Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Really been interested in making my own lures. Particularly ones made out of common things you might have around the house. I made a spoon the other day out of a teaspoon someone threw out at work. cut the handle, sanded it and drilled holes in the top and bottom. Added a treble hook and a swivel and it looks good. Haven't fished it yet. Will update on it's effectiveness when I do.
I found this article that has some very interesting ideas for homemade fishing lures.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/hooker44.html

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Reasons.

Riffle Skiffles and the Last Cast is a fishing blog. More specific to Northeastern Ohio. I decided to start this based on a few things. I've read some great writing about fishing that was both poetic and informative and above all compassionate, and I have read some that well was none of these things. I'm really not sure on which side of the fence I will fall with this, could be a disaster.
I'm trying to determine the draw of waking up at 4:30am car loaded, coffee timer set and brewing. There is an excitement that happens the moment before you fall asleep the night before a fishing outing to the river, or anyplace for that matter. Your mind flutters with the possibilities of the approaching morning.
Fishing Rocky River has taught me a lot about fishing and has gotten me interested in the ecology of it's particular environment. I'm by no means an expert on anything really, be it fishing, ecology or Rocky River. But none the less it has given me a respect for the system there that has been in place forever.
One of the the main draws for me is the smallmouth fishing. Rocky River is an excellent environment for smallmouth bass. They love rocky bottoms, where crayfish are abundant and you can't get much rockier than Rocky River. I stumbled upon them by accident earlier this summer. Before that I had primarily fished live bait there in the fords and caught bluegills and catfish and a stray carp or two. But when I switched to more crayfish imitating lures like tubes, grubs jigs, and senkos around the river current the smallmouth attacked them and I've been hooked since.
As I write this we are coming into steelhead season at Rocky River. I really don't have much to say about them, there are experts there and they look like different types of fisherman. I did talk to a guy the other day who was fishing at Morley ford and he explained the basics to me, but maybe some other time. My fishing partner Slim hooked a steelhead last fall fishing a nightcrawler on the bottom by the marina. I thought he caught a belligerent hobo. When you aren't prepared for the initial run they make it can paralyze you..Slim smokes a bit of grass as well so, let's just say it successfully blew his mind. As does a racoon that will sneak up on us in the pitch black night. He chased one with an empty Doritos bag for 45 minutes until the racoon just got tired of it. But he landed that steelhead and it was beautiful, but my opinion is that he may have gotten lucky. It was seconds before a huge storm and you could feel the barometric pressure falling quickly the fish were looking for anything at that point..Although he is determined to make it happen again in the exact same spot. If anyone can do it he can, he knows fish and can catch something just about anywhere we go.
My posts here will be about the trips the reports the wild feeling you get when you are all alone at 6am at a river bend, you feel like mother nature has let you slip into a private party and you hear what sounded like a small child doing a belly flop 10 feet away. You know you might have a chance. Maybe that is what gets your eyes open at 4:30 am..the chance.