Goin' Fishin'; 1; Selecting Your Tackle

Joe Reynolds. Welcome to go and thanks. Our show is called Gone fishing. That's just what we'll be doing for the next 60 weeks. Maybe we can help you get a little more enjoyment out of a sport that probably already enjoying. Of course

fishing has many things to many people but. One thing that most fishermen have in common is a great love of the outdoors. That's why fishermen are so concerned about conservation. Ecology is a word that's on everybody's lips these days. But for many many years now fishermen have been complaining about man's rape of his environment. They've witnessed natural trout populations all but disappear from our streams and are forced to fish for hatchery reared trout that are raised on a diet of liver pellets. It doesn't take too much imagination to picture the same thing happening to our bass fishery. Pollution is a serious problem. But with the proper mixture of time money legislation and little commonsense it can be overcome. A problem that might not be so easy to overcome is the fact that we've got too many fishermen and too few fish in a given volume of water will always support so much fish life. And it doesn't take a mathematical genius to figure out that the fishing pressure continues to increase. And our available water supply decreases. Sooner or later there just won't be enough fish to go around. If future generations are going to be able to enjoy the sport of fishing we've got to change some of our basic

concepts about the sport. Now for my part. I think that the time is long since past particularly with regard to freshwater fishing that we can think of fishing as a means of putting meat on the table. I support fish are just too valuable resource to be used for that purpose. And actually killed for that purpose. The fisherman is lucky because in most cases he can return his catch to the water unharmed. Possibly to provide support for another fisherman. Donner doesn't have this advantage. And really returning fish isn't such a bad idea when you think about it because most of us after all go fishing for the sport not to put the food on the table. For only purpose in going fishing was detained food. I think we find it a lot cheaper to go in an environment the local market. I know I would. Now. For me anyway. Putting fish or catching fish for food is not what attracts me to fishing. What attracts me is getting outdoors with good companions. Studying the various techniques and methods of fishing. Knowing how to use the various kinds of tackle. And knowing something about the habits of fish that. So that I know what lure to use and when to use

it that way when I go fishing a fair fair feel fairly confident that I'll be able to catch some fish and enjoy myself. After all if you stop and think about it. Once a fish has been landed the excitement is over with. So why not give somebody else a chance to enjoy that same excitement by releasing that fish. You might even be able to catch them yourself again one day. No. Really I'm the kind of a fisherman as I said getting outdoors is important and I like to travel to different areas to do my fishing. During the course of the programs we'll be traveling all over the state of Maryland will be getting up into Pennsylvania little West Virginia. But all the techniques and. Tackle it will be using to take very species of fish. In this area around Maryland those same techniques can be applied to all any waters in the Mid-Atlantic area for that matter anywhere in the country. And some of the places will be traveling together are really almost too beautiful for words to describe this is a scene I've seen many times down at the little chap tank river on Maryland's Eastern Shore

off in the distance is James Island and will be down there after striped bass and blue fish. Further south in the Chris Field area will be fishing for striped bass again along the marshy banks of Tangier Sound. This is fishing it's very similar to freshwater fishing for large mouth bass will be on the ponds of the Eastern Shore shallow water empowerments fishing for large mouth bass like this one. Also on the ponds will be after crappy. It's a good spunky fish and provides a lot of sport. Spring will be after the crappy too and the reservoirs around Baltimore in the Washington area and deep water supply reservoirs at any extreme western end of Maryland around deeply Creek Lake area and Garrett County is Muddy Creek Falls. Beautiful stream it tumbles down and just below here is the Yuck again a river where will be after brown trout like these beauties is one of the most beautiful rivers along the entire East Coast and every fall it puts

