Gear towards technological advancement, sacrificing lost arts

[Leo Nguyen]

My little shared insight while eating my late lunch:

I'm a scientist by trade, and we all area scientists and engineers by hobbies. Even though we may not have PhDs, masters, and BS/BA degrees, we all have capacities to learn, observed, and formulates our approaches. However, with newer advancement and technologies, we're losing the basic/fundamental foundation of what's right and wrong when it comes to fishing.

Think about it for a moment. We went from the natural process of walking/running for days, to animal based transports to get to the same destinations within hours, to automotives that only take us minutes. Yet, what's the environmental impacts from our convenient?

Now, take that, and apply to fishing. We went from natural baits, to artificial lures ranging from natural materials to synthetic, now, we're going full synthetic, utilizing artificial enhancement attractants to boost the synthetic material's effectiveness. We are at the top of the food chain. What we use to catch sport fishes and release them back into the wild will create ripple effects from the lower food chains, back to us. Even when we're using synthetic materials to catch the targeted species for food sources, we're still liable in introducing fragments of the synthetic materials into the waters. As results, we're destroying our waters that house so much supporting biota for various living organisms.

An example, where I live, anglers are teaching their kids their poor habits of using more and more synthetic materials. The infamous one is the dissolving dough, which made primarily for trouts, mimicking pellets fed to the stocked trouts by the sport fisheries. Issue arise as glitters, petroleum distillates, and synthetic chemical compounds are being ingested, digested, and assimilated by the creatures that live in and on the waters. Everyone should check out articles of what happen when aquatic and migratory creatures consume synthetic materials over time. Not a pretty picture. Try to search on articles about the worldwide floating trash islands, and their impacts on the aquacultures. Take that, and apply it to your local favorite fishing spots.

Okay, enough rambling on my side. Your question to me probably be, "So? What do you want us to do?" Easy. Time to go back to the old mother nature's provision as live baits. Do you know that synthetic materials and attractants are nothing more then overly enhanced natural chemical compounds that already exist in nature, within your live baits? Here are somethings to think about:

1. Do you know that the chemical they used to preserve "live" worms in a jar is nothing more than extracted components of extracted juice of cooked shellfishes, and rotten fish bodies? The company simply cooked the materials up, distill the juice to make it clear, remove the foul odors, and add food coloring to create attractiveness for anglers to bewildered about as they foolishly purchase the jars of products.

2. Do you know that live baits are much more effective in catching fishes than dead/dried live baits in a jar/can/container? Why? Because the body fluid secreted by the punctured victims release pheromonal enzymes and proteins that's attract the predation species. Imagine a dying live bait like a hot piping 22 toppings pizza being dropped into the room full of hungry mouths.

3. Enhancement sprays in a jar/bottle can be reproduced at costs of pennies, a bit of your time you normally spend in front of the TV, and a bit of brain power we are serious under using.

4. Do you know that by using live baits, you're promoting the preference choices of live baits for future generations of the fishes, as you program the current generations to active pursue the the natural baits of choices without bias? If you're using synthetic, synthetic materials promotes awareness, thus, causing shier bites as you utilize and reutilize the synthetic materials. We end up having to create more realistic synthetic materials to fool the fishes. Why do that? Go with the original approach..use the real thing.

Ever wonder about something like this?

If you take a handful of nightcrawlers, put them in the blender, toss in a bit of flour to make a dough, add a bit of salt and sugar, you make one heck of a multispecies fishing pellet. If you don't like handling the stinky worms, how about Yap Cheese recipe for fishing?

Ever wonder if you raise your crickets to eat cabbage, rather than fruits, they stick to high heaven, yet, the fish prefer the ones eating cabbage over the ones eating fruits 3-to-1? If you eat cabbage, girls will pick the guys that don't eat cabbage over you 3-to-1? Garlic wise, girls will pick other guys that don't eat garlic 10-to-1, yet, fishes will seek after the stinky/foul smelling live baits more so. Hm..off topic there for a moment..

Take home message is, try to teach new generations of anglers, including reintroducing yourself, back to the original recipes of successes: live baits. Raise your own, and experiment with a the renewable resources that will provide you the edges to land you fishes every time.

Now..don't let the spoon master, Bill "Musky" Modica know about your fancy of live baits over his spooning methods. He might be able to reconvert you back to his heavy metal way of thinking. Lunch break over..time to get back to work.

