keep the gizzards in check, so far they have been a boon to his
record-building plan.
If the panfish were an appetizer and the shad the main
course, Frazier’s final calorie-packing dessert came in the form
Summer 2012
Frazier keeps an underwater cage secured at dockside, loaded with smaller “culls.” on the day we visited he
had what he believed to be an 8.5-pound male ready to send to an aquaculture facility for examination.
of tilapia. W hile his lake is a private, closed environment, the
cues for growth came largely from the public waters of the
Lone Star state. Longstanding trophy fisheries like Fork have
earned their reputations on the fins of shad-fed Florida-strain
largemouths. The recent contenders for the throne, south Texas
fish factories like Amistad and Falcon, have made their bones
on the strength of bass gorging themselves on tilapia. He’s built
the best of both worlds.
One final step that Frazier has taken to ensure that trophy bass
thrive in his lake is to remove smaller bass. Indeed, the two- threeand four-pound bass that the average tournament competitor
would kill for are just a nuisance to him. The fives and sixes that
crown tournament-winning limits are likewise
just a distraction. They all get removed upon
being caught, taken away to another pond that
has no doubt become an angling fantasyland of
its own.
“It’s not necessarily important to take out all
of the small ones,” he said. “You have to take
out weight. The lake can only support so many
pounds of fish per acre.”
The Camelot Experience
When you get in the boat with Frazier, before anyone makes a single cast he’ll fix his
steely gaze on you and say something along
the following lines: “This is a team effort.
There are three of us in the boat today. If any one of us catches
a state record, or a world record, then we will split the resulting
endorsements three ways.”
He’s not kidding. He fully expects it to happen, so he’s just preparing for the inevitable.
While 16-pounders have been taken out of Camelot Bell, the
lake’s hook-and-line record is a 15.80 pound behemoth caught in
February of 2012. While you may not get many bites, the ones you
get will bring you to your knees. Frazier said that the majority of the
anglers who’ve fished his lake have caught their personal best on it.
21
If you make the trip – and it’s not for everyone, especially considering its four-figure price tag for a day on the water – you’d better
bring your heart pills.
“We’ve had hooked fish that just pulled the boat around,” Frazier
said. “Last summer my friend Chris Mahfouz caught one that only
weighed 14.75 that tail walked and then dove under the boat. His
partner couldn’t fish the rest of the day.”
Read that last quotation again. It’s hard to decide which is more unbelievable – that an angler couldn’t continue to cast in a lake that may
have more double-digit bass per acre than any place on earth or that
Frazier used the phrase “only weighed 14.75” without any sense of irony.
Despite the hefty price tag, Frazier’s guided fishing operation is
likely a money-loser. All of the dirt work, forage replacement and other ecosystem-enhancements are costly. Even if he sells off his brood
stock – and the current price for a fish over 12
pounds is into five digits – he may not be able
to recoup his investment. After spending a day
with the man, though, it’s evident that he gets
paid back in enjoyment.
The record may come out of his lake, or it
may come elsewhere from his genetics, but
he firmly believes that it will come somehow.
Indeed, the pale fish with a bronze back and
nearly turquoise sheen are instantly identifiable as his own and it will only take one
glance at a photo of the record to know that
it’s a Camelot Bell fish. If that day comes, and
Frazier surely believes deep in his heart that it will, everything
changes. At that point, Coolidge, Texas, near nothing but not
far from anything, becomes the center of the bass universe.
At that point Camelot Bell will become a mythical place for
generations to come, just like in the Arthurian legend, a place of
idealized beauty and riches. And just like in ancient times, Mike
Frazier will have proven that chivalry is not dead in the fishing
world. He’s babied the big girls to unbelievable lengths, building
a bass fishing amusement park where you must weigh at least
double digits to go on all of the rides. n
BoatU.S. Angler
WALL OF PAIN
One ER’s Extraction Collection
Photos by Jerry Cunningham
Experiencing the great
It’s obvious from this portion that Rapala lures
are popular in the Ozarks, but everything from
spinnerbaits to grubs to a Hula Popper and
a Zara Spook have ended up stuck in some
unlucky angler.
outdoors occasionally
comes with a dose
of pain. Nothing
symbolizes that better
than this display at
Baxter County Regional
Medical Center in
Mountain Home, Ark.
In the lower right is the chain from a chainsaw,
ouch! But this section might hold the most
fishing lures per square inch, with spoons and
Rooster Tails illustrating the dangers of the
trout tailwaters.
The ER’s geographical
location—between Bull
Shoals and Norfork
lakes and near worldclass trout fishing
tailwaters below those
two dams—provides
plenty of opportunity
for close encounters of
Another example of variety, from old to new,
that adorns the wall.
the barbed kind.
The doctors aren’t
exactly sure when they
began accumulating
these extractions, just
that over the years it’s
even when you successfully catch a fish, more
danger lurks at the dinner table. Someone in
the ER couldn't resist a bit of humor in describing the "catch of the day."
grown. (Maybe that
should read: "groan.")
BoatU.S. Angler
22
Summer 2012
23
BoatU.S. Angler
Story and photos by David A. Brown
Flora, fauna and fantastic fishing
on the world’s largest river system
Two anglers set out
from their mothership
to fish a stretch of
abundant Amazon
waters. The river
flows nearly 4,000
miles and bisects
the South American
continent.
24
25
AMAZON AT
A GLANCE
é Guests enjoy an Amazon
sunset from the boat deck.
ç A boat makes it way below
bluffs along the Amazon River.
è Aluminum bass boats for
day trips are towed behind The
Otter.
I
t’s 9 p.m. on Rio Jatapu and the
darkened stillness draping this
Amazon tributary gives way to
swooshing passes of sonar-guided
bats gorging on clouds of moths hovering
overhead. My guide, a short, burly man
who goes by “Yuca,” has wedged the bow
of his aluminum bass boat onto a rocky
outcropping so we can fish one of his
favorite spots for pirarara—the beautiful
redtail catfish, whose stunning coloration
bespeaks the visual splendor of the world’s
most biodiverse jungle.
Stationed on that bow, I felt highly vulnerable with my back to whatever wildness
may approach, so when Yuca shined his
spotlight over my head to scan the jungle
for a third time, I had to know what he was
searching for. His nonchalant reply cap-
tured the adventurous, if not occasionally
danger-laced appeal of Amazon fishing:
“Jaguar no good.”
Indeed, sharing a 20-foot boat with a
large, carnivorous feline would not be good.
However, "good" woefully understates the
magnificence of an unspoiled habitat that
threatens sensory overload, while filling
the soul with an instantly addicting euphoria that left me mentally clinging to this
wild and wonderful memory, even as my
U.S. bound plane departed at trip's end.
GO DEEP, FISH CLOSE
Because the Amazon's prime fishing
grounds stretch many miles from the river
proper, and because reaching any launching
point is an adventure in itself, and because
the sheer vastness makes time a precious re-
The main target was the
peacock bass.
source, you'll want to give yourself at least a
handful of dedicated angling days. Best bet
for such missions is the all-inclusive option
of a self-sufficient river boat.
My week-long trip aboard The Otter was
pure blissful seclusion – a complete departure from the civilized world with only a
satellite phone, which we never touched,
linking my group of 12 to lives that seemed
light years away. The 60-foot, four-deck,
twin diesel wooden vessel equipped a dozen air-conditioned 2-person rooms with
private baths, while the Otter’s kitchen,
dining hall, laundry service and sunset
deck with Jacuzzi provided comfy digs
with three square meals a day.
The staff, along with eight guides, slept
aboard a supply boat that paralleled our
course and towed the aluminum bass boats
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26
www.bassanglermag.com/subscribe
Summer 2012
in which we took our day trips. This mother ship strategy provided a creature comfort journey with the benefit of short range
vessels capable of reaching shallow backwaters rich with jaw-dropping beauty and
thick with rod-bending treasure.
ANGLING ABUNDANCE
Predictably, peacock bass topped the
target list for most of this group. Bold and
beautiful, these aggressive predators are the
Amazon’s top angling draw. Most common
are the royals, with their olive backs, golden
sides presenting dark vertical bars and reddish-orange accents on the lower fins and
bottom jaw. Paint that fish with yellow dots
and you have the speckled peacock.
