DROPSHOTTING FOR BASS

Dropshotting is a variation on an old crappie technique. It is a simple and effective technique for those days when the sun is high and the bass have lockjaw. It is not really a popular rig for the ground pounder but can be adapted to such use.

Tournament Pro, Rich Tauber recommends having one spinning rod rigged for dropshotting. His preference is a 6 to 6 ½ foot medium action rod. He spools it with eight pound green line. It can be used with bait casting equipment but the angler must go to heavier line and bait. For that rod set up he would use 12 to 14 pound test line and a 1/4 ounce or larger bait. For the spinning reel he uses a 4 inch plastic worm with a straight tail, not twister tail.

According to Tauber, the longer rods move more line when setting a hook. “They make you taller,” says Rich. “When all else fails,” says Tauber, “this rig is my go to rig.”

Gary Klein, describes dropshotting as the hot new deep-water technique. He calls it a light-line, finesse presentation that is also known as controlled depth fishing.

To rig the rod, one ties a Palomar knot in the line about 18 inches from the end with a very long tag end. The Palomar knot is tied as follows: Double the line and form a loop three to four inches in length. Pass the end of the loop through the hooks eye. Holding the standing line between thumb and finger, grasp the loop with free hand and form a simple overhand knot. Pass the hook through loop and draw line while guiding loop over top of eyelet. Pull the tag end of the line to tighten know snugly. Do not trim the tag end.

To the end of line (on the tag end) attach a sinker. This can be a split shot sinker, but remember to tie a small overhand knot to the very end. It helps to keep the sinker from slipping off the end when caught in brush or rocks. This technique is gaining so much popularity that special weights called “Bakudan” are being imported and will soon be available locally. Bakudan weights are ball shaped and have a swivel line tie. It also has a line clip that allows you to change the distance between the bait and weight without re-tying.

The worm is attached to the hook, much like a Texas-rigged worm, but without the bullet weight. When the line is dropped into the water the worm and hook float above the sinker. Thus as the rod tip is moved, the action is applied to the bait not the sinker.

This rig can be cast, jigged or drifted. The key is to not move quickly, more like fishing with an ice fly. The idea is to wiggle the bait, not jerk it. Cast it out and let the bait sink. Watch the line float, twitch it and the watch it float. Give it a shake occasionally which will cause the worm to twitch.

Dropshotting is one of a long line of fishing improvements that have come along in bass fishing. It won’t be the last. Give it a try this summer and see if it does not improve your catching success.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

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One Month Away

We finally have all the plans made for the big johnboat-building event I wrote about in this column a few weeks back. The Arkansas State Park system has okayed the whole thing and it will be held at the Bull Shoals State Park Pavilion overlooking the lake, under big shady trees. We’ll be building an authentic old time White River johnboat, and have other finished johnboats to display, along with artifacts from the early half of the last century on display.

Best of all, we are going to have several old-timers on hand who were guides on the Ozark rivers, men who paddled those johnboats down the White, the Buffalo, the Current, Jack’s Fork, James and Big Piney rivers. You can hear stories about what the White River country was like before the dams were built, and you can see old photos of the river and the people and the fishing from that time.

The Parks Department has also approved the selling of items from that era, so vendors who have old fishing lures and fishing gear, gigs, sassafras paddles, carvings, artwork, or similar items can set up there beneath the shade trees and sell their items for only 10 dollars per table. If you are interested in antiques, you may find some valuable old lures and fishing gear for sale on that day. My uncle Norten is trying to get some of his sassafras paddles made by then.

This whole area is beautiful, and there is a huge State Park visitor center there, and a 100-year-old johnboat dug from a sandbar on the White River years ago. State Park Naturalist Julie Lovett will be with us too, with some events she has planned to make the day even more enjoyable. There will be food and soft drinks there all day, and we will have a big kettle of sassafras tea with ice, for visitors to enjoy as long as it lasts. Best of all you can see some wooden johnboats on display, the boats that made Ozark river fishing famous. Only a mile away, Jim Gaston’s White River Resort has a restaurant which he has turned into a real museum, and the other direction there is the high tower which gives you a tremendous view of the whole region from a vantage point even eagles don’t climb high enough to see.

