Jake's Fishing Facts: All You Need to Know About Freshwater Fishing

By Jake Bussolini

This book takes freshwater fishing all the way back to basics. The book was designed to appeal to family members as a text book on the "how to" of freshwater fishing, starting with the basic theory of the life of a fish, the waters in which they live, the tools that are required to become a good angler and details on how to find and catch freshwater fish. The book is well illustrated for easier understanding and will help those who want to learn to fish but have not had the opportunity to practice the sport.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481716437

Jake Bussolini

Jake spent his professional career in the Aerospace Industry. He started as an engineer and retired as a senior executive. He uses his science background in his writing. He has written extensively on outdoor subjects, has won acclaim from the Non Fiction Authors Association and recently ventured into the world of fiction. He is a member of Southeast Outdoor Press Association, Non-Fiction Authors Association and the National Association of Book Entrepreneurs. He lectures extensively on outdoor subjects and runs a monthly fishing seminar in Mooresville NC.

Book preview

Introduction

Throughout this book you will see many references to fishing as a family activity. You may even detect the passion with which I offer this sport as a partial solution to the problem of the disappearing family unit. Most adults in America today, recognize the world around us is changing. Many of these changes are good and simply reflect a growth in knowledge, technology and progress. On the other hand, some of the changes reflect a loss of cultural, behavioral, and even religious values that played such a huge role in the growth of our American heritage.

Those who believe our country is still the best society in the world, also recognize the role the family unit played in the development of this great nation. Schools once taught the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, blended together by facts of our history. Social behavior, discipline, work ethic and the basic value for life itself were handled by the family unit or the church. This combination worked well for hundreds of years. It is not working as well today.

Economic conditions have forced parents to spend a great deal of time at work. Social correctness has loaded the schools with subjects unrelated to the basic subjects they once taught. Technology, as great as it has been, has created a social and communication media where our young people are conversing electronically, rather than using verbal communication, face to face. Entertainment media seems driven by violence, and the decaying world situation presents death and destruction as a new world norm. With all of this, should we be surprised that the youth of today often looks at the world as a me world and not the us world that is used to be.

Even in sports, the aspect of competition has slowly eroded with the concept that everyone wins and there are no losers. This apparently has been brought about by a desire to have everyone feel good about themselves. But it has also dampened the desire for self improvement and creativity.

Why am I taking space here to discuss these social maladies? What do they have to do with fishing? In my mind it’s quite simple. If we are going to modify our American social beliefs and behavior, we are going to have to do it through the family unit. Parents and youngsters are going to have to regain the spirit of togetherness in activities where they can participate as a unit, interdependent on each other as part of a working team. Fishing is one of the few outdoor activities that holds the promise of a healthy and wholesome sport where parents and youngsters can participate together.

Many of the qualities and characteristics that I developed as a youngster, started with fishing with my dad in a small trout pond in Connecticut. Without knowing it, he taught me patience, responsibility, politeness, respect for my elders and many other positive traits that I have carried through life.

By participating with him, building our first boat, I learned about responsibility, hard work, task sharing and the desire for self improvement. With our new boat we began to fish as a family and in a small way I learned the pleasures of competitiveness. I realized early in my life that there was nothing wrong with wanting to catch a bigger fish than my dad, but to do that I needed to develop better fishing techniques than he used. This fostered the spirit of self improvement in me, and an atmosphere of competitiveness between the two of us.

Best of all, this happened without me even knowing what I was being taught, and it took place in the outdoors, where the classroom was clean air and natural surroundings of a pond, lake or river where we fished. As a youngster I probably didn’t realize the beauty of an early morning mist lifting off the water, or the soft cry of a loon, signaling to its mate. But I was often surrounded by these elements of nature as I waited for the first morning tug on my fishing line. My dad often explained to me the importance of getting on the water before the sun rose, because the fish were activated by the first daily sunlight. He explained the importance of the loons, because they were showing me where the underwater bait might be located. He explained how the morning mist diverted the sunlight from penetrating the water, driving the fish deeper to avoid the sun hurting their eyes. Even today, many years later, I still identify with these events of nature and I still consider them as wonders of the outdoors.

Many of the parents of today, distracted by the pressures of modern society, never witnessed these wonders. But it’s never too late. This book offers many of the facts and techniques that all anglers can use to improve their fishing experiences. It provides the information needed to teach the youngsters, the right way to fish. It also presents much of the science of nature that improves an anglers ability to understand why fish live the way they do and why fish act the way they act. Every angler, from the beginner to the experienced adult, can benefit from the information contained in this book.