“Tucanare” in Portuguese, peacocks hit
a variety of lures, but traveling fishermen
come for the surface game. Jumbo Zara
Spooks and giant chuggers like Creek Chub
Knuckleheads will get plenty of attention,
but a properly employed Woodchopper
makes the kind of commotion that really
ticks off the big fish. A tight cadence of
reeling and violently ripping the lure across
the surface produces the noisy slurps that
draw those show-stopping hits.
When fish boil and miss, follow-up casts
with shallow divers like Bomber Long A’s
and Smithwick Rogues often score the connection. If you value quantity over quality,
stick with those subsurface presentations
near stumps and stickups for non-stop action with juvenile peacocks.
Peacocks will forever rule the Amazon
sport-fishing scene, but the under-utilized
catfish resources offer fine diversions during lulls in the casting action. The pirarara
win the beauty contest with its lemon chiffon underside, olive hue above the lateral
line, dark green forehead freckles and brilliant reddish-orange tips on its tail, pectoral and dorsal fins. Fully extended, the
prominent dorsal resembles a cockatoo’s
crest, while the stout pectoral spines are
strong enough to serve as handles for lifting the cat vertically.
The largest river system on the planet in
terms of volume, the Amazon flows some
4,000 miles from its Peruvian headwaters
to Brazil's Atlantic coast and moves approximately 20 percent of the world’s fresh
water. Within such a sizeable flow, lots of
forage—living and not—rolls past lots of
holes, rock piles, log jams and points. Such
is the making of dependable catfishing.
Along with the pirarara, Amazon waters
hold a diverse assemblage of whiskered
residents, from the slender suribim, to the
speckled pintado, to the hulking jau and piraiba. Several smaller species such as golden colored barbado (known for venomous
spines) and the jurupensem (called pico
pato, or “duck beak” for its extended upper
jaw) further the assortment.
Amazon cats—especially the aggressive suribims—will hit artificial lures, but
consistency comes by soaking something
smelly in an area of opportunity. I discovered that a freshly cut piranha, plus moving water plus submerged structure equals
a good shot at Amazon catfish. Between
peacock outings, several in my group used
27
Originating in Peru’s snowy Andean
peaks, several river systems feed into
the Marañón River, which combines
with the Ucayali River in northeastern
Peru to form the Amazon River.
Locally known as Rio Amazonas,
the Amazon changes its name to
Solimões across parts of western
Brazil, but returns to its common
name after merging with Rio Negro at
the rainforest port city of Manaus.
With the planet’s heaviest
river volume, the Amazon moves
approximately 20 percent of the world’s
fresh water. Draining some 2,722,000
square miles – roughly 40 percent of
South America – the river’s freshwater
discharge into the Atlantic Ocean
reaches as high as 300,000 square
meters per second in the rainy season.
November through June sees
Amazon water levels rising with the
rainy season. During this time, the river
reaches up to 25 miles wide with an
average depth of 120 feet (40 meters).
When late June-October brings the dry
season, the river narrows to 7 miles or
less. The Amazon and its tributaries
cover 350,000 square kilometers during
the wet season; 110,000 during the dry.
Rio Negro’s later rainy season begins
its rise in February, with a dry season
roughly matching that of the Amazon.
Often called The River Sea, the
Amazon flows approximately 4,000
miles (6,400 kilometers) - the world’s
second longest river behind the Nile.
Most of the Amazon flows across
Brazil and enters the Atlantic at the
country’s northeast corner. Best
part about this aquatic wonderland –
tannic acid from abundant vegetation
stains Amazon water tea-brown and
prevents mosquito breeding.
—David A. Brown
BoatU.S. Angler
ENJOY THE VIEW
Flying over the Amazon region, the
dense canopy gives the illusion of
verdant sameness; however, nothing
could be further from the truth. From
water level, I marveled at a mix of
dense jungle foliage often spiked
with the umbrella shaped ceiba trees,
high barren bluffs of reddish orange
clay, smooth white beaches and even
isolated creeks strewn with chunk
rocks as big as king size beds.
Each morning, we could count
on spotting several tucans high
in tree tops or flying across the
river. Scarlett macaws, parrots,
kingfishers, gavions and many other
colorful species made frequent
appearances. Deep within the
flooded forests of macarecuia trees
spiking backwater lagoons, colonies
of yellow-rumped caciques built their
distinctive woven basket nests high
above the placid waters. Caimens
(Amazon alligators), pink river
dolphins and fast-moving monkey
troupes accented the experience.
On foot, the rule of avoidance is
watch where you grab for balance.
There’s no lack of creepy crawlies,
including spiders and several species
of aggressive ants. Amid the leaf litter,
our guide Amarol twice spotted tiny
poison dart frogs. About the size of
a quarter, these shy amphibians are
harmless to the touch, but the slime
they excrete holds a neurotoxin used
by indigenous hunters who dip their
blowgun darts in the paralyzing potion.
Back in Manaus, a completely
natural tract of rainforest habitat
abuts the Tropical Hotel, where we
stayed before flying back to the
U.S. Exploring the property’s outer
boundary, I found leopard tree frogs,
various lizards and centipedes
crawling along branches and came
nearly face-to-face with a two-toed
tree sloth hanging upside down in
a web of vines as she enjoyed a
nocturnal feast of leaves.
When trip schedules afford tourist
time in Manaus, visit the ornate
Teatro Amazonas – an opera house
built in 1896. Also worth a visit
are the Justice Palace near Teatro
Amazonas, the Rio Negro Cultural
Center and Mercado Adolpho Lisboa
(the city's oldest marketplace, circa
1882). The popular beachfront park
of Punta Negra has volleyball courts,
a playground, bars, eateries and
an amphitheater for spectacular
Brazilian dance performances.
—David A. Brown
BoatU.S. Angler
The Otter, a 60-foot, four-deck vessel with all the amenities,
served as home base.
Macaws take flight.
The toothy piranha are
quick hitters.
Caimens are a common sight.
Two youth paddle out for let’s make a deal.
Yuca shows off pirarara,
or redtail catfish.
28
Summer 2012
this formula to create memorable moments, like our first night on the river,
when a river giant that never surfaced had
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Ish Monroe
doubled over before snapping 80-pound
braided line.
My turn came the following night when I
talked Yuca into an after-hours mission that
yielded the poignant jaguar comment. We
ran about three miles from The Otter and
when Yuca located an attractive stretch of
rocky bank, he spent several minutes idling
30 yards out as he scanned the shore with
his spotlight. Judging by the dozens of ruby
glimmers dotting the shallows, I figured he
was looking as much for caimens as he was
for a suitable banking site.
Mine was the first bait out—a silver
piranha head weighted with a half-inch
bolt. It didn’t take long for the current to
roll my rig into the rocks and when my
line came tight with a constant angle,
Yuca casually grabbed my rod and worked
his magic. After a 20-minute soak, my
line tightened again but Yuca didn’t assist. Instead he spun his index finger in
a circle for the universal “reel, reel, reel ”
signal. Ten minutes later, my chunky redtail hit the deck and we decided to leave
the jaguars to their evening agenda.
Traditional fish-finder rigs comprising
2- to 4-ounce egg sinkers and 7/0 circle
hooks work best for catfish, but Amazon
tackle shops are few and far between, so
improvise as needed. When my supply of
lead weights dwindled, Otter owner Gilberto Castro provided stainless steel nuts
and bolts as replacements. Twice anglers
TRIP POINTERS
Our trip originated in
Manaus, the capital of Brazil’s
northwestern Amazonas
state. The main port and
hub for regional river traffic,
Manaus sits near the mouth
of Rio Negro, where this
dark flow converges with the
relatively clear Amazon at The
Meeting of the Waters. (Aerial
view and satellite charts show
a clear convergence.)
A commuter flight from
Manaus took us northwest
to the modest riverside town
of Urucara on Rio Uatama
(pronounced “wah-ta-ma”), a
northward branching Amazon
tributary. We launched
around 4 p.m., cruised
all night and by the next
morning, we had reached
Rio Jatapu (“zha-ta-poo”),
returned from catfishing with river stones
tied to their braided line.
HUNGRY AND
HOSTILE
Tugging on thick Amazon catfish was
great fun, but we also had a blast trying
to convert the lightning fast strikes of
ravenous piranhas into fresh catfish bait.
The areas we fished hold silver piranhas,
which max out at a pound or so and the
ghastly black piranhas that regularly reach
pie plate proportions. I boated a big black
that went three pounds on the hand scale.
Thirty minutes later, fellow Floridian Larry Thornhill lifted one that could have beheaded mine in one bite.
