Still Fishing

Still Fishing

 

STILLFISHING is probably the simplest kind of angling. You see this method portrayed on calendars by a barefoot boy or an old man. The boy is sitting on a bank with a long cane in his hands, a can of worms at his side, and his faithful dog is hunched on the bank curiously staring at the water. The old man would be reclining against a stump, displaying the serenity, patience, and complacency of old age. Either way, this is how most people think of STILLFISHING—but it’s about as accurate as believing the moon is made of cheese.

STILLFISHING whether from a bank, boat, pier or jetty demands the least amount of knowledge about fish and fishing, yet it accounts for more panfish than all other systems of angling combine. Large amounts of game fish are taken by stillfishing including trout, bass, etc.

The STILLFISHING outfit is the least expensive handling equipment attainable.  The barefoot boy always is shown with hickory pole that he collected along the stream bank, but even a more elaborate outfit consisting of a Calcutta cane or glass pole, a float, length of line, hook and sinker can be acquired for only pennies.  However, STILLFISHING can be done elaborately and scientifically, using efficient rods and reels that are more generally used for specific kinds of casting.  When only a pole is used, the still fishermen must yank his fish out all the water and flipped it onto the bank behind him or into the boat.  If a large fish is hooked it can be lost easily with such tactics unless the pole and the line are heavy.  Using a reel, the still fishermen can play his big fish by giving and taking in line.

In its fundamentals, stillfishing involves motionless angling.  In other words, the fisherman sits in a boat or on a bank and peacefully dunks some type of bait.  Casting of no kind is not involved, nor is action or movement imparted to the bait.  Artificial lures such as plugs, spoons or flies are not used so no "cast and retrieve" technique is employed.

In its advanced forms, STILLFISHING is done with a flat casting rod, fly rod, or spinning rod, in conjunction with the appropriate reels.  Besides the adding advantage of being able to reel-in fish or give large ones line when necessary, this kind of equipment makes it possible for the fishermen to cast his baited rig some distance from the boat or bank.  This is of value when, in bank fishing, it is desirable to fish the deeper waters away from shore.

There are a number of various methods of rigging the bait for STILLFISHING, as well as a large variety of baits that can be used.  Most common bait is earthworms, predicted the larger ones known as night-crawlers.  Some still fishermen use one baited hook, others two or more.  A common method is to employ it wire gadget called a spreader, shaped like an inverted U with a baited hook dangling from each end.

Live minnows are used most often for crappies, yellow perch, bass, walleyes, and northern pike.  Other good STILLFISHING baits include cray-fish particularly the soft shell variety, hellgrammites, nymphs, grasshoppers, cockroaches, meat, or concoctions of flour and meal, or of the flesh of other fish.  Frogs are especially good bait for bass, as well as northern-pike and muskellunge.  Best bait for muskies are large minnows up to 10 inches in length, such as suckers, chubs, dogfish minnows, or bluegills, perch, and even small bullheads with their spiny fins removed.

In recent years plastic baits have been developed that do away with drudgery of digging for worms, catching crickets, etc.  These phoney baits often are unexcelled.  Action worms wiggle and feel like real earthworms.  They are life-like in every detail, with even the colors of natural worms reproduced perfectly.  Fish never know the difference between a real worm an "action" worm until it's too late.  Both small and large action worms are packaged together, so the still fishermen has small worms available what he's after panfish such as bluegills and crappies, and the large ones when he wants bass.

In STILLFISHING for trout, life-like grey crickets, black ants, and hellgrammites are excellent.  These also are made of tough, but soft vinyl plastic, and they look more real than genuine insects they represent.  Each of these bugs has translucent feelers and legs, which wiggle naturally in the water in a way that drives trout, panfish, and bass mad.

A night-crawler rig consisting of an extreme lifelike plastic worm mounted on two gold plated hooks, six beads and a propeller is good bait for bass and trout when fishing in moving water.  Many experts stillfisherman use this kind of rig on smallmouth bass living in the rivers, and the brown trout in fast moving streams.  Though the fisherman doesn’t work the bait, the current swings it downstream and spins the propeller.  The flashing propeller lures fish from great distances, and when they're close enough to spot the worm, they're practically hanging from your stringer.