jacktgi@aol.com

I have caught a water snake on a texas rigged plastic worm. The snake was swimming in a strip mine lake. I cast the worm across his path, intending to pull the worm across his back to startle him. The snake saw my worm on the surface and changed direction, swam to the worm and hit it. I had him hooked and pulled him into the boat. I now have a picture in my album of a 3 foot snake hanging from my fishing hook. I let him go, unharmed. Jack

geo g Lake Jackson has never been the same since it drained in 1999. That lake had a habit of draining out thru a sink hole every so many years but it usually filled up within a few months to a year. This time it did not. The sink hole,known as the Porter Hole, thrum which it drained has never plugged up again and even when heavy rainfalls put water back into the lake, it just drains out again. The lake, of course, had a bottom that was not level as a pool table so water remained in the low spots. You can still fish the lake but the last I checked there were no launch ramps and you had to launch from the sand off the highway end or the south end. Brills Point has sand you can launch from. 4X4 trucks are almost a requirement t launch most of the time. Jack

for big bass I like to fish in Florida with lake shiners in the month of March. For years we fished Lake Jackson at Tallahasse (it produced huge amounts of bass over 10# every year) until it drained out thru a sink hole in 1999. We now go to Lake Toho. For walleyes I think for a rule of thumb you should go to Minnesota or the Dakotas during the first two weeks of June to find really good fishing. The key is always do your research and pick a lake that is currently hot for the fish you want, the right time of year and try to find out if there are presentations that are preferred. For Lake Toho the March presentation for big bass would be shiners drifted over submerged vegetation of still fished at weed edges. Jack

I think you should consider whether the dock might be used for swimming. Hooks and lures snagged and lost against dock pilings can be a dangerous hazard for swimmers, especially children. Jack

Each fishing excursion is an adventure with experiences so varied it is hard to believe. I don't fish tournaments and I sincerely like fishing alone so there is no pressure to perform well. I do not have to catch even one fish or demonstrate my prowess to a fishing partner to qualify as a "fisherman". I love trying to locate fish, choosing the right baits and presentations and most of all I love seeing nature around me and being exposed to the unexpected. I cherish the times when I caught trophy fish, felt and saw static electricity build around me so that I thought lightening from an approaching storm was about to hit me (I left the area quickly), seeing a loon swim under my boat and through my shiner hole, an otter working along the shoreline, an osprey swoop down from behind me a ****** my shiner bait up and try to carry it away, an alligator sunning on the bank, a snake trying to swallow a bluegill the size of a small football, a deer crashing out of the woods and off a four foot embankment to swim across the river, a storm that brought high winds that made my ride back to the launch area a true white knuckle experience, darkness closing in quicker than I anticipated and facing the prospect of beaching my boat and spending the night on the bank, and it goes on and on. That is what I like about fishing. Deer hunting would be a similar story but with different experiences. Jack

If you can reach your hand to the water's surface you don't need a net. For smaller bass I lip them with my thumb in the mouth, for big bass I put four fingers in the mouth to lip them. Jack

I vacationed on the Outer Banks a couple of times but it was over 20 years ago. There were big piers that stretched a long way from the beach out into the ocean. There was a structure built on the piers at the part nearest the beach. They rented fishing tackle and sold bait. There were lots of fishermen on the piers and some were very friendly and willing to chew the fat about fishing and would give you all the information you wanted. If I was taking my own equipment I would take a heavy duty rod, seven feet or longer, a high line capacity reel spooled with at least 16 lb line. A leader would be helpful as almost everything you catch has teeth of some sort. Large catches are difficult to land. For landing nets they used nets that, as near as I recall, were about 3 feet or more in diameter. These nets resembled a coffee filter with a heavy wire rim around the edge. The nets were lowered into the water on a stout line and the catch was maneuvered over the net and then the net was pulled up. I saw small sharks on the pier and rays that had been caught. Mostly I caught some kind of saltwater catfish they called "hardheads" I think. I fished from the piers mostly at night when my family was settled in their beds for the night. Jack

I have seen schools of small bass creating a frenzy on the surface several times. These bass that I have seen are about ten inches long or smaller. Don't believe fishing videos. Often a half hour fishing show only has less than 15 minutes of actual fishing and takes more than a day or two to record. For bass fishing I observe what I can see: weeds, points, coves, shoreline transitions for rock to mud, etc. Then I rely on my electronics to check out the underwater scene.