The Honest Angler

Vintage Tackle Contest: Soap-A-Lure

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:14:54 -0400

by Joe Cermele

Here's a direct quote from resident vintage tackle expert Dr. Todd Larson of the The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog regarding this Soap-A-Lure scent remover entered into the vintage tackle contest by Steve Crismon: "This was the toughest nut to crack to date. But I did crack it eventually." Strong words coming from the man that knows all things old school fishing gear, but I must admit this was one of the oddest entries I ever recieved. Steve found it at a yard sale 10 years ago.

Here's what was in that nut once once Doc Larson cracked it:

"For at least a hundred years, anglers have tried to remove or mask the smell of human scent and man-made chemicals, but it wasn't until the late 1960s and early 1970s that inventors began to take the subject seriously. In the span of six years, no less than three separate "Fisherman's Soaps" were granted patents, as far as I know the only such patents granted in American history. So…which of these three belongs to your "Soap-A-Lure?" After checking the patents, only John Paul Noordam Jr.'s patent not only removes the fish smell, but also applies an attractant to the hands. Noordam was granted Patent #3,666,669 on May 13, 1972, and as your bar is marked "Patent Pending" I would surmise it was probably sold in 1970 or 1971, while the patent was being reviewed. Since so few have survived intact, I would say your soap is worth $10-$20. To view some other angler's soaps from the back pages of Field & Stream, click here."

Far as I know, that's the most valuable bar of soap ever! Nice find, Steve. Thanks for sending, and enjoy the Berkley Digital Tournament Scale that's headed your way

If you've already sent me photos of your vintage tackle, keep checking every Thursday to see if I chose it for an appraisal by Dr. Todd. If you haven't and want to enter the contest, email photos of your old tackle to fstackle@gmail.com, along with your name, mailing address, and story of how you acquired the gear. If I use it in a Thursday post, you get a Berkley Digital Tournament Scale (left, $40).

Peeing Swimmers Kill 500 Fish in Germany

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:28:30 -0400

by Joe Cermele

Here's one from the "I Couldn't Make This Up If I Tried" file. According to Europe's Practicalfishkeeping.com, German swimmers are being blamed for the death of 500 fish in a lake near Hamburg. Apparently they just couldn't ditch the swimmy fins and pool noodles long enough to find a bathroom. From the story:

A spokesman for the local Angling Association said: "Swimmers who urinate in the lake are introducing a lot of phosphate. We're calculating half a litre/0.15 gal. of urine per swimmer per day." Applying anti-phosphate products to the water has been expensive and hasn't worked, fuelling a long-standing feud between fishermen and bathers in the lake.

The story also notes that the city's Urban Development and Environmental Authority says there could be another explanation...ice skating.

"The ice-skaters make a noise that wakes the fish out of hibernation", a BSU spokesperson said. "Then they can’t breathe and freeze. That’s a very common phenomenon."

So listen, I'm just going to leave you folks to it. Pee deaths? Ice skating deaths? You think you ever scared a lake trout so badly doing a hockey stop it went belly up?

40-Pound Kamikaze Barracuda Launches Assault on Anglers

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 22 May 2012 09:29:10 -0400

by Joe Cermele

You think flying Asian carp are bad? They might break a jawbone, give you a nice sock in the gut, or leave you with a black eye. But they will not remove toes, fingers, or part of your face with razor-sharp teeth. Check out the video below. Baracuda rank high on my list of species I do not want flying at my head. You never see a nice, meaty, 10-pound flounder jump into the boat.

Protect Your Skin: How to Use Sunscreen and Keep it Off Your Lures

Sarah Smith — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:38:25 -0400

by John Merwin

“If you get any of that stuff on your lure, you won’t get another bite,” said Florida guide Terry Shaughnessy as he watched me slather on some sunscreen. And I think he’s right. Fish dislike the sunscreen smell. But sunscreen is pretty much essential protection while fishing. So there’s a conundrum for you.

Happily, I’ve found some ways to use sun-protection goop without screwing up the fishing at the same time. Some sunscreen products come in applicator containers that allow use without getting the stuff on your palms and fingers. That in turn means you won’t be contaminating your lures or flies when changing or handling them.