For bait, the Otter cooks gave us chunks
of beef, the tough fibers of which hold
well to hooks. We also caught piranhas on
chunks of small peacock bass and various
river oddballs like the bicuda—a slender,
toothy fish similar to a pickerel—and a
large sardine-like forage fish called “apapa.”
Wire leaders or at least long-shank
hooks are a must. We also fared well with
1/4-ounce jig heads, as this kept the bait
and weight in-line for a streamlined presentation. Banking the boats against vegetation inside creek mouths off the main river
produced the best action for black piranhas.
The silvers seemed less particular and we
caught these smaller but more numerous
fish around rocky outcroppings and along
current lines off sandy beach points.
Because piranhas feed in packs, usually
on carcasses, theirs is a grip-and-shake
style of feeding intended to saw bitesize chunks with their triangular teeth.
I hooked more fish by steadily reeling on
the strike than I did by trying to out-quick
piranhas with a snappy hook set. (We had
only J hooks, but circle hooks would help
this game.) Any shake-off was always followed by a new attacker, as long as some
sliver of bait remained. Between bites,
guides showed us how to beat the surface
with our rod tips to create distress sounds
that attract piranhas.
MEMORIES MADE
Making new friends is one of traveling’s
greatest gifts and I found the Otter’s fishing guides and staff a warm and friendly
bunch. Guides had their personal styles,
but when they learned of my interest in
flora and fauna, they patiently endured my
photo shoots. Most did a good job of pointing out animals I would have overlooked.
I also found the Brazilians living in the
river’s sparsely distributed farming and
fishing settlements warm and welcoming.
A widow and her son offered fresh coconuts
from their backyard; kids at the tiny village
of Santa Luzia invited us to join their soccer game; youngsters often paddled out to
mooch soft drinks from anglers.
Locals readily showed us their modest
abodes and most accepted fishing tackle
and sometimes a little cash for priceless
items such as hand-carved canoe paddles
and weathered machetes. Unique souvenirs, no doubt, but none so priceless as the
memories of this ecological wonderland for
which my heart yearns. n
Portuguese is the national
language of Brazil, but I
found a few English speaking
staff at the Manaus Airport,
as well as the Hotel Tropical
Manaus where we spent our
final night. During our week
on the Otter, I was able to
communicate with several
guides and boat staff in basic
Spanish, while a couple of
guides knew enough English
to offer instruction.
Brazil requires a passport
along with a tourist visa for
entry (convenient service
at www.traveldocument.
com). Proof of a current
yellow fever shot is also
required. Optional hepatitis
A & B shots, along with
malaria medication are
worth considering. Large
levels of tannin wash into
the Amazon system, thereby
a smaller artery where we’d
spend most of our week.
Most North Americans
traveling to Brazil funnel
through Miami. We flew
Brazil’s TAM Airlines (www.
flytamairlines.com) and the
service was remarkably
thorough and generous
for coach travel. A shuttle
van took us from the main
terminal to the jet port where
we packed into a small twin
engine plane for a 30-minute
flight to a small landing
strip in Urucara. Another
van drove us about a mile
through the sleepy town to
the river, where a rickety
gangway spanning the steep
river bank led to a barge now
serving as a loading dock for
cruise boats and the many
commuter vessels traversing
this area.
29
making the water ineffective
for mosquito production.
However, if you spend much
time in the cities and towns,
the Malaria risk increases.
Brazil’s national currency is
the real (pronounced “heyal”), but American dollars
work for just about everything
but small street vendors.
Pay attention to currency
exchange rates posted at
banks and hotels to ensure
proper conversions.
For trip details, contact
The Otter or the Amazon
Clipper through Ron
Speeds Adventures at
ronspeedadventures.com.
For information about various
trips throughout the Amazon
region, please visit www.
brazil-travel-guide.com/
Amazon-Cruises.html
—David A. Brown
BoatU.S. Angler
It could pay to sign up with BoatU.S. Angler
2012 EVENTS AND PAYOUTS
Events
Payment
Bassmaster Classic-1 event
Highest placing eligible entrant
$1,500
FLW Tour Championship-1 event
Boater
$1,500
Bassmaster Elite Series-8 events
$500
FLW Tour Majors-6 events
Boater
$500
Bassmaster Opens-9 events
Boater
$300
FLW Tour Opens-4 events
Boater
$500
Bassmaster Weekend Series-100 regular season events
Boater
$150
EverStart Series-20 events
Boater
$300
Bassmaster Weekend Series Regional Divisionals-4 events
Boater
$250
EverStart Series Championship-1 event
Boater
$1,000
Sanctioned Weigh-to-Win events and post the highest-placing finish among program participants.
Bassmaster Weekend Series Championship-1 event
Boater
$750
BFL-120 events
Boater
$150
Submit the official Weigh-to-Win contingency award form within 30 days of the finish to win the cash.
BASS FEDERATION NATION PROGRAM
BFL Regional-6 events
Boater
$250
BFL Championship-1 event
Boater
$1,000
BoatU.S. Angler has launched a Weigh-to-Win Contingency Program, where members can win cash for
their finishes in competitive bass fishing events.
For a $38 annual membership to BoatU.S. Angler, members can not only have the peace of mind of
help at their fingertips, but they are eligible to win hundreds if not thousands in tournament bonuses by
posting the highest-place finish in a sanctioned B.A.S.S., FLW, PAA or ACA event.
FISH
REDEEM
Payment
FLW OUTDOORS
Bassmaster Tournament Trail
REGISTER
Events
Sign up for a BoatU.S. Angler membership and purchase one or both of the following towing services:
Unlimited On-The-Water Towing or Unlimited On-The-Road Towing Service Trailer Assist. Complete the
Official Weigh-to-Win Registration (online or via fax or email).
For questions or help signing up, contact Kendell at the Weigh-to-Win Office
(918) 742-6424, or send email to [email protected]
State Qualifier
State Qualifier to the National Championship
$250
Federation Nation Regional Divisional Events-6 events Boater
$250
National Championship-1 event
Boater
$1,000
Professional Anglers Association (PAA)
PAA Bass Pro Shops Series-4 events
$500
Association of Collegiate Anglers
TBF PROGRAM
State Qualifier
State Qualifier to the National Championship
$250
TBF Regional Divisional Events-7 events
Boater
$250
National Championship-1 event
Boater
$1,000
BoatU.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship-1 event
Highest placing eligible team
$1,000
20 12
20 12
Square-Billed Crankbait
Luck-E-Strike Series 4, copper perch
“If a square-bill is good, you don’t need to be throwing anything else. From April through mid-June on impoundments, if you have any off-color water, it’s squarebill time. On a river, a square bill is good year round.
The biggest key is to find the off-color water, which will
hold resident, shallow fish. You can cover more water
and multiple depths and I generally fish it faster than
most guys do. As for size, you can catch numbers on the
smaller sizes, but every tournament you are going to win,
you are going to be fishing the big one.” —Rick Clunn
Frog
Jig
SPRO Bronzeye Frog, Killer Gill
Jewel J-Lock flipping jig
“The frog would be my top choice. The key is
that it floats and is highly visible. Those shallow fish are looking up and they are not afraid
to go and get it. You can put a frog places
easier than a jig or worm like under docks and
overhanging trees – anything that provides
an ambush point for the bass. Killer Gill has
a shad pattern with a frog profile, so you kind
of have the best of both worlds with that one. I
recommend throwing it on anywhere from 60to 80-pound Sunline braid to get the job done.”
—Dean Rojas
“I like to flip a jig around a lot of the same stuff
that I throw a crankbait because there are
times they will hit a jig and not a crankbait. I
am going to flip it in there, hop it a few times
and put it somewhere else. I use a 5/8-ounce
jig, which is pretty heavy, but I will use different trailers to control the fall rate. If you want
it to fall fast, use a Zoom Chunk, a little slower,
a Zoom Speed Craw, and the slowest, a Zoom
Super Speed Craw.”
—Kevin Short
Best Summertime Lures
We surveyed the top Bassmaster Elite Series anglers
to find out which summertime baits they don’t leave
home without. Here is what they had to say.
