A Fisherman without a 'boat' is still a Fisherman

There was a time in my fishing life, where I thought I had to have a boat as good as a Bass Tracker or Triton, in order to be a good fishermen. After all, it works for all those other guys right?

So a few years ago I bought a used Lowe semi-V, and decided that I had to modify to make it look as close to those bass-catching machines we always see on ESPN outdoors. Believe me, it needed it.

I basically gutted it, and spent close to 10 straight days recarpeting it, redoing the electrical, new pedestal seats, new trolling motor, fish finder, and even fabricated a new casting deck. It was a labor of love, and I could envision it so clearly in my mind as I was building it that it pushed me to finish it faster.

And for someone who has zero skill with tools, Id say it came out pretty good. My friends all loved it. Its too bad I hardly even went fishing in it, and eventually sold it. What happened? Well, life happened. After two kids within a span of 2 years, the boat sat. And sat. And sat some more.

Eventually, I decided to sell it.Every day it sat in my garage was a 14 foot reminder of how much fishing IM NOT doing. I cringed each day when I looked up on it. I didn't have to go, but then again, it had to go.

The guy I sold it to was in love with it, and was ga-ga even more when he came to pick it up (I had listed it on ebay). He was smiling the whole time he was here, probably only-half listening as I tried to explain the various quirks the electrical had.


After the boat left, I thought that was the final nail in coffin, with my fishing life ready for burial inside. I sulked for a long time. How could I fish without a boat? How could I fish without a boat that had a 9.9 outboard and a 50lb thrust trolling motor? Impossible I thought. There is no way I can fish without those things, every fisherman NEEDS those things.


Actually, I found, they don't. At least I didn't.

Several months later, I figured I would try to replace the boat with a canoe. I had never owned one before, and I figured I was taking a huge step backwards in my fishing life by using one, after previously being able to fish from my kickass boat. So I started to do some scouring around on ebay, and I found this ugly black canoe located in PA. This was not your father's Old Town Canoe; this was a black plastic monster made by Coleman, and it looks it had even been repaired (poorly) in a couple of spots.

But none of those repair spots where anywhere near the hull, or any other part that came in contact with water. I was desperate to get back on the water SOON. After all, I already had the cash in my pocket, enough rope to tie down an elephant, and I wasn't driving back two hours empty handed.

My ugly ebay canoe purchase.

Eventually I lassoed the canoe to my Jeep (after it fell on me a couple times during the process) and headed home. I took the canoe off the Jeep by allowing it to fall on me clumsily, at least I cushioned the blow with my body. The one positive thing about this canoe was that it already had a sturdy aluminum trolling motor mount; well I thought, at least I'll be able to have SOME kind of motor on this thing.

Several fishing trips (and a couple minor back injuries later), I eventually realized that there are just thing about my old boat that I did not miss. I do not miss hitching and unhitching the damn thing. I do not miss the fact that my trailer lights only worked when they felt like it. I do not miss trying to launch my boat at crowded launch, especially with big burlier, surlier fishermen waiting behind me. I do not miss trying to get the boat back on the trailer when the wind is blowing 20 mph or higher. I do not miss it. At all.Hey guess what? I'm still fishing, boat or not!

The only thing I do miss is being able to stand up from time to time, but other than that, I have had a hell of a time fishing with my canoe, and in fact, I am having more fun fishing now than I ever have. And I know this has nothing to do with it, but I think as a result, I have even caught more AND bigger fish as a result! Why?

Well, I don't really know, but here is what I do know. I don't ever have to worry about fuses going out on the boat, or if I have enough gasoline, or if the outboard is going to start, or if my backup battery is going to work or not, or if the water I am in is too shallow,and a whole 'boatload' of other things I no longer have to worry about.

I even got to the point where my big ugly 16' Coleman stays on the canoe rack at my 'home' lake, and I was able to stumble across a much more manageable sized 13' Indian River at a garage sale, which is even easier to move by myself.




The only thing I really have to worry about now is if I am using the right color Rapala.


But I suppose that problem is never going to go away.










--
www.RapalaNation.com
http://RapalaNation.blogspot.com

Fishing in a hurricane (sort of)

I've come to the realization that in order to have the lake all to yourself, you need to get out when no one else will. This is, of course, aside from getting to the lake well before first light and getting first shot at lake's hot spots. A couple of times I had gotten to the lake so early, that I couldn't even see - and literally had to sit there and chain smoke until there was enough light to launch the canoe.

Ok, well Im not talking about fishing during a real hurricane, just during some of the crappy weather these large systems seems to drag along with them. I'm located in the northwest corner of the state of NJ - not exactly prone to hurrianes, but close enough to the point where you can feel their effects.

Back to back weeks of pretty miserable weeks at my "real job" usually only have one cure - getting on the lake. Getting nice enough weather to do it in - totally different story.

One week is was Hurricane Bill crusing along the eastern seaboard. Followed by Tropical Storm Danny. Now, these systems were nowhere near NJ - however their presence alone was enough to take a good looking weather weekend, into a pretty miserable one.

