The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1917-08-09
HOT WEATHER FISHING.


When the days are hot and the old
sun is doing his best for the corn and
his worst for the fisherman, it takes
our entire deck of tricks to lure the
game fish out Of the deep, cool holes.
Midsummer heat drives the fish down
to great depth in search of cold water
and during only few hours in the
very early morning and at night they
come into the shadows to feed. At
that time casting will land 'em, the
rest Of the day you simply have to go
down for them or sit on the cabin
porch and hold talkfest on how you
landed that ''big 'un" a couple years
ago.
Send the Bait Down.
For the hot weather, the greatest
little old coaxer is live bait. Among
the most used live ones are the min
now, worms, helgramite, crawfish and
frogs, while the grasshopper if used
as surface bait on streams will get
a rise out Of big trout or bass, when
he wouldn't even take a look at
fly.
If you are after bass, old man, when
the mercury is popping high, locate
sand-bar or spring hole anywhere from
thirty to hundred feet down, if your
fishing waters go that deep, let your
little old live bait slowly settle to
them and you will get bass when the
other fellow finds it necessary to be
satisfied with pan fish.
A few seasons ago at a lake that is
considered very civilized waters and
which has been fished to a finish fol
the past twenty years. three fishermen
landed as nice bunch Of small-mouth
bass on hot August day as ever falls
to the lot of an angler, and at that gen.
orally in his dreams. With sun that
burned through their shirts, these
knights of the rod stuck to spring
hole they had located and from 80 feet
of water caught 4S small-mouth bass,
ten of which ranged from 31a to .
pounds. And the bait they used was
the common, wiggling angle-worm,
The wall-eyed pike is by Gatu
bottom fish and any part Of the sea-
son you have to go down for him, al
though at night he often comes into
the shadows to feed. The usual thing
is to troll for them in from Is to 30
feet of water. have always had an
idea, old-timer, that in deep lakes you
could find him in warm weather in
deeper water, I tried it out and sure
enough I found him there. trOlled
over a piece Of near shore water with
a depth of about Is feet and the av
erage wall-eye caught ranged from one
and a half to two pounds. l then
rugged up a regular deep-water troll
ling rig generally used for lake trout
and the first strike was a six-pounderi
I trolled back and forth over. this
stretch Of water and landed seven
wall-eyed rangifig from three and a
quarter to seven and half pounds.
The average depth of the water was
about SO feet, it varied between 90
and 60 feet.
How to Make the Rig.
The rig for this deep trolling Is cas-.
ily assembled and it sure takes your
bait down to them. Take an eight.
ounce cone-shaped sinker and attach
it to the end Of your line with
swivel then take three pieces Of line
about three feet long and attach the
first piece with a swivel to the line
about three feet above the sinker
Three feet above the first line attach
the second with a swivel and three
feet above that attach the other with
q swivel. On the three ends of these
lines swivel on an eight-inch piano wire
leader, because the big wall-eyed pike
have teeth that will cut through
line or gut leader. To your leaders
attach either q single hook or treble
as you perfer; on each of these hooks
bait with a six to eight-inch sinner or
golden club. Let your line down and
find bottom, then troll along very
slowly. The wall-eyed will strike very
mildly for his size and swim away
slowly with the bait, let him take il
some distance, then strike him and If
he is any size you will have fine
time bringing him up to the boat. Fact
is he will probably make a couple of
runs back to the bottom just when you
think you have him to net. With this
rig I had the fun of landing two wall
eyed pike at once, a three and three
quarter FOUNDER and five and quar-
ter and you can take it for mine, old
timer, I knew there was something
on the line when they both began to
"act up" for company. In making this
rig think that you will save tackle
by using weaker piece Of line for
your sinker connection, than your reel
line, as the sinker is liable to catch in
the rocks on the bottom, and If the con-
Meeting line is weaker, 1t will break
and you only lose the sinker. A small
spoon, say about a No. 3 placed in
front of the bait will make it more at
tractive or an Archer spinner ought to
look good to most wall-eye.
DIXIE.