[carl hendrix]

OH FOR THE GOOD OLD DAYS WHEN;; WE USE TO SEARCH TREES; FOR BAG WORMS;; ( CATAPILARS; AND CATAWBA WORMS ); OR GO SEARCH A FIELD FOR GOLDEN RODS FOR THOSE LITTLE WORMS IN THEM;; DIG UP A GARDEN FOR WORMS;;  SOMETIMES EVEN USE A HAND SAW;; AND GET WHAT WE USE TO CALL; FIDDLE WORMS !! ( I WOULD LET MY BROTHERS;; KNOCK DOWN THE WASP NEST; WATCH THE FUN !! )  THEN GET THE LARVA FROM THE NEST; RUN TO GO FISHING; WHILE MY BROTHERS WERE STILL TRYING TO GET THOSE STINGERS OUT OF THEMSELVES !  EVEN SET TRAPS OF SORTS; FOR CRICKETS AND GRASSHOPPERS

[Leo Nguyen]

We need to limit ourselves from plastic technologies, and focus on scent based technology, combined with hard lures that can't degrade the environment. We're finding too many issues in the benthic and fish population due to these so called plastic (biodegradable or not), killing/stunning the monsters we want to create.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Thanks leo!

[Keith Ritter]

Nice read Leo and for heavens sake don't hang that natural bait under plastic or styrofoam float. MAKE YOUR OWN.

[Leo Nguyen]

Thanks Keith. Of course, anything made from natural materials are first on my list. I stay away from plastic types and styrofoams altogether. Balsa, quills, and high buoyancy materials are being researched and used daily.

[carl hendrix]

LEO;; DONT FORGET ABOUT KEITH;S FAMOUS;; CORN COB FLOATS !  LOL

[Kelly Peterson]

Now I find this article after spending that "$25 bucks" on Gulp and other synthetics! oh well, maybe I can sell them at a garage sale.

That said, previously all I've used is live bait, minnows, worms, night crawlers and waxies/spikes on plain hooks under bobbers and always catch lots of fish. Then I joined BBG and read about all these jigs and flies and such to use for catching bluegill's and then to find out most are still tipping with live bait, humm!

Guess I'm at fault for liking to read articles by others in magazines and take to heart too much that they say. I do fall prey to their exploits. Should really step back and remember what my self exclaimed mentor said back in the late 1960's. Bill Binkleman said, "Guess nobody is sponsoring fisherman who use live bait these days." Yet to me over the past decades nothing has caught more fish for me than live bait, specifically worms and nightcrawlers. The past 2-3 years it has been leeches that have taken the biggest and most of many specie.

I just bought a new and larger tackle box this year and it is full of plastic artificial's that I rarely use. Why, guess I've fallen for ease of use again when there is nothing more easy than a hook and live bait. Now its time to go back to basics and simplify, again. Thanks Leo and everyone else for waking me up.

[Leo Nguyen]

Kelly, don't get me wrong. I use plastics now-and-then, as a test to how life-like advanced technology has progressed, in comparison to man-made vs nature provision. An example is the Savage Gear 4Play's minnows. Are you freaking serious? The plastics, modified with the upgraded mule's rig, is insane:

https://www.facebook.com/FishingLovers99/videos/1007060592718546/

However, these silicone-impregnated resin type plastics lasts for a very, very, very long time in the environment. I rather slap a few life ones on the lines than taking the easy way out by using plastics. We must first learned how to utilize what mother nature has provided as a mean to survive, and preserve the balance. So many of us here came to the realization that balance is the key, and unlocking new methods through simplicity is essential. Nature's simplicity is more complex than man-made by far. You'll understand it once you get into the nitty gritty details.

[Kelly Peterson]

Maybe I wasn't clear-fish with live bait 97+% of the time and have always been that way.

Just can't understand how I've come to having such a large tackle box full of plastics that I never/rarely use. Guess I've fallen prey to the tackle companies, urgh!

[Leo Nguyen]

LOL I'm the same way. I have about 15lbs of plastics sitting in 3 of my tackle boxes, ranging from 1980s to the very current day of high tech silicon hybrid plastics. Since I'm a scientist, I use the plastics to see the detrimental effects in controlled environment (the original sealed plastics in utter darkness) and the environmental influences. People cannot fathom the plastic resins and oils that come out of these things. They're not consumed once, but so many times over. It's crazy.

I'm so glad to know people are waking up to these plastics' post effects, but of course, people prefer the plastics over live baits because they don't want to deal with the hassles. 

[Slip Sinker]

…wow! nice looking gang bait!

[Kelly Peterson]

That would be illegal in WI if there are more than 3 hooks.