Rainy Day Projects

Wow - will the rain ever stop? I think it was Friday or Saturday I saw a “tweet” from a friend that read “Today begins 15 consecutive days of rain” to which I replied “We can hope and pray for breaks here and there.” And that’s what we have had, breaks for a few hours. I have taken the kayak out a time or two and caught a few fish.

In fact I have been trying to do some filming with the GoPro for my YouTube channel “Fishing Southern Maryland & Beyond.” But to be completely honest the rain has really dampened my spirits (pun fully intended).

With that all being said it brings me to my post today- what to do on rainy days? First and foremost I am not a “handy” guy. But at the beginning of the summer the ceiling fan in our bedroom just gave up the ghost. Yesterday I finally got around to purchasing a new one and spent the necessary time to install it. Mind you two days before this a large tree limb came down and smashed our air conditioning unit outside. It damaged it enough that the fan could not turn, ie making it so we had no AC. Thankfully they both, the fan and AC unit, are working again.

But surely some of you may be reading this and thinking “This is a fishing blog. I can’t believe he is writing about home improvement.” You are correct and it brings me to project for this morning. Last week I took the kayak to a local lake and spent some time catching some fish. As I loaded it back up I spotted on the ground the blade, a Colorado blade specifically, and partial wire of a large beetle spin lure. I picked it up and used it this morning. I bent the wire at an angle, maybe 30* or so.

After that I bent a small curl in the end of the wire so that it could hold on a soft plastic lure. I then cut the original bait keeper off of the jig I was going to use.

At that point I placed the jig into my makeshift fly vice and made a few wraps around the collar of the jig. I placed to spinner’s wire along that shaft of the hook and proceeded to make several wraps, trying to keep them tight.

I tied off the thread and used a little Super Glue to hopefully bind the threads some. The finished product below has my new “underspin” with a Zoom Super Salt Plus 4” grub. Now I just have to wait for the rain to stop to get out and use it!

By the way my wife did just call and ask about the size of another ceiling fan, so rain please stop soon!

National Relaxation Day, August 15th

**Disclaimer: While this won't be my most verbose blog post, I thought I'd share the steps of making the new baits I tried out yesterday. I hope to point together a nice post about my summer in a week or so, just before the new school year starts.

According to the "Twitterverse" yesterday was #NationalRelaxationDay. I decided to spend some time at my "makeshift" fly vice. I wanted to give a couple of things a try. Here's how it went:

Step 1:
I used a number 2 Mustad straight shank hook and I laid some wraps of thread.

Step 2:
I took a piece of copper wire, recycled from a piece of coaxial cable, and bent a hook into it. I then tied it to the bottom of the hook as a catch for soft plastics.

Step 3:
I had seen a YouTube video on how to tie a weed guard on a hook so I tied on a piece of monofilament line, 30# test.

Step 4:
I decided to leave one there. But I also thought I'd try to put "eyes" on one. I used the black head off of a curly tailed grub. It's probably a little bug for the presentation but I figured why not?

Step 5:
At that point it was a matter of putting the soft plastic trailer on it. I used a 2 inch grub from Yum "Christmas tree" color. The colors do a nice job matching the minnows I've been using on river.

Of course saying that I tied a hook to hold soft plastics, I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "fly" or not. But as they say "The proof is in the pudding." That afternoon I headed to one of my favorite spots, a private pond in the middle of the county. A few casts, on a light rod with 6# test monofilament line, the bait got tapped a couple of times. After a couple more casts I reeled in a small largemouth bass. When I brought the fish up I saw that he liked the lure since it was almost all the way down his throat. (The photo at the top of this post!) After it was released I changed locations a little and caught another largemouth. I was hoping to get a crappie or two, but alas no luck.

The next day I took the kayak out on the river. Using the same bait, I made casts to a location that I know usually holds fish. On the third cast, I hooked up with a small striped bass, or what might have been a hybrid between a white perch and a striper. After photos, I released it and made a few more casts. Unfortunately I didn't check my line and it snapped on my next hook up. I tied the other version of the lure on, without the "eyes" and caught two or three white perch on it before moving to another spot.

There's something satisfying about making a lure yourself and then actually catching fish with it. Now I just have to make a few more...Always check your line as well as your knots. Until next time...Tight lines!!