Pete Collin

Hello All, I must be becoming an old guy because I am always marveling at what technology allows us to do. Today I exchanged pleasantries with Jimmy Houston. As a kid, I would never miss any fishing TV show as they came on the air. In the beginning were Roland Martin and Bill Dance and Virgil Ward, followed in the '80s by Jimmy Houston and Jerry McKinnis. I idolized all of them, even trying on their southern accent for size while on the water. The YouTube fishermen have driven all of the fishing programs off the air, it seems. It's a good thing, really. Because the modern internet ones are more diverse and personalized, and the overt tackle company shills can be avoided. But I came upon ol' Jimmy H. on youTube, who puts out regular features. It's interesting that he doesn't seem to have a big viewership, his subscribers being a fraction of those that some of the more ambitious younger guys have. But his southern charm is still there and seems like a happy grandpa toodling around with boats and rods and pets. I noticed that he freely engaged with his viewers in the comments section. So I wrote him a paragraph of well wishes and got a warm reply. Young people today probably won't appreciate how cool I find this to be. Youtubers have avid fans, but approaching them isn't hard - I have met and befriended several of my favorite producers of online video. But if you told me as a kid how easy it would one day be to interact with a guy who I regarded the same way as some kids looked at Carl Yastrzemski or Larry Bird - I would have flipped!

Bluegiller, Would you consider putting up pictures of your paintings and sculptures? I'd love to see them.

I used to chase them in the tributaries heavily. Kind of phased out of it over the years. Combination of getting married, tired of running up miles on my truck, getting into woodworking, loss of fishing buddies through death, them moving away, or otherwise getting married and starting families. but there is one moment I remember that was the beginning of the end. There was a good run of browns in the Oak, but it was extremely crowded to the point where you couldn't find anywhere to stand. I found one less-than-ideal drift that had vines hanging down in front of it, preventing you from casting or manipulating your rod. I hacked at and pulled down the vines, thus creating a spot for myself. I even caught a few nice ones. But at the end of that day, looking around at the melee of guys, happily stomping through the productive runs as they played their foul-hooked fish, I realized that I was the only guy there who wasn't having a good time. Clearly I was the one who didn't belong.

A chronicle of the bad old days.

I was on the Bow river in Alberta. One spot had old bones poking out of the gravel. Our guide told us that they were buffalo bones that were at least 20,000 years old. I marveled at them until the fish started rising, then got down to more important business.

Hello All, Mark Stothard was a celebrated personality in the hunting and fishing world of Western NY. He lived on the bank of Oak Orchard Creek. The Buffalo chapter of Trout Unlimited invited him to give a comedy slideshow in 2000. He brought down the house so hard that they invited him back in 2001. Luckily I saved the old videotape I shot that night.

I did send it to you. Let me know if it went through.

I live near the southern end of Letchworth Park. By the Portageville entrance, there are a few big apple trees. When they bear fruit, you will see deer day and night under them in full view of the road. It's comical watching them take a whole apple in their mouth, and make gagging motions as they pulp them with their back teeth.

Just to be contrary.....A trolling plate doesn't need to be stored, and you don't have anything hanging off the stern when you bring a fish in to be netted. It will last the life of your boat, won't dry rot or rip.

Ok, you got me! And for the record I don't row across the lake either.

The thing about using stuff like a FishHawk is that it isn't in the spirit of this low-tech, 19th century way of fishing!

I deliberately bounce bottom and rarely snag. If you want your bottom leader to be, say, 100 feet down, you troll at your target speed in 100 feet of water. Let out enough line to bounce bottom. Mark your wire with the yarn like I show in the video. Then drive out in the middle and troll the thermocline.

Bigfoot, some guys count passes of the reel's level wind as well.

You let the lines partway down, get in your depth, then lower them the rest of the way. You can skip that step if there's two of you. One guy can steer and keep it in your depth while the other sets out the lines.

After a few hours' fishing, you will find which 2 leaders are getting all the hits. So you can reduce it to 2 leaders per rod, simplifying everything.