So I decided to take my stubbornness to a new level: I was going anyway. The forecasts pretty much called for: 90% chance of showers and thunderstorms, starting from 6am until 2pm. This was on subsequent weekends. I went fishing both times.

My wife already knows Im crazy. This just confirmed it once again.

So I packed up my gear, including a share of ziplocs to keep my phone and cigarettes dry, made sure I had my Frogg Toggs packe, and off I went.

This was definitely not any kind of weather that indicate a storm was anywhere near the area, not with this thick blanket of fog. The shoreline disappeared only after a couple of minutes.

The lake was as still as it gets, but sadly there was no topwater bite to speak of. But what was there was priceless - silence.

No other fishermen. Not a soul. My lake is dotted here and there with lakefronts, and for once, not a single whine of a leafblower or lawnmower to be heard.

Being a dad with two young small kids, and it being summertime, there is almost always something to do to have fun with them outdoors. One needs to take advantage of those nice days, before winter rears its ugly head, and its all indoors, all the time. But on days like this, when the only one who will go out is yourself, and the wife doesn't care that you're burning a crummy day to go fishing, its just win-win for everyone.


And the fishing turned out to be ok as well!

Now both days it wasn't exactly spectacular, but I did end up getting 5 fish each time I went, which is fine enough by me.

I got out of the house, had some quiet time, was on the water, stayed pretty dry, and did catch some fish. And no one called and asked when I would be home, and no one bothered me.




Except of course, the local beaver, which always deems it necessary to follow me around and slap his tail around wherever I go, until he gets bored and goes away:

Still better than the sound of a leafblower.

-Fishooked

Turning Great Lures Into Awesome Ones

A few years ago, the very thought of someone 'modifying' a Rapala by repainting it would have made me cringe. I mean, how could someone possibly take something that is so perfect, right out of the box, and think they have the right (or the skills) to improve up on it?

Well, recently, my entire outlook has changed, and let me tell you why.

Since I am an avid ebay fan and user, I regularly scour the Rapala listings for something new, rare, cheap, and different. And different is what I had definitely found.

To backtrack a bit, this year I started asking various ebay sellers if they would like to have links to their Rapala-related auctions placed on my website, RapalaNation.com. In return, all I would ask for is a simple tackle donation, in which I would use for various free Rapala lure giveaways.
(For more info on this, click here!)

Anyway, I have been coming across some unreal and eclectic Rapala lures on ebay lately - a lot! I wonder how I had been so blind to this for so long.

Or have I? I don't know if I had just been blind to it, or has the custom repaint business been a recent boom?


I can't really be sure, but all I know is, there are a lot of extremely talented people our there, and they are doing things to Rapala lures (and other models, of course) that I would have never even dreamed of before.

Well as we all know, fishing lures catch fishermen as well as fish, and I was hooked. I started taking a closer look at the custom Rapalas on ebay, and various other places, and it seems that with each artist, each one seems to make a few lures that are heads and tails over the rest - but you can't really say which lure artist is 'better'.



A few weeks later, I was able to team up with Joe from JoesCustomBaits; he recently got a new website, so feel free to drop by and see what he has, or view his current ebay listings. Joe has some really unbelievable patterns, and does repaints on Rapala lures as well as other brands.

What makes it so exciting, is that everyone does things differently, and it is this variety that makes it so very fun. As I started teaming up with some of these talented folk, little did I realize that one of these artists resides right on my site, and I didn't even know it.

Steve Polaski, aka 'muskiehunter' on RapalaNation, is an avid fisherman and Rapala fan, and is fortunate enough to have Lake Michigan right in his backyard. Before JoesCustomBaits got his site up and running, I posted all of his patterns on my site so my members could view them all.

A few days later, Steve started posting some of his own work, and once again, I was amazed at how a few coats of paint can really make a lure jump out at you. I hurriedly rifled through my tackle box, and threw a pile into a box and asked Steve to give them a makeover for me. It is a great way to get some new life out of those old Rattlin Rapalas, or take advantage of some Rapala sales on less successful models (such as the Glass Fat Rap)

You can view his entire line of work here, but I just wanted to display a sample of just some of his work. He keeps adding patterns all the time, I simply cannot keep up!

Mean Green Craw

Wavy Gravy

Lastly, I would also like to introduce your to Rob from Xtreme Lure Concepts; I am hoping that Rob and myself will be able to help spread the word about our respective sites, but he deserves mention here simply because of the beautiful work he does in his natural patterns series. You can see some examples below; Rob sells his baits to tournament fishermen, and is also an aspiring tournament fisherman himself. All of a sudden I just because very jealous of this man!
Rob also lists some of his customs for sale on ebay as well, if you're lucky you may be able to snag some of them for less than the going rate!





With all being said, my love and pursuit of Rapalas initially began to try to find different Rapala lures to fish with; with all of these great lure artists in the world, the possibilities are now inded endless.

Before I go, here are some custom lure sellers that you should definitely check out!