on a dazzling display of color that is really just fantastic. Coming east again will be stopping by the Potomac River will be at the small mouth bass in the clear cool waters of the Potomac. Small mouth bass will be our quarry again in the capon river in West Virginia. This is another beautiful river and its waters are just crystal clear. Down the Chesapeake Bay will be fly fishing for breaking blues and striped bass. It's a new sport that's gaining popularity every day. The Blues average about this size that a pound and a half to two pounds. They're extremely good fighters when taken on life like. One show devoted to fly time will show you how to tie all kinds of flies everything from tiny little trout flies like these little midges or what have you just about the size of a pinhead to larger specimens like this one that's used for salt water fish

anything from striped bass or bluefish I don't down to top and then my Mickey's area will be up on the south going to river for two shows in the spring will be up there after shad and again later on will be after striped bass and later in the year there's a fall that you won't be seeing again for the rest of the shows but he had a lot to do with me John as our senior film cameraman and he's responsible for just about all the film you'll be seeing on upcoming shows. I hope that gives you some idea of the places we'll be traveling together. Now the general format of our series will be to discuss a different species or a different location on each show. Of course before you can go fishing at all you've got to have some kind of tackle. And that's what we're going to be talking about today. My guest tonight is a real expert when it comes to selecting fishing tackle I'd like you to meet my good friend Tom Cooney.

Tom good to have you know it's nice. Pleasure being here. Tom is a real expert when it comes to selecting tackle he's one of the court online company fishing pros. And. Really great with a fly rod. He's he's a fellow who got me interested in fly fishing to a large extent. Tom a lot of our viewers they don't really have too much of an idea of what kind of tackling want to start with so let's go over to our work to take a look at some of the various types of the tackle that are available. I think one of the biggest problems facing begetting Fischman time is that you walk into a tackle store and are just a. Complete array of all sorts of tack on equipment reels lures. Let's get down to some basic information now. What what Or let's start out with this what are the basic types of fishing outfits that are available. Well Joe there's really three outfits that we are commonly using today and we have these depicted on a chart here.

We ride in Rio outfit in the upper left hand corner of the chart U.S. Open faced spinning rail and it hangs below the rod grip and as you can see in your hand is placed around the little stem in the middle of the chart is the fly rod which is my particular love. Your hand is forward in the reel in this particular case the reel being mounted underneath. And at the very bottom of the rod. And in the lower right hand corner we have the great casting out of it. This particular outfit looms very popular in the 20s and 30s and is regaining somewhat in popularity for a larger raise of workers especially in Wheatear. Where you don't actually town there is one outfit that does not show your chart it's a bit of a variation actually in the. Spinning outfit the one is shown on chart we call an open faced death and I'll be shown you that in a minute. But the variation that I talked about is what we call a close face spinning outfit. And it's called Close face for a very simple reason that the entire face of the real or the

area where the line is is completely closed in the line comes out of a small hole right here in the front. And the line used on these reels is called monofilament to clear. A manmade product and most fishermen are familiar with this type of wine. Now the big advantage of this ride is that it is really so simple to operate. Even a child or a just a beginning fisherman can use this ride. After just a little bit of practice. The the basic operation of it is that there's a button on the back here that you depressed before you make the cast. Press the button and if you come back with a rod. Keep that button and you come forward. Just as you reach your former position you release the button and your line goes streaming out with no trouble at all. Just nothing there to hold it back. And of course to begin your retrieve you just hold the right in this fashion. But it's it's really a simple rule to operate simple rod and reel. And the. One of

the big features of this outfit is that it's so inexpensive for six or seven dollars you can get an outfit like this. And really do just about any kind of fishing in the state of Maryland when it comes right down to it. So. As I said six or seven dollars you can't beat it. Now of course the outfit that we showed you first on the chart the spending outfit is the open faced one. And this is the most popular outfit would you say don't go as far as a general fisherman. This outfit on more waters and any other Actually this is the open face spending outfit and it's called Open face for that reason that it doesn't have this hooded cover over it as the other real did and the long comes off here in the same way just spurs off as you're pulling thread off the end of a sport. Very simple operation. Now. One of the things you remember when you get enough it like this. Is that you can use many different types of lines and types but strengths. Now a.