Big worm
Generic ribbontail
worm, plum
Deep-diving crankbait
Bomber Fat Free Shad BD7, citrus shad
“In the summertime, the kind of fishing I like to do is offshore. The deep-diving crankbait is one of the best summertime baits there is. It’s a great search bait – you can
cover a lot of water with it from points and humps to any
other offshore structure you can find.” —Edwin Evers
BoatU.S. Angler
32
“There are so many different brands,
you just have to let the fish tell you
which one to throw. Just make sure
it is at least 10 inches in length. You
are fishing deep and a big worm like
that rigged with a 3/8- or ½-ounce
sinker is easy to cast and gets down
to cover. You can fish it so many
ways, dragging it or hopping it and
as deep as you want. It comes
through brush piles and other cover
easily. That time of year, the size of
the forage is large, so the fish are
feeding on those bigger profiles.”
—David Walker
Summer 2012
Carolina rig
Big Bite Bait Kriet Kreature, tilapia
“The advantage of a Carolina rig is, you can catch a lot of
fish with it and cover more water than a lot of other baits.
Put a big weight on (3/4-ounce) and really probe those
points. That’s what I use when I’m fishing water I don’t
know, because I can find the better rock and brushpiles.
It’s a really good locater and you can fish it real deep
with a big weight. A Carolina rig would be my first choice
to get out there and cover lots of water.”
—Jeff Kriet
33
BoatU.S. Angler
O
THE BIG
Chris Lane, the 2012 Bassmaster
Classic champion, reacts to
another big catch during the Elite
Series event on Florida’s Lake
Okeechobee, helping to show
the fishery has recovered. (James
Overstreet photo)
COMES BACK IN A
BIG WAY
Elite Series event shows
Lake Okeechobee has
recovered from setbacks
By Steve Wright
OKEECHOBEE, Fla. — Lake Okeechobee
is America's “mystery lake.” Though it
was formed 6,000 years ago, European
explorers in the 1700s believed it to
be a myth. For many early Americans,
the big lake didn't become a fact until
U.S. Army colonel Zachary Taylor
fought the Seminoles in the Battle of
Okeechobee on Christmas Day, 1837.
34
Apple snails have an unusual characteristic of laying their eggs above
water. (Steve Wright photo)
It's hard to imagine this 730-square-mile
lake being a secret, but that was long ago.
In the last century, Lake Okeechobee has
continued to hold mythical status among
American anglers; they've long heard stories too good to believe. If you've made a
"bucket list" of places to fish before you die,
Okeechobee is undoubtedly on it.
The 2012 Bassmaster Elite Series PowerPole Slam here in March signaled that the
fishing at Lake Okeechobee now might
be as good as it has ever been. If you
know about the often troubled times at
Okeechobee, that also may be difficult to
believe. But the weigh-in scales tell no lies.
The name Okeechobee reportedly comes
from two words in the Seminole language
— oki (water) and chubi (big) —thus "big
water." It's a fitting name for a lake that
serves as the headwaters of the Everglades
and holds a trillion gallons at its average
depth of nine feet. Yes, only nine feet.
The big lake became known to the world
in 1928 when the Okeechobee Hurricane
caused a massive sheet of water to spill
from the lake. The original death count
was 1,836. But the exact total remains
a mystery; many migrant farm workers'
bodies were washed into the swamps and
never recovered. In 2003, the National
Weather Service raised the death count to
"at least 2,500."
Following the disaster, the Herbert
Hoover Dike was built around Okeechobee.
Earth removed from inside the dike formed
a rim canal that remains the safest way to
navigate this shallow lake – go around or
risk running aground.
Like an ocean, Okeechobee is large
enough for you to understand the curvature of Earth: When you boat to the middle
of it, a scan of the horizon in every direction reveals no dry land — only water, and
the greenery growing from it. Lake MichiBoatU.S. Angler
A snail kite swooped over Okeechobee to grab this apple snail clutched
in its talon. (Steve Wright photo)
gan is the only one larger within the lower
48 states.
Other than its size, that lack of depth
separates Lake Okeechobee from everything else. Combined with acres of
aquatic vegetation and the subtropical
temperatures of south-central Florida,
Lake Okeechobee provides near-perfect
habitat for growing fish. It has been
called " The Panfish Capital of the World."
Okeechobee is noted for growing large
crappie and lots of them. W hen the
bream, both redear (shellcrackers) and
bluegill, go to their spawning beds for
the first time each spring, many devoted
bass anglers shift gear.
"I do enjoy that," said Bill Rose, who
moved here in 1978 from Peoria, Ill. "Even
though I fish for bass most of the time, I
take a break when that first wave of shellcrackers comes in to spawn. I've caught a
lot that weigh 2 ½ pounds. They average
about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ pounds."
A 2 ½-pound bream is a myth to me, but
I'm anxious to be convinced.
The freshwaters of Florida are best
known for largemouth bass. When Bassmaster magazine recently published a list
of the 100 best bass fishing lakes in the
U.S., seven Florida waters were included,
second only to Texas' eight. And Lake
Okeechobee was listed No. 2 overall, runner-up to Falcon Lake, located on the Texas-Mexico border.
Topping off the excellent fishing,
Okeechobee simply provides a unique
experience. From the prehistoric-size alligators peering from its surface to the
endangered snail kites swooping above
it, there's always something that catches
your eyes.
"Every time I come back here, it looks
different," said Steve Kennedy, a Bassmaster Elite Series veteran from Auburn, Ala.,
36
who has been fishing Okeechobee for 10
years. "It's unlike any other place we've
ever fished."
Over the past 30 years, Okeechobee has
seen more bad times than good. Phosphorous and nitrogen contained in rainfall
runoff caused massive algal blooms that
covered 40 percent of the lake during the
1980s and '90s. Algal blooms suck dissolved
oxygen from the water. The effects start at
the bottom of the food chain, killing the
macro-invertebrates, which support fish,
waterfowl and every other predator.
The 21st century has marked a series of
highs and lows for Okeechobee in terms of
its water level. The highs were caused by
hurricanes and tropical storms that muddied Okeechobee and stunted the growth
of aquatic vegetation. For bulrush, eelgrass and hydrilla to thrive, they need the
sunlight that penetrates clear water.
Two hurricanes in 2004 (Frances and
Jeanne) were particularly tough, as the
combination of high water and strong
winds ripped out the plant life and clouded the water.
"It wiped out all the vegetation," said Florida
native Chris Lane, the 2012 Bassmaster Classic champion. "It turned the water to where it
was pretty much puke brown for years."
The lows came in the form of droughts,
one of which dropped the lake to record
low of 8.82 feet above sea level in July
2007. The target level set by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers is 12.5 to 15.5 feet.
It was during the drought in '07 that
truckloads of toxic mud were removed from
the lake's basin – thousands of truckloads.
It was an attempt to restore the hard, sandy
bottom of Okeechobee and its water clarity.
Apparently, the plan succeeded. The
Bassmaster Elite Series tournament, held
March 22-25, produced some extraordinary results.
Summer 2012
Air boats are a common site in this lake which has an average
depth of only 9 feet. (Steve Wright photo)
"The first time I fished Lake Okeechobee
was in the mid- to late-'70s," said 56-yearold Shaw Grigsby from Gainesville, Fla.
"It's real different now. This is as good as
I've seen Okeechobee. It's real, real healthy.
That year-class of five-, six-, seven- and
eight-pounders is just crazy.
It's absolutely crazy."
Grigsby's words came after
weighing a five-bass daily
limit totaling 30 pounds, 7
ounces on March 24. But he
was hardly the only Elite Series angler proclaiming the
present-day wonders of bass
fishing at "The Big O."
On that same Saturday,
Kevin VanDam caught an
8-pound, 14-ounce largemouth, which was the biggest bass caught in the fourday event. That's a big bass
no matter where you fish.
VanDam, 44, speaks with
some authority on bass fishing, as the seven-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year
and four-time Bassmaster
Classic champion.
" There are so many big
ones out there on this lake
that, if you get in the right
areas when they move up,
it's just crazy," VanDam
said. "It's about as incredible a lake as you're going to
see down here (in Florida)
right now.
"I've probably fished four or five tournaments here. I've seen it go through a lot of
changes. It's totally different from the last
time I was here. It's the best I've ever seen
it. Every bank on the lake now that has
reeds on it is spawning habitat. They've
kept the lake at perfect levels the last few
years during the spawn. So there's just a
tremendous class of bass between five and
eight pounds."
Serving as further proof, Ish Monroe of
Hughson, Calif., had an opening day bag
Okeechobee bass fishing. The Springville,
Ala., resident knew there was a chance to
catch surface-feeding bass at first light.
So Howell tossed out a big topwater lure
first thing one morning.
