Fishing For Dummies. Greg Schwipps

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Fishing For Dummies - Greg Schwipps


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you catch a crappie, you can quickly tell which kind you have by looking at its dorsal fin. Check out Figure 4-1 and consider the following:

       Black crappies have seven or eight dorsal spines. They prefer cooler, clearer water. As the name suggests, they’re a little darker, and the speckles on their sides are spread throughout, not in noticeable bars.

       White crappies have a maximum of six dorsal spines. White crappies also are more barred on their sides.

Picture depicting the subtle differences between the (top) black and (bottom) white crappies.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 4-1: Notice the subtle differences between the black (a) and white (b) crappies.

      Largemouth bass: The most important gamefish in America

      Smallmouth: The gamest fish

      In what’s perhaps the most-quoted phrase in angling literature, retired Civil War surgeon James Alexander Henshall called black bass (meaning largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass), “Inch for inch and pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims.” Many people now mistakenly believe he was referring to only the smallmouth bass, because the description is so apt.

      A TRUE FISH TALE

      It was rainy and windy on June 2, 1932, and 19-year-old George Perry was out before dawn with his fishing buddy Jack Page. “My father died the year before,” Perry later recalled. “I had my mother, two sisters, and two brothers. We lived three creeks further back than anybody else, and in those days it was a good deal of a problem just to make a living. I took money we should have eaten with and bought myself a cheap rod and reel and one plug.”

      Perry remembers that he wasn’t feeling very lucky that morning on Montgomery Lake near Helena, Georgia. He tied on an imitation of the local baitfish, the creek-chub. A bass took the lure. Perry struck but couldn’t budge it. Then the fish moved, and Perry knew he was into a major bass. When it finally surrendered, even though it was enormous, Perry later said, “The first thing I thought of was what a nice chunk of meat to take home to the family.”

      Thankfully, Perry had the presence of mind to make a detour at the general store in Helena, Georgia, where the bass that he had pulled out of Montgomery Lake tipped the scales at 22 pounds and 3 ounces, duly notarized and witnessed. It is a world record that stands to this day. (Although the record has been tied, with another giant fish caught by Manabu Kurita in Japan in 2009.) With his place firmly enshrined in the history books, young Perry went home and prepared a very large largemouth meal for the family.

      

HOW TO PICK UP A BASS

      If you try to pick up a bass by grabbing its body, you’ll find it’s about as easy as trying to diaper an angry baby. Even worse than babies, bass have spiny fins that can deliver nasty pricks. With a bass (and with many other soft-mouthed fish), however, you can nearly immobilize it if you grab it by the lower lip, depressing its lip between thumb and forefinger as shown in the adjacent figure. Be very careful to avoid the hook that caught the fish, especially the multiple treble hooks of some lures. Larger fish (of every species) should be held horizontally and supported under the belly. This prevents damaging the fish’s organs.

Picture depicting how to pick up a bass, by nearly immobilizing and grabbing it by the lower lip, depressing its lip between the thumb and forefinger.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Picture of a smallmouth fish that has a series of dark vertical bands along its flanks. The dorsal fin of the smallmouth is marked with a shallow notch between the spiny part and the softer part.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      Many species of fish look like other fish at first glance, but a catfish looks only like a catfish. Covered in skin, not scales, catfish are smooth, muscled bruisers. Members of the catfish family have barbels around their mouths — whiskers they use to taste their environment. In fact, they taste with some of the skin covering their bodies and, for that reason, they’ve been called “swimming tongues.” They have grown in popularity as sportfish due to their large size, good taste, and tackle-busting fight. In this section, you discover the four most popular species of catfish.

      

When you handle a catfish, especially a small one, be wary of its pectoral and dorsal fins. The projecting spines are very sharp, especially on younger specimens. Though not fatal, a wound from these spines can be nasty and painful. If you are pricked while handling a catfish, treat the wound immediately with a disinfectant because swift action often nullifies the bacteria.

      Blue catfish: King of the big water


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