If you want to try your hand at trout fishing on the White River, come and camp for a few days, and if you do stay a few days, just a ways farther south you will find the Buffalo River, the Ozark National Forest and the Blanchard Springs and Blanchard Springs caverns. There are beautiful campgrounds on Bull Shoals and the White River, and dozens of resorts that rent overnight cabins on the lake and river. So plan to spend a few days if you come.

I’ll be there with Myron Nixon, working on finishing a wooden johnboat like they once floated down the White River a hundred years ago. We’ll be there all day Saturday, July the 9th. If you need more information, or want to set up and sell old-time items, call me at 417-777-5227, or get in touch with naturalist Julie Lovett or other State Park officials by calling Bull Shoals State Park, 870-445-3629.

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HOT CATS OF SUMMER

Part of the tradition of the south is catfishing in the summer. Southern Illinois is part of the south. After all, Marion, Illinois is actually south of Louisville, KY.

For the angler in search of some great catfish action, the southern tip of the state can not be beat. Locals fish for them using all sorts of gear from the jugs to salt water baitcasting reels. Here are some of the better locations for catfishing.

Crab Orchard Lake - This time of the year the best bet on the lake is the catfish action. Crab Orchard is accessible from Interstate 57 at Marion. The lake is a sprawling shallow body of water found on both sides of Route 13 about 4 miles west of the city.

Mid month the cats will be spawning in the shallow water. Leeches, cut bait and cheese baits will all produce fish. The later two are susceptible to spoilage and should be kept on ice. Caught fish should also be iced rather than kept in live wells or on a stringer.

To the south of Crab Orchard Lake on Spillway Road in the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge is Little Grassy Lake. Little Grassy Lake is a heavily pressured lake this time of the year with the recreation canoe and kayak crowd using the lake during the daylight hours. However, for the angler willing to get out early in the day, catfish can be taken around the points on chicken livers, crickets, minnows and night crawlers.

Further to the south, down in Alexander County, is Horseshoe Lake where anglers drift night crawlers along the bottom in the evening. The action holds up throughout the summer. Try the middle of the lake during the night.

To the west of Carbondale, in Jackson County is Lake Murphysboro. This lake is next to Kinkaid Lake, famous for it's Muskie fishery. In Lake Murphysboro catfish action is also good in the evening but morning hours produce fish as well. Late in the summer, try fishing at night. Night crawlers, cut bait, minnows, leeches and stink baits work well.

Up north, of Marion in Franklin County is Rend Lake. The lake straddles Interstate 57 at Exit 77. Rend Lake is a large reservoir that is full of bragging size catfish. The action remains excellent in 3 to 4 feet of water. The best action comes in the coves and along the rip rap. Fish take cut bait, worms, crickets, leeches, and shrimp.

This summer may be just the time to explore the south, Illinois south that is! As the old song goes, it is summertime and the catfish are jumping.

Don Gasaway - The Ground Pounder
http://www.dongasaway.wordpress.com/

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A Little Bolt of Lightning

He doesn’t exactly streak across the floor like the flash of a bolt of lightning. He sort of bounces. But the little chocolate Labrador puppy I call Lightnin’ Ridge Bolt chases and bats at the soft sponge ball with his paw, then picks it up and bounces back to me, so proud of his accomplishment, and basking in the praise I give him for such a minor job. Since he is only six weeks old, it IS a big deal. I can envision him, nearly grown next winter, charging out into the marsh to retrieve a mallard drake that I have dropped in the decoys, and bringing it back to me; just as eager to receive praise for doing the job he was bred for.

Bolt will most likely be the last in the long line of dogs I began raising in 1978 when I lived in Arkansas. I didn’t know much about what I was doing back then, trying to train a Labrador, but I have a good idea now of what a Lab should be. Start them playing and frolicking with a ball at six or seven weeks, and make them into a companion, and figure if the ancestry is good, they’ll come into it like the moving of the hands of a clock, something that almost happens without you being able to see it.

Serious training at 8 or 9 months of age is great, but it is playing with a puppy at 8 or 9 weeks that pays the greatest dividends, and you can take that to the bank.