"It's called 'The One.' It's like a big Pencil
Popper with three treble hooks
on it," Howell said.
After a school of bass attacked
the lure, Howell reeled in one
attached to each hook. They
weighed 4, 3 ½ and 3 pounds. In
other words, Howell caught 10 ½
pounds of bass on one cast.
"I've never seen that happen
before," said Howell, who had
his limit in the livewell with
two more casts – five bass on
three casts.
It has been a long road back to
health
for Lake Okeechobee. But
A great blue heron works on
will
it
remain
You can't
its lunch. (Steve healthy?
Wright photo)
imagine how much depends
upon that answer.
Lake Okeechobee is the literal heart of Florida. A limestone trough lies at the bed
of the state's freshwater lifeblood. It stretches north from
the headwaters of the Kissimmee River, south through Lake
Okeechobee, into the Everglades and finally into Florida
Bay – a vast stream that supplies drinking water, irrigates
crops, recharges acquifers and
provides habitat for much of
of 34 pounds, 5 ounces – almost a seven- the state's wildlife.
pound average – on the way to winning the
Canals and ditches were being carved
tournament with a 20-bass total of 108 into Florida shortly after it became a
pounds, 5 ounces.
state in 1845. When Hamilton DissHowever, one cast made by Randy How- ton purchased four million acres here
ell might have made the biggest state- in 1881, his ultimate goal was to drain
ment about the present state of Lake Okeechobee. That's about the only thing
37
BoatU.S. Angler
he didn't achieve in earning his nickname,
the "Drainage King."
For most of the 20th century that effort to drain the swamps for farmlands
and housing accelerated. But it has finally
slowed as Floridians have come to realize
the importance of their waters and wetlands. Now there's a focus on the long-term
health of this area. It would take an article much longer than this to mention the
agencies and projects that are intertwined
in this massive effort.
More so than largemouth bass, snail
kites may be the ultimate sign of
Okeechobee's health. These little-known
birds are considered the most threatened snail from its golf ball-sized shell; other
prey species in the U.S., and Florida is the than the occasional crawfish, it's the only
only state they inhabit. Snail kites are thing snail kites eat. (Apple snails, fittingthriving in the other parts of their native ly for Okeechobee, are sometimes called
range – Central and South America. But "mystery snails.")
they are an "indicator species" for FloriThe snail kites appeared plentiful during
the Bassmaster tournament in March. Once
you knew what to look for, it took little effort to find one gliding low, occasionally
with an apple snail clutched in its talons.
But the snail kite population has crashed
from 3,000 a decade ago to 900 now. The
good news is that's 200 more than were
counted a year ago.
Apple snails feed on aquatic vegetation.
So more aquatic plants leads to more apple snails and therefore more snail kites,
right? And apparently, that means more
bass, too.
But nothing is quite that simple, especially where mankind confronts Mother
Nature like it does in Florida. This is the
state where a gift from Japan at the 1884
New Orleans World Fair – water hyacinths
¬– spread so fast that waterways were
choked with the invasive species a decade
later. The water hyacinths have since been
controlled, but not eradicated.
In Florida, if it's not one environmental crisis, it's another: A new species of
apple snails is now spreading through
its waters. Native to South America, this
species probably arrived through the
da's wetlands, in other words, canaries in aquarium trade. It grows to the size of a
the coal mine. If they vanish, everything baseball. W hile it is considered one reaelse better be nervous.
son for the recent increase in snail kites,
The snail kite is a medium-sized hawk. it may prove too big for juveniles to efMales are mostly gray; females are mostly fectively consume, and it may overcrowd
brown; both have distinctive white patches the native apple snails.
at the base of their tails; and both have a
W here w i l l a l l t h is lead? T hat's a
sharp hook at the end of their beaks. That myster y, just l i ke L a ke Okeec hobee
hook permits them to remove an apple ha s a lways been. n
ish Monroe searches for bass amidst the now
healthy aquatic vegetation. (Seigo Saito photo)
BoatU.S. Angler
38
Summer 2012
THE
OF
BARON
BALSA
By Pete Robbins
Lee Sisson keeps on cranking out baits,
looking for the next great thing
Balsa B crankbaits,
halfway finished.
39
BoatU.S. Angler
A Balsa B2 in chartreuse
with a black back is
responsible for numerous
major tournament wins.
Have you ever thrown a crankbait? If so, you
owe at least a tip of the hat to Lee Sisson.
D
epending on which lure you used,
there’s a good chance he designed
it, manufactured it, consulted on it
or inspired it. Even if he didn’t have
a direct hand in its creation, those
who did might have borrowed a few of his
ideas, either purposefully or inadvertently.
In some cases their borrowing effectively
amounts to theft. That doesn’t bother Sisson, though, because by the time someone
sees fit to appropriate one of his ideas and
present it as their own, he’s already moved
on to the next project.
The next project might involve a new category of lure, or some altogether different
item. Lately he’s put his effort into a bass
boat alarm system and a lure dunk that harnesses the power of ultraviolet rays. Tomorrow it might be
something in a totally different category. Nevertheless,
he always comes
back to balsa wood
crankbaits, a dying
breed whose advantages he proselytizes tirelessly.
Sisson is a man
with an existential conflict – he’s constantly searching
for the next great thing, but always circles
around to the wood that started his career
in 1972. He can’t escape it. He’s tried other
substances for luremaking, like Jelutong, a
similar wood, and though his designs have
won multiple Bassmaster Classic trophies
and hundreds upon hundreds of thousands
of dollars, he’s more concerned about what
comes next than about the legend he’s already built.
B uilding a
B etter B ass -Trap
Sisson, the son of a Louisiana attorney,
was a high school football star in Baton
Rouge with a wealth of options as to
where he’d play at the next level. The big
powers came calling, but they promised
only a chance to compete for a spot, and
BoatU.S. Angler
40
Summer 2012
only as an upperclassman. The sidelines
and bench did not appeal to him, so he
accepted an offer to play for nearby Louisiana Tech.
A prime driver in his decision to play
for the Bulldogs was a blonde quarterback
a year ahead of him, who’d go on to a Hall
of Fame career in the NFL. Terry Bradshaw
was part of the effort to recruit young offensive lineman, but once Sisson got to school
Bradshaw played an even larger role.
“He took me out and got me into a school
of bass,” Sisson recalled. “I knew right then
and there that was what I wanted to do.”
Then he trotted out his standard line: “We
both helped each other with our careers.
He got me into fishing and I taught him
how to scramble.”
As he fished local jackpot tournaments
on Louisiana waters like Lake D’Arbonne
and the Atchafalaya Basin, during college
and shortly thereafter, he recognized that
the hard lures of the day were not capable
of fishing deeper than about six feet. Sure,
if you found a brushpile you could drag a
worm or a lead head jig through it, but when
bass were keyed in on the action of the diving plug, there were no options.
Sisson, a born tinkerer, set out to fill that
gap and created what would later become the
Bagley’s DB3, the first deep-diving crankbait.
While it didn’t necessarily enhance his reputation beyond Louisiana, the innovative lure
put more than a few dollars in his pocket.
Meanwhile, he’d found a calling. When Jim
Bagley of Bagley Bait Company came to Baton
Rouge for an in-store promotion, the savvy
recent college graduate glued himself to the
industry stalwart’s side and by the end of the
41
day had a job offer to move to Florida, which
he accepted without hesitation.
B ringing
the
H eat
During his salad days in the fishing industry, Sisson fed continuously on Jim
Bagley’s knowledge.
“I played on a championship football team
in high school and a championship team in
college, but Jim was the best coach I ever
had,” he recalled.
Bagley would create challenges for his employees, forcing them to produce a certain
number of sales or products by a given date.
To this day, Sisson doesn’t know whether
those goals were based on corporate needs
or Bagley’s imagination, but as a general
rule they contributed to better products.
“Normally we could get about 97 percent
of our lures to run right out of the package,” he recalled. “But with a smaller bait it’s
harder to perfect. When we came out with
the Diving Honey B, about 80 percent ran
right. Jim came back and said he had an order for a hundred thousand of them, so we’d
better get it to run right.
“ The harder the challenge, the more I
liked it.”
At that point in time the industry was also
different. Bagley, he said, “had the ability to
make everybody feel special,” once opining
to Sisson that “when you’re climbing the ladder, you should push the guys ahead of you
and they’ll drag you along with them.” Indeed, while a spirit of competitiveness was
imbued throughout the herd of salesmen
and designers, there was also a camraderie. At in-store promotions, Sisson and the
representatives from competing companies
would bet lunch on who could sell more of
each other’s lures in a given morning.