I’ve shown two such products in the accompanying photo. One, from Dermatone, is a squeeze-tube with a spongelike applicator at the end. Treating my face, neck, ears, and backs of my hands is very easy with this device. A 2-ounce tube costs $5 to $6 and is widely available online (which is why I haven’t given a specific link).

The other is a Neutrogena Sunblock Stick, a semi-hard wipe-on stick that I use most often for touchups to my lips, nose, and backs of my hands during the day. I think I paid around $7 when I last bought one a year ago. These are found in most chain-type drugstores.

I’ve written occasionally about the dangers of skin cancer. My general impression is that younger guys ignore the warnings. And some, but not all, older guys pay attention to them. But there’s nothing that gets your attention better than when a dermatologist starts jabbing your face with lidocaine-filled needles, preparatory to cutting out a tumor. Been there, done that. And it’s no fun.

And that all makes the decision to consistently use various sunblocks very simple.

Killer Snakeheads: The Real and the Hollywood Varieties

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:28:06 -0400

by Joe Cermele

First, check out this video from ABC 7 News in Virginia. It seems angler Juan Duran may have set a new world record for snakehead right here on American soil. This week, Duran wrenched an 18-pound monster out of the Potomac River near Washington D.C. The current world-record snakehead weighed just over 17 pounds and was caught in Japan...right where these fish belong in the first place. If you think a snakehead that size in our rivers is mildly freightening, check out video number two.

This, folks, could be where we're headed.

Vintage Tackle Contest: Whirlaway Rod & Reel Combo

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 17 May 2012 09:56:41 -0400

by Joe Cermele

This week in our ongoing vintage tackle contest we have the odd-looking rod and reel combo below. The photo was sent in by Henry Kenworthy, who wrote: This unique fishing rod was given to me as a child (approx 35 years ago) in Marianna, Arkansas, by a man named Cody as payment for helping him clean out his boathouse. I was 10-12 years old at the time. I remember Mr. Cody telling me that "in it's day, this was the Cadillac of fishing rods."

So is this all-in-one stick truly the Cadillac of rods or was it the Nova? Dr. Todd Larson of the The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog says:

"For at least 125 years, anglers have been trying to create the perfect all-in-one rod and reel combination. You have one of the many examples of this style from the post-World War II era. It is a "Whirlaway" manufactured by Great Lakes Products of Detroit, Michigan. First sold around 1950, the first model (which you have) was in fact a bit of a failure, and replaced by the all-new Whirlaway 75 in 1954. Noted tackle historian Bill Sonnett recently wrote an article about the Whirlaway, and noted that the problem was the original twisted the line so that after an hour of casting it became unusable. Your combo is quite popular with collectors, and should bring about $50-$100 depending on condition. To read Bill Sonnett's article on the Whirlaway, click here."

I hope you didn't do more than $50 to $100 worth of work cleaning up that boathouse, Henry. Still in all, a terrific find. Thanks for sending, and enjoy the Berkley Digital Tournament Scale that's headed your way

What Were Some of Your Milestone Rods?

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:00:00 -0400

by Joe Cermele

A few weeks ago I was cleaning some old junk out of the basement at my mom's place, and amid the clutter was a pile of rods wedged in the corner. Most them were beaten to death, missing guides, and not worth saving. But in the cluster were four I just had to keep, because they all represent milestones in my fishing history. There was my first spinning rod (1), an Olympic 2000 that, if memory serves correctly, my dad cut down for 7-year-old me. It only has three guides. Then there's my first fly rod (2), an Eagle Claw Feather Light. I got the rod in 6th grade, and used it until my sophomore year of high school. That Christmas Santa brought me a G. Loomis 5-weight.

Number 3 is the first (and last) rod I ever built. Note the chunks of deer horn expertly worked into the handle. You can't see it in the photo, but I non-expertly didn't realize you had to buy a tip guide separately. Being too lazy and impatient to order one, I just spun a regular guide onto the tip. I caught one bass on the rod and retired it. The blank is so cheap it would probably snap if you looked at it wrong.

Finally, there is my old Shakespeare Alpha (4). Dubbed "Great White," it was the first surf rod I ever owned. The 10-footer did a fine job of lobbing bait into the waves, but when I got serious about chasing stripers in the surf, it didn't take long to switch to a rod that was a little less of a telephone pole and could actually cast a light plug more than 15 feet. What were some of your milestone rods? Do you still have any of them?