I have raised a ton of Labrador puppies. It began with old Brown-eyed Beau, my first retriever, a yellow Lab. Then there was Rambunctious, the chocolate Lab, one of the best I ever saw. Then there was Lad, even better perhaps, though no one who loves his Labradors tries to compare them. They are all wonderful. There was Simba and Czar, and Rambo, and Maverick, and their pictures can be found in my book on duck hunting, and in dozens of magazine articles I wrote about upland bird and waterfowl hunting over the years for magazines like Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Petersen’s Hunting and Gun-Dog. Bolt will be the last, I am sure, because I no longer have the time nor inclination to raise puppies.

At one time, I had sixteen Labradors here on Lightnin’ Ridge, bringing a half dozen or so when I moved here from Arkansas, intent on raising big, blocky old-style dogs with intelligence and hunting instincts. I saw the coming of the pointing-Labradors, and the field-trial Labs, and watched the breed decline because of it.

Labs were developed at the turn of the last century, off the coast of eastern Canada, bred to go out and bring in the tow ropes of ships in harbors. They were heavy-bodied, not skinny, most from 80 to 100 pounds. They were not fast, but with strong, heavy bodies and stamina to survive that cold, cold water. Their heads were blocky and their eyes focused on yours, and held an intelligence that was amazing.

In my opinion, they should still be that way, not wiry little fast dogs trying to win some stupid field trial trophy, or crossed somewhere with solid-color German shorthair pointers. Those field trial dogs are high- strung, fast, and lacking in intelligence, and today you can see it in dogs which won’t sit still, and are about two-thirds the size of old-style Labradors that hunters valued so much a half-century ago. They have scrawny looking faces, and their eyes give away their lack of intelligence.

Show dog breeding didn’t hurt the looks of Labradors, but show-dogs lost the instinct to retrieve and hunt. Puppy mill breeders in the last thirty years, trying to make fast money out of the popularity of the breed, hurt the Labrador even more. I look at those people with a total disdain, not just because of how they have damaged the breed so badly, but because of how they hurt individual dogs. How could anyone be so cruel as most of those people who raise puppies and sell to brokers? How could there be such a class of people, so greedy and with so little compassion, people who put puppies on wire floors, and confine dogs to small boxes and concrete floors that destroy their bone and joints?

I raised puppies to sell too, but none ever went to puppy mill breeders. I sold only to hunters, and those who wanted companions and pets, and there were indeed occasions that I refused to sell a puppy because I knew what would lie ahead for it. I learned that I had to watch for the puppy mill people, but most of them couldn’t afford my pups, and most wouldn’t stay long after they found I stopped using American Kennel Club to register my dogs.

My kennels were big and roomy, with shade. Anyone can come to Lightnin’ Ridge today and see them, though most are empty now. I bought plastic kids swimming pools for their kennels, and kept them filled with water in the summer. In time, when I could afford larger stock tanks I used those. I learned how they loved the cold, and hated the heat.

I only put my Labs on concrete when we had a female with puppies, so we could keep it cleaner, and keep the puppies inside controlled-temperature kennels. I don’t know how many puppies we raised, but there were a lot. And we doted over them like grandparents.

Now here I am after thirty years of raising puppies, down to my very last litter. I only have three grown Labs now. They are getting old, and none will have puppies again. These little chocolate siblings of Bolt’s will go to homes where most will be house dogs, companions and occasional hunters, as Bolt will be. All my personal Labradors were house pets, taught to stay on their rugs beside me, wherever I was, in my workshop, my office, or in the living room watching a ball game, or beside my bed where I slept.

Some of the Labs I raised over the years were trained to be drug dogs, some specially trained as guide dogs or companions for special needs. Several of them saved lives. One saved a Kansas family by alerting them to a house fire one night as they slept, frantically insisting they awaken, just in the knick of time. That big male was only 11 months old at the time. My dogs were too slow for field trials, and they did not point. They hunted close to me when I hunted pheasant or grouse, they found cripples, retrieved ducks when ice was forming thin layers and the cold winds numbed my face. This little puppy, Bolt, will do the same. And he will be the last of the Lightnin’ Ridge Labradors.

If you have an interest in Labradors, I urge you to please read the Chapter in my book, “Memories from a Misty Morning Marsh” entitled, ‘Aladdin’s Story…A few words on selecting and training a Labrador puppy’.