“The first time I went to a show I met
Bill Norman, Lew Childre, Cotton Cordell
and Ray Scott,” he recalled. “They were all
out of the same mold – carnival barkers.”
Sisson was a witness to history, as Childre “changed the rod business,” taking the
sport from “big round reels and rods that
weighed 40 pounds,” to the forerunners
of the tools anglers use today. He brought
the pistol grip from Japan along with Fuji
BoatU.S. Angler
Sisson’s creation
of a deadly muskie
lure was a happy
accident.
guides and revolutionized how the baitcasting technique is executed.
Along the way, there was resistance –
Childre showed up to one event to find
his booth decorated with a handmade sign
that said “Brought to you by the people
who brought you World War Two” – but the
converts outweighed the naysayers. Sisson
was an early Childre supporter, but admitted that he was one of the doubters when
Johnny Morris started Bass Pro Shops.
“Talk was that Johnny was going to blow
his dad’s money. We all wondered how you
could make any money in mail order.”
There were some missed business opportunities, too. Childre brought back
the inspiration for the Mr. Twister grub
from France, but Bagley and Sisson elected
to pass on it. A few years later, John Fox
brought them a “big old ugly thing with
spinnerbait blades kind of pop-riveted together.” Once again, they passed. Shortly
thereafter the Lunker Lure buzzbait was
introduced, producing numerous tournament wins and millions of sales.
“I also thought a fiberguard on a jig would
never work,” he laughed. “I’ve been wrong
about a lot of things.” Today he jokes about
it easily, but the satisfaction derived from
the successes far outweighed the disappointment when he was wrong. Crankbait
sales zipped along throughout the 70s and
80s, buoyed by multiple Bassmaster Classic
wins, riding the coattail of Ray Scott’s salesmanship, and much of that was due to Sisson’s ingenuity.
B roadening H is H orizons
A key component of Sisson’s job at
Bagley’s was the euphemistically-titled
“field research” – in other words, time on
the water. Oddly enough, despite fishing in
Florida for 40 years, as a general rule Sisson does not care for its typically grassy
bowl-shaped lakes. Perhaps more surprisingly, the former Elite Series angler “won
more money in muskie tournaments than
in bass tournaments.”
As Bagley sought to expand his reach into
largely untapped northern and midwestern
markets, he sent Sisson as his envoy. “I built
a 12-inch crankbait to fish for muskies, but
it was cold and I broke the lip off.” Like several other of his accidental creations, this
one was a success. “It would glide like a dying shad,” he said, and it drove the toothy
critters crazy.
He was so green at that point that on
his first trip to Wisconsin he didn’t quite
know what was at the end of his line. “I
knew muskies had stripes and northern
had spots, but my first fish didn’t have either,” he said. He called over local muskie
expert Duke Verkuilen who informed him
that he’d caught a “silver” muskie. RegardBoatU.S. Angler
Salesman’s sample rings show off some
of Lee Sisson’s designs.
less of how it looked, he knew he was onto
something with his new creation. At the end
of the weekend, he drove home to Florida,
retooled the lures, then drove right back in
time for the next weekend’s tournament.
Between the lures and his knowledge
gleaned from bass fishing, he immediately
cleaned up, winning four boats in a row on
the Eagle River Chain of Lakes.
“The fishermen up there hadn’t been
exposed to southern bass techniques, particularly boat control,” Sisson recalled.
“They thought that the trolling motor was
for trolling, but it’s really a positioning
motor.” Always an educator, after a while
42
he gave several impromptu seminars to
spread his growing understanding of the
habits of the big fish.
“The next year they beat the snot out of
me,” he said. Of course it was Sisson, and
in turn Bagley, who laughed all the way to
the bank. While his tournament dominance
may have ended, they went from annual regional sales of 30,000 lures to annual sales
of 300,000 in just a short while.
Next he convinced Bagley to enter the
saltwater markets. Not only was there a
need for new products, but this was where
the big money lay – a freshwater crankbait might cost six bucks and a local tourSummer 2012
nament might see a few hundred dollars
awarded to the winner, but in the saltwater arena the pots, and even the side-pots,
were enormous. “You’d see a thousand dollars change hands on the dock at the marlin tournaments,” he recalled. “The IRS
guy would be there, too.” Clearly, if he and
Bagley developed a winning lure they too
could clean up.
Once again, Sisson set out to do the appropriate field research, and just as he did
in Wisconsin he turned heads. It wasn’t
necessarily because he produced any noteworthy catches, although he caught his
share of fish, but rather because of how he
got there. He can only wonder today how
many captains of big Chris-Craft and Hatteras yachts decided to give up drinking
when they saw his 18-foot Skeeter Starfire
12 miles offshore battling a sailfish.
Once again, the time on the water paid
off in the development of the Bagley’s Head
Knocker. “At the time what we were trying
to do was to build a lure that ‘smoked,’”
Sisson said. “Something that came up, captured air, then went back down, creating a
bubble trail.” It was skirted like the typical Kona trolling lures, with a ringed collar, but featured a tube that slid up over
the line, which caused it to “shake, rattle
43
and come up and gulp air.” One end of the
tube was bigger than the other, so the tube
could be reversed for maximum effectiveness depending on trolling speed.
He never tired of the expansive saltwater options – extending his reach to the
snook and tarpon in the mangroves of
the Everglades, as well as to the Arthur
Smith Kingfish Tournaments, but fishing for bass increasingly fell by the wayside. He continued to develop products to
catch more bass, even after he left Bagley
in the mid-80s, but even off-the-water
pursuits started to overwhelm the time
devoted to chasing bass firsthand.
BoatU.S. Angler
“If I had run my business to get rich, it
would have been a lot different,” he said.
“But during my hunting period I left every Wednesday afternoon and I’d be gone
through the weekend. You might say I have
an addictive personality.”
e lite
at
s iXtY p lus
While Sisson may have burned through
species and designs and experiences with
the fervor of a man who’s never satisfied
with the status quo, in reality his career
has been a long, circular slog back to
where he started: chasing bass, trying to
do it better than anyone around him, with
tools of his own design. Like many of his
best creations, his return to the bass game
was accidental.
One spring less than a decade ago, when
hunting had overwhelmed the portion
of his brain previously reserved almost
exclusively for fish, he found himself at
Mark ’s Outdoors near Birmingham, when
that establishment was about to hold its
annual tournament on Lay Lake. The event
typically draws in excess of 500 boats, including many of the top bass pros, but it’s
also an effort aimed at both commerce
and conservation—many of the
top manufacturers show up to
give away thousands of dollars
worth of gear. Perhaps more importantly, each boat is tasked
with releasing a bag full of bass
fry provided by Mark ’s at its
initial stop of the tournament.
Out of that effort to resuscitate
the resource came Sisson’s own
bass fishing rebirth.
“I was up there and someone asked me to
fish as their co-angler,” he recalled. “I didn’t
even have any rods or tackle with me, but I
decided to go, and the bug just jumped up
and bit me.”
Energy renewed, he joined the Lakeland
Bassmasters near his Winter Haven home.
The club has a storied history, producing reigning Bassmaster Classic champion
Chris Lane, his brother Bobby, current
Elite Series rookie Kyle Fox, and the oldest rookie in Elite Series history, Sisson
himself. His path to the Elites was, once
again, almost accidental. In 2008 he fished
five Elite Series tournaments on the amateur side, finishing seventh at Clarks Hill,
fifth at Old Hickory and absolutely falling in love with Lake Amistad. Given his
busy consulting schedule, though, in 2009
he elected to fish all of the Southern and
Central Opens, six tournaments in all, as
a boater. While he didn’t set the world on
fire, he did notch a 20th place finish on
Alabama’s Lake Wheeler and a 14th place
finish on the Atchafalaya Basin, along with
a small check at Santee Cooper.
In 2010, he started off fi shing the Southern Opens, but bombed at Okeechobee to
start the year, fi nishing 167th. Indeed, he
had done the same to
start 2009, fi nishing
an even-worse 186th
at the Harris Chain.
Th is time, he decided
to cut his losses and
focus on the Centrals.
It was a wise choice, as
he never missed the
money again, fi nishing 30th at Amistad,
15th at the Red River
and sixth at Texoma.