Real such as this will handle anything from say a 6 to 8 or 10 or even a 20 pound test line. But the problem is you have to remember your lower weights. If you're casting a heavy lure you can use a heavy on. And also cast with a light or a heavy line by heavy I mean a pan strength like 5 pound tested 20 pound test but if you're casting a litle or. You can haul a cast anywhere with a heavy breaking strength line you have to use something in about 4 to 8 pound test breaking range. That's important remember so many people have trouble with casting because the lines they're using the reels are too heavy. The operation is rules extremely simple. Piss off my finger. When you're there to make your cast if you hold it. You just grab a line with your finger open the bales we call it and then make a cast as you come forward just let it slip off your finger and the line will peel off to make your retrieve his bale picks up the line.

You're a long. Way. From. Now as I said that is the most popular outfit and it's used by a majority of fishermen. You can get these outfits anywhere from all 30 35 hours for a real good one. The open faced outfit. I wouldn't buy an inexpensive one because there aren't too many good inexpensive open face spinning wheels on the market. Pay a little more money if you want to get into fishing and buy a fairly decent outfit. The spending rod if you go into a store for general purpose fishing I'd say use what's called a a light action spinning outfit. That's a rod is maybe six feet long and that'll cast wars and a wide variety of weights. The reason that you want to light outfit is the lures that you're casting with these spending outfits are really relatively heavy in weight. They might weigh anywhere from one quarter to three quarters of an ounce or maybe even an ounce depending on the type of fishing you don't. And most of them really are what

we call middle imitation such as this one. This one just wobbles through the water like this and imitates a minnow in a fish take it for food. This is a good lure to use for bass fishing. Very practical or for bass fishing will float and dive under the water when you retrieve it. Now this particular lure is just completely different. This one is what we call a buck Taylor a jig that has a lid head with a little bit of. Tail. For a body here in the back and it's painted up and some nice bright shiny colors. And this is especially useful for fishing in salt water. You can take striped bass with this or blue fish just about any fish to. Any sport fish that you want to take and salt water will hit a buck tail. And another popular lowers the spinning lore has a little blade on it that revolves. Going to retrieve this this blade spins around the body of the war. And of course you have you wait here casting wait. This is an effective lure for

bass and smaller sizes for crappy white perch yellow perch and so on. Now a lot of that has really gained a lot of popularity in the last 10 years or so is the imitation worm or plastic or rubber worm whatever you want to call it. And the big deal about this thing is that it's just a real killer when it comes to taking large mouth bass and small mouth bass in a deep water supply reservoirs. There are a lot of ways of rigging this thing up. One is have the sinker here on the front as I have this one. Another way is to have the sinker up on the line. We'll be talking a little more detail about how to rig these things up and how to use them on a show that we have coming up on Reservoir fishing should be very interesting. Were all these outfits Tom basically were casting. Heavy lures we've got to we've got to lure that that way something different and we're using a reel to hold the line and we make a cast and the weight of that lower part of the line after a right of return fly fishing is a little bit different.

That's your favorite fishing so. Tell us a little bit about. How you would go about selecting fly tackle. Well all right well let's start with Iraq this is the most obvious thing we have one of us here this is the fly rod. It's grip here incidentally with the real being at the bottom of the rod rods come in. Either bamboo or glass this particular model happens to be bamboo moorlands very. A small rock that you would use for trout may be only be six feet long casting a very light line. A rod if you would be using poor bass. Tossing a large popping mug on the eastern shore upon maybe nine or nine and one half feet on a route of that length could also be used in Florida for tarpon and snow. Well there are different routes for different specialized fishing what what length rod would you recommend to somebody just starting fly fishing and wanted to give it a try. I think I would probably recommend an AK or an 8 in 1 1/2 foot rod. Joe.