I will include that in this weeks contribution to my website, www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com, in which I will put some pictures soon of many of my Labrador favorites from years past. And if you want a Labrador puppy, forget championships or distant ancestry and find a puppy whose sire and dam (both of them) are the kinds of dogs you want to see in a puppy. That above all else, will give you the kind of dog you want. Stay away from field-trial dogs and pointing Labradors.

Write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613 or e-mail lightninridge@windstream.net

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CATCHING AMERICA'S FISH

Ask any angler regardless of his prowess with rod and reel, how he got started fishing. Chances are good that he began catching one of the catfish species from the lowly bullhead to the larger flathead, channel or blue cats. It is truly America’s fish. They are found in large rivers, impoundments, creeks, salt water or fresh. They are everywhere!

I began with bullheads in a creek near my home in northern Iowa. It has become a life long love affair with the whiskered wonders.

Channel catfish are probably the most popular single species of fish for eating and catching. Almost every angler with whom one speaks has a theory on how to fix catfish bait and where to find the big ones.

Catfish anglers are probably the most laid back and comfortable fishermen. They tend to like a leisurely time. The rigs are simple with a weight and hook on a line that is cast into the probable location.

A long slender fish, the channel catfish is a pale blue or greenish above and whitish or silver below. Although similar in size and shape to other catfish, the channel cat can be identified by its forked tail and the black spots on its side. Popular with aqua culturists, they are very suitable for fish farming operations.

They reach a keeper size of 12 to 14 inches by their third or fourth years. These are generally regarded as the best eating fish. The largest fish reach at length of 40 inches and a weight of 30 pounds. Larger ones have been known to exist but they are rare and usually constitute record class.

Channel catfish tend to seek out clean water with sand, gravel or rock bottom. A nocturnal feeder, channel catfish spend most of the year hidden in cavities or lying in deeper pools during the day. At night they move to shallower water to feed.

The external taste buds of the catfish are located in the four pairs of barbels or whiskers of the animal. These bottom feeding senses of taste and touch are more important than its sight. While moving across the bottom, they feed on fish, insects, crawfish, mollusks and some plant material.

Once the line is cast, the rod is propped up on a forked stick sunk into the bank. Other variations on this theme are used from either boats or on shore. But, the theme is basic.

Bait used for catfish is either live or dead and can range from minnows to leeches, crayfish, catalpa worms, leaf worms, red worms, frogs and cut bait. Some people will use chicken or turkey livers.

For the most sophisticated catfish angler there are patterns to fish. One of these is especially popular on small rivers and streams during summer.

Ground pounders wade and fishes live bait. The pattern involves fishing the bait below a slip float and allowing it to drift downstream over the larger holes, washouts, undercut banks, beneath brush piles and other dark hide outs.

The idea is to present a natural presentation of the bait by allowing the current to drift the bait in a natural manner. The bait is set so that it floats just a few inches off the bottom. Good baits for this kind of fishing include minnows, grasshoppers, crayfish and nightcrawlers. These are natural forage for the catfish as they are swept away into the current during rain or flooding.

During periods of overcast or drizzle, channel cats cruise the flats in search of food much as they do at night. Fishing in such conditions calls for a 3-way rig. One of the swivels is attached to the line that goes to the rod. The second is attached to a drop line of about 8 inches that has a heavy sinker on it. The third swivel goes to a line of about three-feet in length and has a hook on the end. The bait on the hook is allowed to float off the bottom and present either a minnow or leech in a natural looking presentation.

Cast upstream, allowing the bait to wash along the bottom and fall off the edge into any holes. Catfish will often be waiting in ambush.

Another pattern for the ground pounder is looking for a point of land or a large tree that has fallen into the water and is blocking current. Often fish can be found in the eddy hole behind the current break.

It is a good idea to remember that catfish love cover. They will hold around rocks and stumps in rough areas. Once one sets the hook, the fish will do his best to break the line. It is a good idea to use a tough line of at least 12-pound test and the same color as the water. If seeking larger fish, try one of the braided lines with more strength.

Tough line helps prevent the sandpaper-like teeth of the catfish from wearing or weakening the line. That can cause a beak at the most inopportune time. A high quality tough line will allow the angler to fish around rocky, stumpy underwater terrain.