Freshwater Fishing, a Partnership With Nature

I have been fishing freshwater streams and lakes for more than 70 years, and every time I pick up my rod and reel, I feel like I am taking another journey into the mysteries of nature. The world we live in today, presents us with many opportunities for stressful activities. There is no other activity I know of that can take an individual or a family into an environment where the most stressful element might be the sound of a loon, calling out to its mate, or the splash of a jumping fish on an otherwise silent lake. Can you visualize yourself spending a Saturday afternoon, sitting on the shore of a small secluded pond, like the one shown in this photo. Your family is at your side, your line in the water and you are sitting in a comfortable lawn chair. You are blending yourself with the wonders of nature while spending quality time with your family, breathing fresh air. There are no traffic noises, no cell phones or I pads and yet there is communications, verbal communications between family members.

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Most experienced anglers are conservationists. They care about the condition of the waters and the health of the fish they seek. The vast majority of freshwater anglers protect the fish by practicing catch-and-release, keeping only those fish that they intend to eat. Freshwater fishing has grown as a family sport, because it is easy to learn, and relatively inexpensive. All you need is a spinning rod and reel combination that can be purchased in most sporting goods stores for less than $50. Add a few hooks and bobbers for less than $5 and you are ready to go.

Sporting good stores have so many artificial lures on their shelves that it would tend to scare away a beginner angler. I don’t recommend artificial lures for beginners. I feel that the most effective bait that has been used since fishing was first discovered is the earth worm. Worms or night crawlers are available at most stores that sell fishing bait. A small hook tied to the end of your line with a bobber about three feet from the hook, will catch you a nice fish, like the one shown below.

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Photo by Lou Mintzer

This young mother watched her son bring in this largemouth bass off of a lakeside dock. They enjoyed the experience, returned the fish to the lake and watched it gracefully swim away. The true enjoyment of this experience was the memory and the photo that hangs on the boy’s bedroom wall.

The beauty of freshwater fishing is that it can be enjoyed by an individual, in the solitude of a secluded lake or pond, or it can be a family activity, where everyone can participate, not only in the actual fishing, but by watching the mysteries of nature unfold before your eyes. A blue heron, walks along the shoreline, stalking its next meal, demonstrates the cycle of life where nature provides all of its creatures, the means for survival. A female deer slowly and silently walks to the water for a drink, stops and looks around before she signals to her two small fawns to follow her, again a lesson in survival.

Another great way to enjoy a day in the outdoors is to take your basic fishing equipment to a local lake and rent a small boat for a day on the water. Most lakes have a marina where boats can be rented at a reasonable cost. These boats usually come equipped with all of the safety equipment you will need. This is a great way to get a day out of the house, away from the computers, Ipads and cell phones. I do recommend that at least one cell phone be taken as a safety precaution.

We all are born with a competitive element. Fishing tends to bring that spirit out in several ways. First, is the element of challenge between the fish and the angler. This may not seem like a fair competition but I assure you, nature has taught fish every trick there is to avoid being caught. As we anglers always say, fish did not get large by being stupid. The second challenge is to always try to improve on your personal best catch. Like a runner, you always want to improve on your last best fish. The third challenge is the competition with other anglers. Fishing in groups always introduces the challenge of seeing who can catch the biggest fish of the day. Not the least of all of these challenges is the opportunity to put a fine meal on the table. Fish are high in protein and are always mentioned in published diets as a recommended food.

Many people have a desire to go fishing but don’t know how to get started. Nearly every major sports store holds fishing seminars for beginners or they can point you to a local fishing club that sponsors such programs. Some community colleges have added fishing to their evening programs due to its growing popularity. Most serious anglers will always take the time to spend a few hours with you going over the basics of fishing. If you want to spend some money, there are many fishing guides on major waterways that will take you fishing for a few hours for a fee. They supply all of the gear and bait, so it is a good investment before you start buying equipment.

There are also many books available that cover the entire range of fishing procedures. I have published four books about freshwater fishing. They can be reviewed on my web site, www.jakestakeonfishing.com. This site also links to my blog which provides timely tips about local fishing activities.

The Wonders of Nature

The challenge I have, trying to blend the science of fishing with the sport of fishing, is every so often I come upon a situation I simply cannot explain using scientific fact or even logical reasoning. My fall-back position when this happens is simply to file the situation away as a wonder of nature. There will be situations in this book where I will make this type of reference.

If you become a student of wildlife behavior, you will have many occasions where you see the wonders of nature being demonstrated. Mankind has studied nearly every aspect of every subject. During the recent decades, we have explored the lands and the seas of our planet and set foot on other terrestrial bodies such as the moon. There is little doubt in my mind that in the next four or five decades we will actually set foot on another world and perhaps someday even realize the wonders of another world and another existence. But despite this search for knowledge, there seems to be so much we still don’t understand about nature, and the importance of the feature of achieving balance in all elements of our wonderful planet.

As simply as we can define it, nature is the ability of our planet to obtain and retain balance in all of its important elements. If we study history we see many examples of changes to our cultures, our environment, and our lifestyles, that have no other explanation than the cyclic balance of the forces of nature at work. Animal species become extinct and then other species evolve to replace them. Violent weather occurrences wipe out towns and villages, only to have them replaced with new and more modern facilities. Wildlife live under the concept of the survival of the fittest and the cycle of life, where the weak are eliminated as a means of survival of the strong, another of the cyclic balance features of nature. These are some of nature’s values we understand, but there are many of nature’s tricks that we see every day we do not understand.