It normally would cast either seven weight or 8 weight fly line which in particular the seven weight you could fish for trout in western Maryland you can fish for bass on the eastern shore. It's a pretty universal run for the one rod man I'd reckon and say in a quarter that's it. For me. The fly reel off is next in importance I think. It's function real worry is to store the line that you're using. You don't actually use a fly rod in the playing of fish or even in the casting of the fly real partly in the playing of fish or the casting of the line. Its primary purpose is to store the line I like a single action reel because they're less complicated and let's face it too they're less costly it's a matter of just starting the real one turn long given length of line is retreat. Now.

Some people say that the most important thing to select in fly fishing and I have to go along with him is the fly line because. A certain fly line will fit. And doing well actually and moccasin you're casting the weight of the law in a way to lower this is the basic right the fly just goes along for the ride. It's that heavy line. Right. As you can see the line is pretty much as a bigger than anything you'd use on a spin out. And 30 35 feet of the fly line weighs a particular amount. Which is suitable for a given rod length that you're using. Let's talk about the different taper's on these lines first. OK we have a chart here which indicates three basic. Lines that are employed today. The top line is a level line meaning that it is given diameter for its entire length usually 75 feet

and its price range may be partly $3 $5 for a really good one. It's good for the beginner. It's a good practice line and. It's a good second line in the middle is the double paper line. This means that it's a thin diameter at both the front and rear and it tapers up to a thicker belly section which is where the weight for casting is. Located it's and has the advantage of being reversible as the front and whereas that you just swap it you have a whole new one. It's price range $10 or so. It's particularly suitable for delicate casting for trout. If you're going to be casting a large popping bug in one of the ponds you're going to want to use what we term a weight forward line. This means that the weight of the line is concentrated in first 25 to 30 feet of the fly line. This is the one on the bottom of our chart here. The very thin long and is attached to the

reel and then the short front is where you attach your part is what we call a running line isn't it. Yes it's what you call your own one that then goes to the real one about the. From the sound of the fly line to the flood. Course you can't tie that heavy fly line to a fly what he had between the flying and the your fly line. Well we have what's known as a leader it's made of monofilament nylon. And while the more advanced fishermen usually wind up tying their own. To meet a given situation using a particular type fly for a particular type fish. This involves. Such complications that I think really the best bet a beginner can do is to select a manufactured line at their local tackle shop and tackle shop which particular leader balances with the line that you get with the lining and the fly that usually those recommendations are on the fly rod that you buy to tell you what size line do you.

Oh yes oh yes a lot about what goes on the end of that leader to fly that's a pretty important part when it comes to Clo fish. OK well let's let's start with this first one here this is the world coachmen it's a dry fly we use it mainly for trout in the larger sizes. It can be used for dry fly fishing on the Potomac River for small mouth bass. But the fly rod is not limited to trout fishing. You can be fishing for bluegills in an eastern shore pond with a popping bug. This is another surface Lauren as its name indicates when you retrieve it on the surface it popping gurgle toppings. This is attractive to fish. That's good for bass to it. Oh yes really good for bass and in very large sizes it's even been used in salt water. They're called skipping bugs there. Now in addition to this speaking of salt water this particular fly is a salt water stream or so too is this one. This is just two different types of Buck tail and what I have also use those for. You can use this for rock blooms and almost any

salt water fish locally that will take an artificial will take this life can be fished near the surface with a floating fly line or fish with a sinking flying point get even deeper streamers too can be used for your bass and your smaller fish this particular one is very very popular it's called a Mother Minnow and it's accounted for a tremendous amount of small mammals on the Potomac River so that this generally gives you not get what you use. You know all these outfits we've talked about here the. Spinning outfits are foreign in origin and the fly rod outfit is. Who knows where it started maybe in Egypt or someplace but people been using artificial flies for two thousand years or more. From what I understand but basically these things are more foreign in origin. The last outfit that we showed it beginning to show in the chart was a big case if you recall. Oh yes and this is strictly an American invention. You are a watchmaker in Kentucky was tinkering around