Th at put him fourth
overall in the point
standings,
outside
the cut for the Classic, but well inside the
cut to make the Elite
Series roster for 2011.
Sisson
couldn’t
think of a reason
NOT to fish the
BoatU.S. Angler
44
B aCK
Elites, so he plunked down
the not-insubstantial deposits
and prepared to fish against a
group of anglers who’d grown
up on his baits, even if many
hadn’t been born when he’d
first produced them.
The first tournament was
on the Harris Chain, and even
though he essentially lost
all of the second day of competition to mechanical difficulties he
finished 13th among nearly 100 of the
world ’s greatest anglers. “I told my wife
it was pretty easy,” he said. “I spoke too
soon.” The rest of the year proved more
difficult, with a money finish at Lake
Murray surrounded by a few tough lessons elsewhere.
“ This is not a sport for 63-year-old
rookies,” he opined, looking back at a few
missed opportunities from his Elite season. Still, he had the option to come back
in 2012, but with his curiosity sated, he
elected to let that opportunity pass and
return to his most enduring passion:
solving on-the-water puzzles from off
the water. “I feed off of the consumers,”
he stated. “ The excitement and the energy in their eyes. Most of the ideas I have
are either accidents or just listening. You
find a need and fill it. Then your buddy
sees it and he wants one. That’s cool.
Then after that, when somebody will give
you some money for it, you know you’ve
accomplished something.”
Summer 2012
underneath all of Lee Sisson’s best creations
lies a heart of balsa wood.
The tools of the trade and some balsa
wood bodies.
Thousands of crankbait lips await their future
on the water.
to
B alsa
Just as spawning fish return to the same
areas year after year after year, it is in Sisson’s genetic code to tinker and solve problems. His offspring exhibit that same tendency. One son spent his youth pulling apart
computers and video games, getting them to
work better. Now he’s in the computer security industry. Another is a jeweler, building
six-figure pieces of art. “I wish I had his talent,” Sisson said, modestly.
Now he’s come full circle, even with the
products he uses: “Forty years ago I was
fishing out of a Skeeter, using Lew’s rods
and reels and Bagley’s lures. Now I’m fishing out of a Skeeter, using Lew’s rods and
reels and Bagley’s lures.” He’s not just using
the lures, though – after several ownership
changes, he’s working directly with Bagley’s
to get the products back to their previous
industry status. One of the new owners is
another big name in the world of balsa lures
– Jarmo Rapala, grandson of Rapala namesake and originator Lauri Rapala.
In addition to staying busy consulting
for Bagley’s, Sisson spends his “retirement”
trying to solve other problems. He’s built
and marketed a “two-way boat alarm” in response to tiring of taking his gear out of the
boat every night at hotels. Those calling the
customer service line, whether it be late on
a weekday, or even a Saturday, are often surprised to find Sisson himself answering the
phone and guiding them to a solution. He
wouldn’t have it any other way.
He’s also developed a “secret sauce” that
adds a UV-sensitive hue to any soft plastic
45
lure, allowing them to become more visible
in deep or dirty water, and expects to do the
same thing with crankbait paint in the near
future. “We’ve been using UV all this time
on crankbaits with chartreuse or fluorescent orange and we never knew why it was
so effective,” he said.
What’s odd about Sisson’s quest for the perfect situational lure or the solution to a given
problem is that he’s chosen a sport where there
can never be certainty. “It’s not like golf, where
the hole is right there and you just have to get
to it,” he said. “Here you can’t see the hole.”
When he returned from his self-imposed
bass fishing exile a few years back, he was surprised to hear anglers talking about special
crankbaits that “hunted” – veering off sharply
at random intervals before returning to center. He’d never known a good crankbait that
didn’t hunt. Each particular model has its own
particular “acoustic signature,” he said, and
unlike plastic plugs where consistency can be
attained relatively easily, in balsa it all comes
down to the particular piece of wood.
“One of the things I like about balsa is that
it has a quicker action than plastic or a heavier
wood,” he said. “But the true mystique of balsa
wood crankbaits is that no two are the same.”
Indeed, a Bagley’s ad from decades ago touted
this fact, comparing them to snowflakes. So
in that sense, Sisson knows that his search
for a better bait, even, dare he say it, a perfect
bait, is illusory. Even though they’re carved
from the same machine, each one captures a
particular moment in time. That’s the design
signature of a man whose passion always tilts
toward the next big thing, but who also knows
that history and experiences matter. n
BoatU.S. Angler
McKinnis enjoys the companionship of Coach
Bobby Knight on their annual fishing trips.
Fishing is about friends for McKinnis, but
his favorite lures still produce good results.
Billy Westmoreland and Jerry McKinnis hold a
stringer of Lake Cumberland bass in 1969.
Lifetime of Lures
The favorite go-to baits of B.A.S.S. owner, longtime TV host Jerry McKinnis
J
erry McKinnis may be the most traveled
angler in the world. After 44 years of taping “The Fishin’ Hole,” he’s like a character
in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby:
“I've been everywhere and seen everything and
done everything."
His latest escapade is the owner of B.A.S.S., the
time-honored staple of the bass fishing world that
brought us so many well-known anglers and an
industry within an industry to boot.
McKinnis cut his teeth as a full-time minorleague baseball player who dreamed of fishing in
Photos courtesy Jerry McKinnis.
Forrest Wood and Jerry McKinnis do some “fly” fishing for steelhead
trout in British Columbia.
Longtime show host
and B.A.S.S. coowner Jerry McKinnis
opens up his vintage
tackle box from a
lifetime of fishing.
(James Overstreet
photo)
46
his spare time. A chance meeting with a young
Forrest Wood (pre-Ranger Boat era) set them on a
parallel course to become fishing icons.
Whether it’s been fishing for smallmouth or largemouth bass, or chasing steelhead in the North,
snook in Florida or rainbow trout in the West,
McKinnis has built an incredible tackle box of
knowledge and experiences unrivaled by anyone.
It’s the lures, though, we are most interested
in. Take a look at some of the time-honored and
well-worn items in his tackle box that he couldn’t
live without.
Turn the page to see his tacklebox favorites è
Kevin VanDam, Mike McKinnis, Jerry’s son, and Jerry show off a
mess of smallmouth.
Jerry’s Tackle Box
Dowagiac Minnow: This was McKinnis’ fi rst lure. “When I was
a kid and fi shed with my dad, this is what we fi shed with. You just
throw it out there and reel it back. It’s actually a horrible lure but
it’s all we had. I used to deliver the Wellston Journal in St. Louis,
and to get paid you got vouchers, so I saved up my vouchers and
got that lure.”
package McKinnis has owned for 25 years, helped produce a 10fi sh stringer on Alabama’s Lake Eufala that ranged from 10 pounds
to 14 pounds each. “That sounds almost ridiculous,’’ he said, “but
it happened.”
Wiggle Wart: “The original Wiggle Wart, not one of the new
ones today. I’ve fished it especially in the Ozark lakes. That color
right there in the spring is dynamite.”
Lucky 13: “When I guided we fished Lucky 13s and poppers a
lot. They caught so many fish. I didn’t know in order to catch a fish
I needed to throw it in that brush. Man, I threw it out in the middle
because the worst thing on earth would be to lose a lure.”
Sammy/Zara Spook: “When I fish with a topwater bait, I fish
a Zara Spook a lot. My original one is up in a case. The Spooks I
used to fish with for smallmouth always had the harness that ran
all the way through them. You can’t buy them anymore. I’ve got
one or two of them, but I mostly fish with a Sammy today.”
Tube jig: For decades this lure has been a mainstay for decades. It was especially good on Crooked Creek and the Buffalo
River, two smallmouth streams that were constant sites for McKinnis’ “The Fishin’ Hole.”
Blackberry Jelly Worm: “A Mann’s blackberry Jelly Worm: Tom
Mann made a watermelon, strawberry and a blueberry and so on.
I believe a stringer of fi sh Mann and I caught on that worm was the
biggest ever caught on film on public water.” These worms, from a
BoatU.S. Angler
(yes, that wooden tray comes from one of Jerry’s vintage tackle boxes.)
48
Bill Rose Lure: “Bill Rose was a great, great fisherman. He used
to make his own lures. I don’t remember what he called this, but he
poured the head in this little mold and he’d put them in his oven.
We made fun of him. We thought it was the stupidest looking bait.