Not too many years ago I was fishing with three family members in a wilderness outpost in northern Ontario, Canada. We were on a 6 day fishing trip on a large lake. With two fishermen in each boat we fished all week. The fishing was great and we caught fish at all hours of every day. Our trip was to come to an end on Saturday, and we were going to be picked up by sea plane early Sunday morning. The weather was consistent and good. At noon on the last day of this trip, all the fish suddenly stopped biting, not a bite after noon. When we all gathered that night for diner and preparation for the trip home the next day, it became obvious both boats and all four of us had the same experience. The fish suddenly stopped biting at noon and there were no fish caught all afternoon by either boat, on the lake. In northern Canada, this type of fish behavior was unheard of.

After we finished dinner and began the clean-up and packing for the trip home the next day, we saw lightning way off in the distance but thought nothing of it since it was many miles away. We went to bed about 10pm and at 10:15 we heard this thundering sound and within seconds our cabin was hit by a tornado. Within minutes it was over but then another one hit us about 10 minutes later. The damage to the facility was incredible but none of us were hurt.

When the airplane picked us up the next morning, we circled the area to view the damage. This was a wilderness lake and there was no civilization within 50 miles of the cabin. The path of this tornado came across hundreds of miles of wilderness, directly across this large lake to make a direct hit on this small lone cabin, leading us to ask, why this cabin?

Once the realization of the event settled in, we asked the question, since the fish stopped biting at noon, what did they know that we did not? Did some force of nature tell the fish a tornado was going to develop and take aim at this lake? We were given no warning, but the fish knew enough to completely change their behavior, moving from their normal places and cutting off their food supply.

Most of us have been in situations where, with no changes to the environment, either in terms of weather, sunlight, pressure or wind, the fish suddenly stop biting. Even the opposite, where there is no biting for hours and suddenly with no explanation, they start biting actively. Something in the power of nature’s balance causes this to happen and we have no knowledge of what it is.

In our society, reproduction is a continuing event. There is no month or season that reproduction is encouraged, it just takes place. In the wildlife world however, reproduction is always scheduled so that the young are born in the season of the year where they have the best chances of survival. Land roving animals normally produce their young in the spring when the weather is warm. Fish normally produce their young in the spring and summer when the water temperature is more ideal for survival. This is another of the balancing forces of nature.

Let me introduce a bit of levity here. You are on a boat fishing. Everything is quiet and normal and there are no bites. Suddenly you decide to open your cooler to get a bite to eat or a drink. You move away from your fishing gear and put yourself in an unusual position to reach your food and suddenly a fish hits your line hard. You are laughing at this description because you had it happen to you, more than once. I call this the distraction factor. It doesn’t make any sense but time and again, as soon as you are distracted, the fish seem to know it and they hit your bait. Is this just an occasion of luck or some balancing factor of nature? Whatever it is, it has happened to all of us at one time or another.

As we progress through this book, let’s keep in mind that in many instances, there are no absolutes. I may present a theory and explain it in terms of the science we understand, but there is always the factor of nature that affects the behavior of fish and the environment in which they live.

Learning Fishing Technique

When computers became a part of our everyday existence, many of us old-timers had a hard time adjusting to this change in our way of life. At first we resisted, then, as time passed we realized that we either adapted to the changing world around us or we vanished into the background of today’s society. Like everyone else I decided to adapt. My son, unlike me, was raised and educated under the technology of today. I decided that since I had raised him, it was time he taught me about this new world and little by little I learned to operate in the new computer based society.

During many of the question and answer sessions I had with my son, there was one phrase that he continually used that stuck with me, he said, Dad, when you are using a computer, there are always three ways to accomplish every task. It is important you understand that because there are times that you can’t seem to make something work doing it one way and it will work if you try one of the two other ways. I found this to be a very valuable lesson he taught me, because I have gotten myself out of a few computer jams using this wisdom.

Fishing is also an activity that reminds me of an old saying, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Perhaps that term is not widely used in our current politically-correct society, but it is certainly true when discussing fishing. I consider my books about freshwater fishing to be text books on the subject matter. The material in these books represents my opinion based on 70 years of experiences practicing the sport. I do not subscribe to the theory that there is my way or the by way. There is a lot of interesting controversy in the sport of fishing, much of it caused by the handing down of techniques and traditions through the generations of anglers. Most of us learned to fish by being taught by a family member or friend. Many of us carried that early learning through our lives without ever thinking that there might just be another way. But there is always another way, just like operating a computer.

Despite the fact I spend several hundred hours each year on the water, every time I fish with another experienced angler, I learn from that person. Sometime it’s just some little trick, but it’s learning. I also learn a lot by observation, that’s why I write these books, just to pass on what I have learned to others. What I write in these