Photo by John Merwin

Last April, I asked readers here for some tips on big bass baits for a trip to a far-southern lake famous for big fish. Some of you guys were right on the money with your suggestions: big swimbaits, 10-inch worms, and so on. Those are the lures that took numerous 5- and 6-pounders and very good numbers of 7- to 9-pound fish.

I snapped this photo of lures hanging off rod tips when one of the guide’s boats came in for lunch. You’re seeing a pair of Yum’s new Money Minnows, which are 5-inch hollow, soft-plastic swimbaits rigged on 6/0 swimbait hooks that also carry a one-eighth-ounce weight on the bottom of the hook shank. Martine, one of the veteran guides with whom I fished, called that his number one big-bass producer. And that’s just how thing’s worked out at Lake El Salto in southern Mexico.

Also effective were Berkley PowerBait 10-inch worms, especially in black with a blue tail, Texas-rigged with a three-eighths-ounce worm weight or fished on a jig head as shown. I did just as well, though, with the 10-inch Strike King Anaconda worm, a lure also suggested by several readers. The green-pumpkin Zoom Lizard in the largest size was also a hot bait.

All of those lures will also translate into big bass when fishing just about anywhere. Big baits for big fish really is a time-honored equation....

Nearly a couple of weeks ago, I described my yearning to find some trout rivers "off the grid" meaning the kinds of places where I wouldn’t find a BMW sedan in a roadside pull-out, its vanity license plates proclaiming “dry fly.” That would mean heading north, I noted, instead of south as I often have done for trout fishing in well-known waters. So I did just that last weekend. Here’s what happened.

My wife and I loaded camping and fishing gear in the truck and made a long trek up-country. Armed with detailed maps and the advice of a friend who had once been a local in those parts, we found a very nice river indeed. I am not naming places here on purpose. Some may well guess where we were, but--please--let’s leave specifics out of any discussion.

This is a steep, boulder-strewn river with occasional fishy-looking pools behind huge boulders or shaped by rocky ledges. My wife (pictured) almost immediately began taking trout from one such pool on a size 16 parachute Adams dry. I mostly sat on a nearby rock and watched, very happy that she who fly fishes only intermittently was able to find success and the longer-term encouragement that catching a few fish inevitably brings.

We spent most of the weekend on reconnaissance, covering about 30 miles of river by adjacent highways and back roads, coffee and maps in hand, finding and marking access points for future reference. That in itself was almost as much fun as fishing the river where, refreshingly, we saw not another fly angler all weekend. There were a few other fishermen who appeared to be locals, intently worm-fishing the river holes at bridge crossings.

Anyway, I’ve found another place to go and had so much fun with the exploration that we’re doing it again in a few days--a little farther north and west this time, to check out some more water I’ve heard a little about but never seen. As is so often true, the hunt is turning out to be at least as much fun as the catch....

So here’s a bit in praise of snobbery when it comes to fishing. I don’t mean the kind of in-your-face uptown tweed that some fly fishermen, in particular, unfortunately seem to affect. It’s just that a down-and-dirty approach to fishing seems itself to have become overblown lately. Hey, I’ve spent my share of nights in years past sleeping under a sheet of polyethylene next to a trout river and washing down a can of Dinty Moore stew with warm beer. That was okay. But it doesn’t mean I’d necessarily choose that route if I had other options.

I got thinking about this a while ago when I was at a very chi-chi trout-fishing lodge in Wyoming. Various guests gathered around an outdoor fire after fishing. The guy next to me had laid out in front of him a glass of fine single-malt Scotch, an obviously expensive cigar, a Dunhill lighter (I checked), and a cigar cutter. “Holy smokes,” I said to him. “You look like something out of Cigar Afficianado magazine.”

He smiled. “So what’s wrong with that?”

In retrospect, I have to say there was nothing wrong at all. He wasn’t pushing any superiority or otherwise being a nuisance. He was just enjoying what he happened to have and liked. So would I rather have a great bottle of wine after fishing than a warm beer? Of course I would. Do I always? Of course not. And in any case, I’m certainly not going to stupidly declare myself a better person or angler just by virtue of better food or drink. At the same time, though, I can’t push the reverse-snobbery thing to the point at which everything good becomes somehow bad. If you’ve got it, great. If not, that‘s okay, too.

Have you ever noticed that you can associate fishing spots, no matter how well-known or how secret, close to home or far away, with some dingy eatery? Let's be honest, such establishments often round out a fishing trip. I shot this photo at the Forked River Diner the other night because it sums up everything I love about the place. The spoons are literally greasy (remember, that which does not kill you...), the booth vinyl is shredded, but the coffee is hot, the burgers rock, and you can't beat their pork roll and eggs. By the way, if you know what pork roll is, you're one of the lucky ones.

This joint is two minutes from my marina, is open early enough to chow down and still be out before the sun rises, and open late enough to feed tired muscles after a long day offshore. Right on the bank of the Pequest River in Buttzville, NJ sits Hot Dog Johnny's. It's actually pretty famous, and the dogs and birch beer are top shelf. If you can overlook the crusty fly paper strips, I promise you won't be sad you stopped. I do every time the Hendricksons are hatching on the 'Quest.

Likewise, there is a Shell gas station near my favorite stretch of the Big Bushkill that makes the most sublime pasta salad and deli sandwiches. But to see it from the outside, you might be afraid to buy a can of Coke from them.

What's on the menu at your favorite pre/post-fishing eatery?

JC