you can catch a fish, you have to find the fish. That means figuring out where the fish are within a body of water. Understanding structure and cover helps you do that:
Structure refers to the permanent features that mark a lake or stream — a drop-off, ledge, or a hole is structure. Fish relate to structure and often remain close to it.
Cover consists of things like weed beds, brush piles, or floating docks. It matters just as much as structure.
Knowing that fish are often found near cover and structure helps you figure out how to fish for them. When you know where fish are, you can decide how best to approach them. Should you use a topwater lure, drawing a savage surface strike? Or maybe you should present your bait with a bottom rig, waiting for the fish to find and take it.
Different species of fish respond to different presentations, and with experience and the help of this book, you’ll improve at both finding the fish and then getting them to bite.
FINDING A FISHING MENTOR
Many of us were lucky enough to have a parent or grandparent to teach us how to cast for fish, and more importantly, to make the time to take us fishing. But if that’s not the case for you, don’t despair. There are plenty of ways to learn how to fish, and many people willing to show you a few shortcuts. I suggest finding someone who fishes for the fish you would like to pursue, and does so in a way that matches your personality. Watch others at boat ramps and bait shops. Search YouTube for your favorite fish or your fishing location. You could seek out social media fishing forums. Ask questions first to get to know someone, and then see if they extend an offer to take you fishing. Most are happy to share their excitement for the sport. Another option, albeit a costlier one, is to hire a local guide. Following the instructions and corrections of a guide for a day is a great way to learn about fishing from an expert. As always, don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Basic techniques for saltwater fishing
Most presentations involve either stillfishing — where a bait or sometimes a lure is cast out and largely left alone until a fish finds it — or by retrieving a lure or bait. Baits and lures can be retrieved in different ways. Some lures are meant to be reeled in quickly, whereas others work better when jigged (hopped up and down by lifting and lowering the rod tip). Still other presentations include drifting or trolling baits or lures from a boat.
Fishing saltwater means understanding tides, and how the flow of the rising or falling tides affect gamefish. Because tides tend to congregate baitfish, locating gamefish becomes a matter of finding ambush points where these gatherings of bait become easy prey.
Fish On! Now What?
When a fish strikes your bait, fly or lure, the first thing you have to do is set the hook. This refers to the act of imbedding the hook into the mouth of the fish. Many hooksets involve lifting the rod sharply overhead, using the flex of the rod to drive the hook or hooks into the fish’s mouth. When using circle hooks, the fish simply swims away until the rod bends deeply toward the fish — then the circle hook rotates around the corner of the fish’s mouth and the bend of the rod drives the hook home. In fly fishing, with many stripers, tarpon, big trout, and redfish, lifting the rod will pull the fly out of the fish’s mouth. So you sometimes need to swipe sideways rather than lifting.
After a fish is hooked, you have to fight the fish to the shore or boat, and this means controlling the ensuing struggle enough that the fish cannot wrap the line around a snag or do a number of other things to free itself. This is covered completely in Chapter 18, but you should always strive to keep the rod tip up, using the flex of the rod to maintain a tight line and keep the hook firmly planted in the fish’s mouth.
It’s not hunting: You can release fish
When a fish is in your net or hand, assuming the fish is legal, you have a choice to make: Do you release the fish, or keep it? (Fish that aren’t legal — due to size restrictions, say, or species-specific rules on that body of water — must be unhooked and released immediately.) With practice, you can easily unhook a fish, and most fish, when fought to the bank properly, will zip off unharmed when released back into the water.
If the fight has been particularly long or grueling, the fish might be fully exhausted, in which case you might need to revive the fish before you release it. Chapter 18 describes how to revive and release an exhausted fish.
Releasing fish ensures that other anglers will have the chance to catch fish, and releasing a trophy is a way to keep the right genes (the kind that make big, healthy fish!) in the pool. Of course, as mentioned in Chapter 19, be sure to get a picture of that award-winning fish before turning it loose.
But fish taste great, and you can keep a few, too
Because a fish’s body is made up primarily of muscle, they are a great source of protein. With practice, it’s possible to clean fish efficiently and with a minimal amount of gore. When properly cleaned, fish can be cooked in many different ways, pleasing even the most discerning palate.
Chapter 21 includes recipes for preparing different kinds of fish in a variety of ways. Most of the recipes come from noted chefs Lucia Watson, award-winning chef and founder of Lucia’s in Minneapolis, and Peter Kaminsky, a cooking writer and one of the authors of this book. You’re sure to find a new favorite dish.
Chapter 2
Gathering What You Need to Fish
IN THIS CHAPTER
Be prepared. That’s good advice that the Boy Scouts of America have followed for over 100 years now. Some people want their trips to be spontaneous, fun, and unpredictable. Others don’t get to go fishing as often as they would like (who does?) and so want every minute they get on the water to be as enjoyable and stress-free as possible. And that means being prepared for the unplanned things that inevitably happen while fishing.
And being ready doesn’t mean your fishing expeditions will somehow lack spontaneity or fun. On the contrary — the more prepared