• Joe's Custom Baits
• Tournament Lure Concepts
• BB Lures
• Xtreme Lure Concepts

Tales Of Desperation On The Lake

Fishing on the wrong day

Lately, it never seems to fail that each time I plan a day that I am going fishing, about 90% of the time, a front seems to move through 24 hours beforehand. My usual scenario is that I need to be on the water at first light...yes it's exhausting, but it's like religion. You just have to.

Whether it be on a Saturday or Sunday morning, there are always thunderstorms that roll through the night before. Without fail. Even if its not even in the forecast. And as we all know, the result is always this:

The infamous "bluebird sky", where the fish are spooky and can see you coming from a mile away...even if the water is as stained as a baby's diaper. And not even a single breeze to break the mirror reflection on the water.

Granted, most of the times later in the day the wind does pick up, but the fishing usually doesn't. I have never considered myself a good fisherman, just someone that loves fishing. To the point where you will try everything you have for 8 hours straight in hopes of catching a measly bluegill.

Now I have done my share of reading of some general fishing tips and techniques for these types of situtations... "downsize your baits"...."natural colors"...blah blah blah. I guess my problem is that I usually ignore it. Since I usually like to target the hungry fish, instead of working the edge of a lilypad for 20 minutes to try to figure out if the fish that is nibbling on your 4" downsized wussy worm is a sunny, or a lunker largemouth.


My other problem is I just have so many Rapala lures...and dammit, I just flat out want to use them, and more importantly, catch fish with them. Each day starts out with assembling a pile of Rapalas that I know i want to use, usually because they've worked before. Of course the first lure you always grab has 9 other lures attached to it.

Typically when it comes to fishing, I am pretty patient...actually stubborn is probably more like it. But when it comes to lure patterns and when nothing is working...that's when desperation starts to slowly creep in, and the bottom of your boat is littered with baits you've already used, and the next batch of baits you're going to use.

These are usually the days you wish you invested in a 'Color-C-Lector', so you wouldnt be flying around blind, deciding to use a Bleeding Olive pattern one minute, a Hot Tiger the next, and good 'ole Gold the next. I guess it wouldnt matter anyway, since I would probably ignore any said advice, and keep rummaging through my 8 Plano boxes of Rapalas looking for the next gem.

Shallow Shad Rap or SR-5? Original Floater in F-11 or F-13? Countdown in CD-7 or CD-9? SureSet or non Sure-Set model? Jointed Shad Rap or Jointed Floater? Husky 13 off that point? Husky Jerk by the rip-rap? Throw a Japan Special next to that stump? (maybe some other time)

By the end of the day, it usually takes me about 30 minutes or longer to put back all of my baits back into their respective boxes. The bottom of my canoe is littered with failed casts.

Having too many Rapalas will do that. But at least I know I have the right bait in there....somewhere. That's what makes it all fun.

Rapala Resorts To Thuggery

Now this is something that has certainly come out of left field.

After all of my previous posts all dealt with the 2010 offerings dealing with 'Trolls-To' this and 'Flat' that, I was very surprised to find something new when I went to check Rapala.com today.

Little did I know that I would stumble across something that I hadn't seen before...again. The new Dives-To Thug, or "DT-THUG", equipped with SureSet hooks and a dizzying array of a total of 16 color patterns, including two new ones: Helsinki Shad and Regal Shad.

Looks like I'm going to need a larger tackle box.

2010 Rapala Lures... Part 3!

It's Official....

Just happened to be on Rapala.com today (surprise, surprise), and lo and behold, the lures I'd been talking about have finally made their 'debut'!

For me, I don't believe which colors the USA is getting until I see the colors listed on Rapala.com...and there is a LOT of them!

Each new line is getting the same 12 patterns, and each lure is being offered in two different sizes. So with that. these are the official patterns we can expect to see (soon, I hope...I love those Flat Raps!)











If anyone sees these is stores anytime soon, be sure to drop me a line and let me know where!

2010 Rapala Lures....Part 2!

Well after my last post, a friend of mine was able to supply me with additional pictures & some more info on the newer stuff coming from Rapala, at least in the European market.

Trolls-To Minnow


And in these pics below are up close and personal looks at the Trolls-To in patterns Clown, Silver Blue, and FireTiger -









Flat Rap

Also, here is the catalog photo of the patterns the new Flat Rap will be available in:



And a close up look at a Flat Rap in an old favorite, Perch:






Old Faces, New Faces...New Colors!

With the advent of 2010, comes some new patterns on some old lures, as well as new ones on newer models -

"GALB" - Gold Albernus, as show on a Shad Rap -



And a closer look -




"ALB", or Bleak, previously only seen on Shad Raps, now on Countdowns -




"RUCW", or Rusty Crawdad, shown on the X-Rap...



"RDP", Red Perch, X-Rap SubWalk



"GSH", Green Shiner, Glidin' Rap




I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into the near future.
Special thanks to my friend Andy from Denmark, one of our many great members over at RapalaNation - I could not have presented this without his help!