When we were around the dock and Bill wasn’t around, we’d say he
couldn’t fish today because he’s got to bake new lures. But I think
back and that’s a heck of a lure. Nowadays we fish with lures that are
similar … And I made fun of him.”
Berkley Frenzy: This lure isn’t made anymore, but it’s one
McKinnis uses religiously. “The reason why I fish this is because so many crankbaits that you’re told are going to run 7- or
8-feet deep, don’t. They may hit 7 feet for like 4 feet and then
they’re right back up. This lure actually would dive that deep
and stay there for the biggest part of your cast. I know it’s not
as beautiful as a lot of the crankbaits we have now, but boy it
was a fish catcher.”
Zoom Trick worm: “I fish a wacky-style worm, and I use a
Zoom Trick Worm an awful lot.” McKinnis will often add a finishing
nail to the head to add weight and change the rate of fall.
Little Doc: “When we guided, my neighbor, Garland “Doc”
Hurst, would carve his own lures as he was guiding. He’d get a
piece of root and carve it while going down the river. Then he’d
paint it, hang it on the little rail, let it dry and started fishing. If
fish were biting at all, he’d catch a fish or two on it. Then he’d sell
it to the fishermen for a dollar. A dollar was really something. If
you could do that twice a day and get an extra two dollars, that’s
pretty sweet because you were only getting five dollars to guide.
We called these ‘Little Docs.”
Sting Ray grub: The Sting Ray Grub became special almost by
accident. McKinnis and Billy Murray, a long-time cameraman, were
on their way to join Bobby Murray (Billy’s brother) and Jim Bagley
in the Everglades for a snook fishing show. They stopped to visit
Tom Mann, who gave them the grubs as an afterthought. The snook
weren’t biting. It was so bad Bagley and Bobby left. Trying to make
something happen, McKinnis tied on one of the grubs and immediately caught a tarpon. Billy followed and before long they were piling
up snook and tarpon. McKinnis used the grub to catch fish all over
Summer 2012
Scrounger Head: “I think this could possibly be the fish catching-est lure out there — people just don’t fish with it. They don’t
completely understand how to fish it, but this is a fish-catching
son of gun. Not just in 2 feet but in 22 feet of water.”
the country. “It still works when fishing is tough,’’ he said. “I’ll get bit
sure as the world.”
Jigs: “The bottom two are Bill Rose’s jigs. We didn’t fish with
anything but bucktail jigs back in the 50s, 60s, 70s. I guess probably nobody fishes with a bucktail jig now. They’ll fall slower than
most of the jigs today. A bucktail will trap air and it makes them fall
a lot different. We’d always have a little orange in there or a little
blue on black. There’s today’s jig on top. I guess the biggest reason I put this in there is to remind you what today’s jigs look like,
but in those days we wouldn’t have a plastic trailer.”
Little George/Silver Buddy: “The Little George is a creation by Tom
Mann and named for former Alabama Governor George Wallace. That’s
all Mann fished. They were fish catching dudes. I have an idea they’re
fish catching dudes today, too. I also fished a lot with a Silver Buddy. I
fished these a lot with Billy Westmoreland, who was the big smallmouth
fisherman over on Dale Hollow. Billy fished with little jigs some, but the
majority of his big smallmouth were caught on Silver Buddies and nobody ever knew that. They figured he caught them all on jigs.”
Chatter Bait: “I’ve got a whole box of Chatter Baits. When I started
to fish them, I had this one and a couple more. Mine were always too
heavy for me, and so I whittled it down. And as you can tell, this is just
beat all to heck. I ended up getting a whole box of them because I
thought I’d lose this one. I’ve had this thing for five years. I just fish it all
the time. I never lose it, and I never get any new ones out of the box.” n
49
BoatU.S. Angler
Braggin' Board
2012 BoatU.S. Angler “Catch of the Month” Spring Winners
Two Days
That Stick in
My Mind
T
he rash of anglers getting hooked
So I’m sitting there looking at the crankbait,
in B.A.S.S. tournaments of late and those hooks are in there good. I remember
brings to mind two days that leaning over in pain, and this idiot cruiser boat
sucked. Well, one for sure. And goes by throwing a 4-foot wake. As I’m bent
what I take from both, besides some scars, is over, the wake hits the side of the boat and the
a lesson learned.
free hook embeds in the inside of my leg.
The fi rst was probably 20 years ago when
There is no way in hell that I could physically
I was getting ready for a tournament in do this again if I tried. I’ve become a human
Michigan. It was one of those magical “Ferris safety pin. I’m bent over. I cannot stand up. I
Bueller’s Day Off ” deals, a calm summer day remember lying on the deck, bleeding, trying
where every single pleasure boat was out and to dig out the hooks with my hands. As I’m
I was in the boat alone.
doing this—this is no joke—my right thumb
I was a typical Michigan beach bum kid gets hooked past the barb. So now I’m toin the summertime, wearing flip-flops tally screwed. I’ve got hooks in four different
and jams… rememchunks of flesh.
ber those? The jam
Nothing good is
shorts had a bluecoming of this. I repurple floral pattern,
member a john boat
and I didn’t have a
going by, and I’m
shirt on because I
wailing like a baby.
was the Coppertone
I’m screaming to the
man at the time.
guy, and he comes
So I hook a fish on
over. I will never fora crankbait, and I
get his reaction. Th is
was doing the Bassguy was one level
master deal where
above, maybe below,
you’re leaning back
the dudes in “Delivon it. I remember
erance.” He was like
the fish coming
the ZZ Top cousin
to the surface, not very big, probably 3 they no longer communicate with.
pounds, and he did one of those head
So he sees me all entangled in hooks, sees
shakes. With that and my hard lean, the my eyes all watered up—eh, I’m a wimp and
crankbait f lew back at me like a Nolan can’t handle pain—and he lets out the most
Ryan fastball. It nailed me right in the demonic laugh. Can’t say I blame him. Seeing
stomach, and two barbs of one treble me in those floral shorts, on a fancy bass boat
hook buried next to my bellybutton
looking like a complete jackass must have
I’m like, ‘Ah no, is this for real?’ I’m get- tickled his sensibilities.
ting ticked. I always had needle-nose pliers
He did help me, which was awkward
to work on stuff in the boat, but I usually enough because of the areas I was hooked
seemed to leave them sitting somewhere —use your imagination. He got my hand
other than in the boat. And this is long loose, but I’ll never forget the pair of inbefore the braid trick where you can yank dustrial pliers he handed me to remove
out the hooks.
the hooks. Gnarly, nasty pliers.
BoatU.S. Angler
50
But they worked. Yeah, it hurt. From that I
learned to make sure I had needle-nose pliers
in the boat.
The other incident was on a pontoon boat
with Cory, a buddy who never fi shed but
would come and hang out. He was 18 and I
was 15. He could drive. I couldn’t.
I remember rearing back with a jerkbait
and absolutely imbedding every single treble
hook into his scalp. Don’t know why, but I
started laughing hysterically, just like the
hillbilly guy laughed at my expense. It wasn’t
really funny because my fi shing had to end,
but boy did that make me laugh.
I had nothing to dig them out, so he wanted
to get to the emergency room. He drove one
of those low-to-the-ground Fieros—they
were cool, but not that cool. As he’s getting
out of his car, one of the free hooks got stuck
in the roof, and he’s safety-pinned to his car.
I thought, "How unbelievable is this?" as I
ran into the ER. There were two nurses and
a doctor there, and I told them my buddy had
a fi shing lure stuck in his head. The doc gave
me a straight face and says, “To dig them out,
we’re going to need your buddy.”
I told him the problem, that he’s just
outside the door, stuck to his car, and
first thing that came out of that doctor’s
mouth was, “Wow! Grab a camera! I’ve got
to see this!”
So we all run out, two nurses, the doctor
and me, and we’re all looking at my buddy
pinned to his car, and we all just laughed hysterically. Poor Cory.
I don’t know where it is now, but there’s
a picture of him stuck and me right next to
him with a thumbs-up.
Those were defi nitely the two most memorable hook-yourself or hook-your-buddy
experiences. And looking back at those, it’s
weird how vividly clear the details are.
At least I learned something. n
Summer 2012
May Saltwater Winner
Carol gravelin / holiday, FL / redfish
April Freshwater Winner
Blake Davis / Lowndesboro, AL / 14 lb. Largemouth Bass
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begins every
month!
April Saltwater Winner
John Williams / Tallahassee, FL / 42" rockfish
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51
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Big O Comes Back Lifetime of Lures

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