Catfishing is a great way to spend the day or to introduce someone new to the sport. It provides action and good chance of success with a great dinner in the evening. With some of these tips, anglers can fish more rivers and streams closer to home. It will increase quality time on the water for young and old.

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Back-water and Green Leaves

On Millwood Lake, many Junes ago,
Floyd Mabry entices a bass from a jungle of flooded greenery on a topwater
lure.

 I saw Bull Shoals Lake this past week, filled with water higher than it has ever been since the massive dam on the White River created it more than 60 years ago. The White River below the dam is also flowing more water than ever before, and has wreaked havoc on trout docks and resorts. Gaston’s White River resort had removed all their boats and one end of their dock, which probably accounts for one fifth of their boat slips, had been crumpled and destroyed by the high water. Stetson’s resort, one of the prettiest places on the White, had water flowing into their offices at one point, and docks on the lower part of the river toward Cotter had suffered similar flooding, and damage.

Because of the time of year, Bull Shoals, as all other Lakes in the Ozarks, has water backed way up into the tributaries, and that’s where the bass will be found. Bass are drawn into those shallows in June, even in fairly clear water, and early in the morning and late in the evening, you can catch them there, around the green branches of flooded trees and heavy cover.

I first experienced that kind of fishing on Table Rock when I was just a teenager at School of the Ozarks College. The college owned land on Clevenger Cove, and there was an old aluminum boat there next to an old abandoned farmhouse. A friend and I would sleep in that old house on sleeping bags laid out on a canvas tarp. That way we could fish until dark, and again at the earliest light. We paddled that old boat around, no motor of course. Who needed one?

In June one year, when the water was high, we’d just slay the bass on topwater lures like those big, long Rapalas or Lucky 13’s, even Jitterbugs and large Hula-Poppers. As the day wore on, we would switch to a big spinner bait and fish it over the top of flooded briar patches, and watch bass come up out of that brush and get it.

The fish would be at various depths, but always around that green vegetation submerged by the high water. One morning in June, with mist rising from the water before sunrise, I made the mistake of a long cast with a topwater Rapala, letting it settle on the surface in the very tip of the cove, over submerged greenbrier bushes. I made it look like a crippled minnow and a huge bass was convinced that was exactly what it was. He apparently was hungry, or had something against crippled minnows. He took it with a great deal of aggressiveness, wallowing a bit on the surface, and I got a good look at him even at the distance I had cast. He was at least seven pounds in weight, maybe better, and I was using old tackle that couldn’t overcome his ambition to take that lure into the brambles. The struggle was great, but short, and I lost the lure. I could do without the bass, but it was a time of my life when topwater lures were treasures.

Years later, I had good luck on Truman lake when it was high, doing the same kind of fishing in June with a spinner bait over flooded brush. And using a Zara Spook on Bull Shoals around flooded green vegetation, I got the best of some awfully big bass late and early on June days gone by. But the best such topwater fishing I have ever enjoyed was on Millwood Lake, fishing in a jungle of flooded brush way back in the woods with a fellow named Floyd Mabry, who worked for Bomber Lure Company. Those bass weren’t huge, most ranged between two and four pounds, but there were lots of them. He was showing me a new topwater lure that Bomber was making with propellers, and I can’t even remember what it was. But it worked. It was the last time I fished Millwood, way down in the southwest corner of Arkansas, and I have wanted to go back every year when early summer rolls around. If only I could afford the gas!

If you like to catch bass, I suggest you find a flooded cove in your favorite lake, and try to fish around a mixture of water and green leaves, sometime just after first light or just before it gets dark. Use a big spinnerbait close to the surface, or a big topwater lure that kicks up a ruckus to attract bass. Actually, a big long Rapala wouldn’t be a bad choice either. But have a strong rod, and heavy line!

I am sending a letter this week to the Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation, asking him to explain the department’s connections with a Kentucky organization known as the Appalachian Wildlife Federation. Last fall, the MDC got 50,000 dollars from them, and turned over to them the information on tens of thousands of hunting license holders like you and me. I resent the fact that my name, address and social security number was given to any private group.

