That's me in the photo below fighting a seatrout with a five-weight fly rod on the dock of Getaway Adventure Lodge here in Port Mansfield, Texas. It happens to be my home away from home this week. Photographer Bill Honza snapped the (awesome) shot last night in the eerie green glow cast by the bait-attracting dock lights.

Though there are all kinds of species to chase here in all kinds of situations, I'd be lying if I didn't say spending  a few hours on this dock every night isn't just as exciting to me as getting out into the bay or Gulf. Fishing under lights, be it for crappies or tuna, is one of my favorite things in the world, because you never know what you'll see come into the glow. Like the other night, we watched the usual little trout feeding and rolling, then out of nowhere, a tarpon shoots through and scatters the bait.

Growing up, I fished a lighted Texaco fuel dock almost every night of every weekend, and on every one of those nights, security guards would come kick me off like clockwork. They eventually got so sick of kicking me and a few others off, they just ripped the lights out, thus ending five years of weakfish action I've yet to match anywhere. 

Have you ever had the pleasure of fishing under lights at night? If not, I'd highly recommend it.

JC

So the trailered powerboat is staying in the yard this weekend because Mrs. Merwin and I will be using our kayaks. The larger local bass lakes where we’d ordinarily fish the bigger boat are just too crazy on these summer Saturdays--Jet-Skis, water skiers, and all the fast-cruising Bayliners make a little quiet fishing almost impossible. Fortunately, there are three backcountry bass ponds nearby that either have no-motor restrictions or just plain no boat ramp. Perfect kayak water, in other words.

Kayaking and kayak fishing have become a huge deal over the past few years, driven in part by the evolution of fairly inexpensive rotomolded-polyethylene boats. This year at the ICAST fishing-trade show, for example, the overall best-in-show winner was a Hobie Mirage Pro Angler kayak (pictured), an award that in past years has always gone to some more typical piece of new fishing tackle.

I happen to use a Wilderness Systems Tarpon 14 sit-on-top. My wife uses is sit-inside-style Necky Santa Cruz. Both fit easily in the back of my 4X4, ready to go to any pond anywhere. We’ve used them for backcountry camping in the Adirondacks (trout) and for cruising along the Maine coast (stripers). At one time when the kids were all still home, there were a half dozen kayaks stacked out by the barn. As the kids moved away, the kayaks sort of mysteriously disappeared along with them. I almost had to chain a couple to a tree so my wife and I could keep our own.

Lots of people have asked me how to get cheaply into kayaking. I think the best route is to target a kayak-rental place in the fall when the boating season is winding down. You should be able to find used-rental and demo boats at hundreds less than retail. What you’ll also then find is some piece and quiet in your future fishing....

In case you hadn’t noticed, the boating industry has tanked over the past couple of years along with numerous other sectors of our flagging economy. Major players such as Brunswick are reporting sales declines of 30 to 50 percent, manufacturing lay-offs are widespread, and many boat dealers can no longer find credit with which to finance retail inventories. Consumers, who once depended on home-equity loans to finance their new boats, are no longer buying as they once did.

The latest wrinkle to all this is the declared bankruptcy of Genmar Holdings, the parent company of major boat brands such as WellCraft, HydraSports, and Ranger. Some Genmar subsidiaries such as Ranger insist that both brand and business are still fine, but at the same time acknowledge that, yes, demand for $50,000 bass rigs has indeed declined. Interestingly, FLW Outdoors, the pro-bass tour also controlled by Genmar, was not included in the company’s bankruptcy petition. And just a few days ago, a bankruptcy-court judge gave Genmar/Ranger specific permission to keep paying out promotional expenses--including tournament prizes--which apparently means the $1 million first-place prize in FLW’s grand finale this year remains intact.

The whole credit crunch means it’s a good time to buy a boat--used or new--if you have the cash. Great deals abound. My own boat was a paid- in-cash deal quite a while ago, so I’m still smiling on the water. And that reminds me of the late Will Rogers’ prescription for solving the nation’s traffic problems: Only cars that are fully paid for will be allowed on the highways. Sounds good to me....

Fabled bass pro Denny Brauer isn’t known as a musician, but he does have perfect pitch. That just means he’s the widely acknowledged master at pitching and flipping various baits for largemouth bass. I ran into Brauer at the recent ICAST fishing-tackle trade show, where we had a long talk and where I asked him for three specific tips that would help readers here perfect their pitching technique.

Remember that pitching is an underhanded pendulum-style cast done with baitcasting gear to deliver a bass jig or other weighted soft- plastic with a very soft presentation at fairly close range. It’s usually done in thick cover and is a great technique for big fish. Here’s what Brauer had to say.

“Use enough weight. I’m most often pitching a half-ounce; sometimes as much as three-quarter-ounce if the bass seem to want a faster fall. I might go lighter than one-half to get a really slow fall once the lure hits the water, but not often.” (I’ll add here that controlling a pendulum cast with weights less than one-half ounce is very difficult.)

“Use the right line length. For underhanded pitching, the line should extend from the rod tip down to the lure, which should be even with the reel. Grab the lure with your left hand behind the hook, and then let it swing outward. Remember the swing. Some people think they should just be throwing it, which is wrong.”

“Use heavy line. I’m fishing either heavy braid or 25-pound fluorocarbon, tied to the jig with a palomar knot in either case. This is a big-fish technique, usually in thick cover, so using lighter line is just counter-productive.”

So there you have it. Mastering this technique might not get you on the front of a Wheaties box--Brauer was the first angler ever to be featured in that way--but it will very definitely get you more and larger bass.