with a trying to get in a better way to cast a lure. And the fly rod was being used at that time fly fishing was the only way of casting action and he came up with this what we call a bait casting reel now the main difference between this reel and the spinning outfit is that the spore on this real revolves whereas the line on a spinning rod is just spools off of the. End of the. Reel. As you pull a line off the end of a spool of cotton. This one this real actually revolves. And the rod has what's called a level 1 mechanism right here in the front that runs back and forth. And spools the line on the spool evenly. Now the big problem with using this is that you have to get what's called an educated phone. Because if you don't you're going to have nothing but problems if you have a free spool reel. We say educated because the thumb is what controls the spool in the spinning of the spool.

If your sound. Is not applying enough pressure you will let me say this if your film is not is applying too much pressure that the lure won't go anywhere. If it applies to little. The spool over run as the lure goes out and then you've got what we call backlash and you don't want to learn what the backlash is really if you're just beginning Fishman because it's nothing but a mess of tangles. Now. This outfit. Can be used to cast all of the heavier Lors the same kind of wars that we've talked about for the open in close face spinning outfits. Now. I don't know about you Tom but I think if I was just a beginning fisherman and saw all these outfits and maybe knew a little bit about fishing I'd probably be a little confused as to what outfit was best for me. And I'm sure the people at home are too. It's too much to take in at one time. On upcoming shows we'll be talking in more detail about all these various types of equipment and the different kinds of lures that you're going to need and the various types of flies

so you'll get a little more information there but if you want to do some homework in the meantime there are a lot of good books on the subject of fishing. Fact there are probably as many when fishing as there are on any other subject when it comes right down to. Three of the best are. This simplified 5 fly fishing by Sam sleigh maker. This is a book that he guarantees he's going to have you cast in catching fish with a fly rod in half an hour. That's a pretty good. Guarantee And I think if you if you read it you'll find that he's telling you the truth. Fishing really isn't complicated it's very easy. Another good one is the young sportsman guide to spending. And this is a book that you might want to give as a Christmas present or maybe a birthday present for a boy you know or your own boy. It's an excellent book was written by Tom and now he wants it done early. Well as a former outdoor editor for The Baltimore Sun he's now it's just a cargo paper. And Tom is a real expert when it comes to selecting different types of tackle. And I would go one was written by Dick Wolf. It's called

fishing tackle and techniques. And he covers the whole gamut of fishing tackle in here everything that you can imagine from the various types of tackle all kinds of specialized tackle to the various types of lures that you might want to be using. Now after you if you if you're a more advanced fisherman. You know a lot of good books for the advanced fisherman too. And a lot of people don't realize the quantity of books and the quality of books that are in the library. Here's one that anybody wants to know about fly fishing should read. It's called Complete Book of fly fishing by Joe Brooks another Marylander. And it's really a good book for the advanced fisherman as well as beginning cover just about everything you want to know about. The local lager and get just reams and reams of books on fishing and they are a help. We've talked about a lot of different kinds of tackle and we've been of some help to the people at home I certainly hope so. I want to thank you for being on the show with me. Thank you Joe. Be doing one or it's hard. For too long maybe in a week or two maybe you can stop back and

certainly appreciate. Next week. We're really going to go fishing. We didn't do any Tonight I said we'd be gone fishing for 16 weeks but. We thought we'd just talk about tackle tonight and give you a little bit of information about the. Kinds of tackle that are available so that you have some idea when we start our shows. Is that the kind of tackle that we're going to be using. Next week we're going to mostly fly fishing tackle a little bit of spinning tackle. We're going to be over on the Delmarva Peninsula Maryland's Eastern Shore to be exact on the black water river to beautiful place. I think you were like it will be fishing for bass crappy and anything else we can put our hands on. You're invited along. Hope you'll join us then. We courted the studios of the Maryland Center for Public Broadcasting.