Thousands of you, like me, were sent, via U.S. mail, a package touting a big drawing for which about 16 high-powered rifles and several expensive big game hunts would be awarded. One of those hunts was hailed as a Missourian elk hunt in Kentucky; another was a big game hunt in Canada. All you had to do was send them 25 dollars per ticket, and they enclosed several. If you sent the Appalachian Wildlife Fund the money and the tickets, you’d be included in the drawing. Who knows how many Missourians sent them money for those tickets. I didn’t.

Suspicious of this whole thing, I called the only name given for the Appalachian Wildlife Fund. His name was David Ledford, in Kentucky, though recipients of the tickets were asked to send their money to an Ohio address. I asked Mr. Ledford if he would give me the name and address of the Missourians who won those expensive hunting trips and the 16 high-powered rifles. He hung up on me!

I will ask the Director of the Missouri Department of Conservation to disclose what kind of relationship the MDC has with Mr. Ledford’s group, and if they (the MDC) can tell me who won all those expensive rifles and trips. I am figuring that I won’t get the names, and if I don’t, I am going to wonder if the whole thing was a scam. I will pass on to readers what I find out. In the meantime, maybe there is a reader somewhere who sent in payment to the Appalachian Wildlife Fund for the chance to win something. If you did, let me know what information you received in return about the drawing.

I will say this again; for this type of thing, and many other things the MDC has done, an investigation should be conducted of that agency by our state’s attorney general. There isn’t room to detail all of it here, but in future columns I hope to relate some of what I have been told by MDC employees who want to see such an investigation regarding department spending they believe to be illegal. When this comes from within the department itself, it needs to be looked into. No news media in the state seems willing to go against this powerful agency, and they are the only agency in our state whose spending cannot be tracked. It is simply unbelievable that we have come to this.

My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com, E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net, or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613

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TRY NIGHT FISHING FOR GREAT FUN

Night fishing for catfish is a relaxing and peaceful pursuit. The whine of the reel as line pays out to a spot in the structure or vegetation. It seems so much louder in the night. It is a beautiful sound as the bait hits the water with a muffled splash. Placing the rod in the rod holder the angler sits down to enjoy the experience.

Y-e-o-o-w!!!, comes a cry across the water. Sitting on fish hook can bring home to one that organization is also important in nighttime angling.

Night fishing becomes important this time of year for two basic reasons: weather and recreational pressure. The heat of the day is often oppressive and the cooler temperatures of evening bring out feeding fish and angles looking for relief. Recreational boating pressure from non-anglers makes the daylight hours less productive for the angler.

During the summer the fish's metabolism is at a high point and he feeds frequently. The weather may be hot but there is a distinct lack of fronts going through to upset his lifestyle. The lush vegetation, provides ambush points for the catfish to lay in wait and allow the hapless minnows come to him. Competition for the food source from other fish is low as the weeds tend to scatter the fish of all species.

The water near the surface is warm and tends to be uncomfortable for the catfish. It is generally inhabited by smaller fish as they try to escape the big guys who are trying to eat them. The larger fish are found deeper in the comfort zone that is best of them.

Sitting on bait is not the only reason for organization in night fishing. Safety is another. It is important that the angler know the body of water well. If not already familiar with it, perhaps one should spend a day or two scouting during the daytime hours.

Learn where navigational dangers are to be found. This can be things like abandoned bridge or dock pilings. It also should include shallow water areas and submerged logs.

Once back at night, it is important that the angler is sure his night vision is in working order. Do not look at bright lights as that will temporarily spoil the night vision for several minutes.

It is important to close tackle boxes and stow unused rods out of the way. The fewer objects around the better for safety. Any tackle or coolers are best located about an arms length from the angler. This lessens the need to get up and walk around. You do not want something that could lead to trips and injuries in your area. It is a good idea to wear a PFD (personal floatation device) in case of an accidental fall into the darkness.

Night fishing is not all that productive right after sunset. One can use those hours to get into position for the nights action. By getting into position one can be sure of finding just the right location for the evening’s activities.

Night fishing is more comfortable from an angler's point of view. But, it also is a time when his senses become more alert and fine-tuned to the environment. Try it you will like it!

Don Gasaway – The Ground Pounder

www.dongasaway.wordpress.com

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