Smallmouth Jerkbait Tips from Bass Pro Bill Lowen

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:00:37 -0400

by Joe Cermele

Last week I spent some time chasing smallmouths up in Buffalo, New York. If you're a smallmouth freak like I am, at some point you have to fish Lake Erie. Even the small fish are footballs and the shear number of bass is insane. One day I shared a boat with Elite Bass Pro Bill Lowen, who proceeded to crush me in the numbers of bass category. It seems every time I fish with a bass pro, I'm like Baby Huey. Case in point, at the end of this video featuring some great jerkbait tips from Lowen, you get to watch Billy yank a treble hook that's buried to the bend out of my hand. It was bound to happen sooner or later while I was rolling a camera. Enjoy.

How to Free-Line Live-Bait Minnows to Catch Shy Brown Trout

Sarah Smith — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:10:49 -0400

by John Merwin

Yesterday morning in about two hours, I caught more large brown trout than ever before in one day of fishing. It was just crazy. In addition to the 7-pounder I’m holding in the photo, we also caught and released a brown of 8.5 pounds and a third that weighed in at 5 pounds.

I guess that’s bragging of a sort, but mostly I share all this so I can then explain just how it was done. In a nutshell: Free-lining live-bait minnows.

So here was the deal. A small local lake had become infested with alewives, a non-native species introduced by accident. Some years back, the state started stocking brown trout here, hoping the browns would help to control the invasive alewives.

The browns have grown like pigs. They are also shy, as brown trout are, and very hard to catch. I had caught a few smaller ones by trolling in years past, but had never done as well as I thought I should. Fortunately, I found a fanatical local angler willing to help me out. (I’m not giving the name of the lake, or the angler’s name, which might also give away the location.)

So we motored out on the calm water early yesterday, marked some fish deep on the sonar, and anchored in about 50 feet of water. My friend rigged some spinning rods spooled with 8-pound mono, tying a small bait hook to each. Then a lively minnow was hooked through the nose and cast to about 40 or 50 feet away.

Note, especially, that we used neither sinkers of any sort, nor were there any bobbers. Because the minnow was hooked in the front, it tended to swim downward--into the inky depths where the big trout lurked. Then we set the rods down, leaving the spinning-reel bails open so that a taking fish could pull line without feeling any resistance.

When line started running quickly from the reel, it was time to close the bail and set the hook. This overall method was so simple and so incredibly effective that I feel really dumb at not having thought of it myself.

I am probably not going to switch to a live-bait career. I’d rather do fly- or plug-casting. But damn, that was fun.

Vintage Tackle Contest: Heddon Crazy Crawler

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:43:38 -0400

by Joe Cermele

This weeks entry into our ongoing vintage tackle contest comes front Brent Glowa. Brent sent in a ton of photos of old lures passed down from his dad who sadly passed away. Brent says that he has fond memories of playing with these lures whenever his dad opened his tackle box, and fishing these classic made a lasting impression.

I left it up to resident appraiser Dr. Todd Larson of the The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog to choose which of Brent's lures he'd give a history lesson on. It seems this Heddon Crazy Crawler was the coolest. Dr. Todd says:

"You have a classic Heddon Crazy Crawler in a 1950s plastic slide top box. The Crazy Crawler is one of my favorite fishing lures, with its rollicking topwater action leading to explosive strikes. Based on a 1920s design by New Jersey luremaker Jim Donaly (early Crazy Crawlers came with what is called the "Donaly" clip holding the wings on the side of the lure), it was introduced in 1940 as Heddon's alternative to the Arbogast Jitterbug. A best selling lure for many years in both wood and plastic, there are a dozen standard colors and three sizes. Yours is a wooden "bass" sized model and looks like it has been fished fairly hard. It is worth $20-$30. The Crazy Crawler Spook is still being produced today, and still has a loyal following in America and Japan."

Fantastic find, Brent. I'd take this lure and all the others, get a custom case made and hang them up. Keep passing them down through the family and keep your dad's angling legacy alive! Thanks for sending, and enjoy the Berkley Digital Tournament Scale that's headed your way