How much is too much?

This weekend I pulled out all my lure boxes.  Why I have no idea but for some strange reason I felt the need to see just how many lures I really had.  For the first time in my life I think I may actually have enough.

The scary thing is that I See empty spots that need more lures.

Now some may think that this is a little excessive.  To others, this is nothing.  I know some people that have 5 of each color of each size.  Whatever floats your boat.  It took many years of poking through bargain bins at tackle shops and tackle boxes at lure shows.  I don’t even want to think of what the total cost of all of these would be if I paid full price for them.

The really scary thing is that this is just the body baits.  I have 3 times as many spoons.  Fortunately they don’t take up as much room.

Stonefly search follow up

I just received an e-mail from the HRWC detailing the results of the Stonefly search I took part in a few weeks back.  The HRWC has been taking samples from the Flat Rock section of the Huron River since 2001 and the newbies must have been good luck because we collected a family group that had never been there before.  Perlodids were the new species collected along with 2 others that are normally there.  I couldn’t tell one bug from the other but apparently this increased diversity means greater stream health.

The 3 types we found circled in red

 

They also took the water samples we collected at each site for analysis.  I really don’t understand the scientific meaning of it all but the one thing I did understand was the effect of the low water levels.  A lot of the smaller streams had little or no flow during the summer months.  I’m sure this had some bearing on different chemical levels.  No rain, no fertilizer draining off the fields into the streams.  I know the lack of rain was the main cause for the algae blooms not being as drastic in Lake Erie as in years past.

 

If anyone wants to read all the data and see the results from all the sample sites just click on the link below.  If you are really interested, volunteer to help out at the next critter search.

http://www.hrwc.org/

 

Thought for the day.

The other day I was browsing through a forum and the topic of the day was “what is the most productive jig color”.  Normally I ignore these kinds of topics because I am not much of a jig fishermen.  On the rare occassion I do jig I use whatever color is handiest in the weight I want.  Some people might consider this sacreligious but there is a method to my selection.

When jigging the Detroit River a boat is drfiting downstream along with the current.  The fisherman is doing the same thing with his jig/body combination drifting along at the same speed as the boat (providing boat control is properly maintained).  The jig/body acts like a weather vane in the water with the head of the jig upstream and the tail end of the body pointing downstream.  The walleye are sitting on the bottom facing upstream waiting for lunch to drift by.  Guess what the walleye sees first?  That’s right, the tail end of the body, not the jig head.  Depending on the size of the jig and body the walleye may not even see the jig head at all.  Also, the window of opportunity for a walleye to grab a lure drifting by in the current is so small he/she really doesn’t have a lot of time to decide if it is edible.  It’s either grab or or let it go.  Does the marble size brain of a walleye really have the time or ability to process to eat or not to eat something because the smallest part of the presentation is a specific color?  I don’t think so. 

I know people will swear up and down that my “antifreeze” color jig will out produce everyone on my boat any day of the week.  That my be true but was it the color of the jig or the size, action, speed, depth or location of the antifreeze jig that caused the strikes? 

Too many fishermen conveniently forget those details.