For beginners, fishing can be quite challenging. Follow these tips to make your fishing a breeze and to have a great catch. Know about the different types of baits and lures along with the techniques that you can use.
Spinners are small, metal fishing lures with blades that spin around a body to attract fish. The spinning motion reflects light and sends out subtle vibrations in the water as would a small fish. This fools your target fish to bite your bait or hook.
For the supplies you’ll need and instructions on how to fish with a spinner, please continue reading below!
While spinners can be very helpful, they don’t have too much of a benefit when used incorrectly. Several tools or techniques should be applied.
For a quicker, easier fishing trip and the proper execution of spinner fishing techniques, you’ll need the following:
The following are a bunch of useful spinner fishing techniques and how they can be performed:
Bottom Bouncing is used for casting from upstream of a river, usually from an inflatable dingy or a boat during trolling or in current fishing in wide freshwater bodies. It is effective for catching brook trout, cutthroat trout, bull trout, and rainbow trout. Remember to use fishing spinners for trout.
Steps
● Cast the spinner behind the boat or upstream until it touches the bottom.
● Allow the spinner to bounce on the bottom while moving downstream. The motion will bring up the mud, and the commotion should attract your target.
● Quickly retrieve your line with the current so that the lure works fully.
● Repeat casting and bottom bouncing several times.
This technique uses traditional live baits and gears. It is often used in naturally flowing freshwater bodies like rivers of streams from an anchored boat. Live lining allows the bait to go under and through cover, rocks, holes, and other places where gamefish could be hiding.
Steps
● Cast your line and allow the bait to reach the bottom.
● Retrieve so that the baitfish rises but not too far from the bottom. The current and the movement of the baitfish should help you here.
● Keep your bait close to the bottom.
This method is often used by seasoned anglers where chum is thrown overboard. Chum is the term used for chopped or ground vegetables, meat, or fish used to attract fish, especially sharks. Chumming is used to have the fish return at least temporarily to spots where they have not been for some time.
Steps
●Prepare some chum from a tackle shop. Some offer special mixes intended for specific fish species. If you don’t want to spend too much, you can use some bread, bread crumbs, canned corn, or pet food.
●Throw some chum overboard into the water. Approximate the amount of chum you should use to attract the fish nearer but not get them full.
● Wait for a while before casting in the chummed spot.
● Make a habit of regularly throwing chum on the same spot to make it a good fishing spot.
Walking the Dog is successful because it does not allow the lure ever to stop moving in the same small area, making it hard to be identified by target fish. It gives the illusion of slow progress and coverage while constantly moving back and forth as well.
Steps
● Cast and allow your line and lure to settle a little.
● Hold your rod at a medium height of 1 to 1.5 feet above the water’s surface, slightly angling it down with the tip close to the water.
● Move your rod from left to right using your wrist, making a wider movement than you want your lure to move.
● Maintain a slight slack on the line before and right after each jerking motion by slowly and steadily reeling out. This resists drag, allows the lure to keep moving, and allows it to move naturally.
● Keep your eyes on the lure and slowly allow it to move down until the rod tip almost touches the water. Then, without pausing, snap the rod back to the original position while preserving some slack on your line.
● Deliver a non-stop alternating series of strokes and jerks so that the lure zigzags about six inches from side to side. Remember that the rod tip should move wider to overcome the slack on the line.
● Try to maintain a steady rhythm until you retrieve.
Jigging is a popular method performed to catch different fish species by modifying or changing the rigs’ shape, play, color, and movement. This is often used for catching saltwater fish from deep waters.
Steps
● Cast and wait until your jig or lure touches the bottom.
● Use the rod tip to make the lure hop and then lower it back down.
● Avoid bringing the rod too high because this will prevent you from hooking properly when a fish bites.
● Continue reeling down to lower the bait and reeling up to pull it from the bottom until you feel a bite.
To give you a better idea of how spinner fishing works, here’s a very helpful and informative video.
There you have it! Those are the materials you need and the techniques on how to fish with a spinner. These can be used for catching a wide variety of fish species like trout, bass, salmon, walleye, bream, perch, pike, and blue kurper.
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After catching fish, the next thing to do is to kill it. So what’s the fastest, easiest, most humane, best way to kill a fish? While some people would prefer to let the fish thrasharound to slowly die before icing or cleaning them, this method is actually cruel, inhumane, unethical, and generally inadvisable.
For one recent studies show that fish are actually feeling creatures. So when you do this, they feel unnecessary pain and distress. Also, this reduces its value, freshness, quality and also decreases the storage life of the flesh.
Before we get right into the best method, first, here are the methods deemed unacceptable by the Humane Slaughter Association and Fish Count (a UK organization):
1. Live chilling in the freezer or ice water - it slowly suffocates the fish.
2. Cutting and bleeding out the gills before stunning - this is extremely painful for the fish.
3. Exposure to air or removal from water- this also violently and painfully suffocates the fish.
Now that we’ve ruled those out, here are the different easy, quick, and humane ways to kill a fish.
Three methods are preferred by most anglers, fishermen, cooks, and food handlers.
The Blow
Percussive stunning, simply put, is a blow to the fish’s head using a blunt object. It is arguably the quickest and easiest method of killing a fish.
How to Stun a Fish?
To do this, just deliver a fast, firm, hard blow or knock on the head of the fish at the top of its skull behind its eyes. You can use a heavy wooden or metal club called a “priest” or a small club made specifically for this purpose.
This delivers a huge, sudden impact on the brain to instantly kill the fish or cause it to become unconscious, thus the term “stunning”.
The blow should have enough mechanical force to reach and be absorbed by the brain and disrupt its neurological activity. However, it should not be too powerful as to crush the skull.
Most smaller fish can be stunned by holding the fish in one hand and using your dominant hand to strike it. If you’re handling larger fish, you can lay them on its belly on a flat, steady surface.
Confirming Death or Unconsciousness
After the blow, there are a few tests you can do to determine if your fish actually died or was rendered subconscious. Here’s how:
Bleeding
Once the fish is confirmed to be unconscious or dead, you should now let it bleed. Bleeding is done to maintain the freshness and high quality of the flesh.
To do this, turn the fish so that its belly is facing up. Look for the thin flap of skin tissue between the base of its throat and the gills. Hold the fish by the head using one hand, pointing the throat away from you and with your finger hooked around the flap.
Next, pull the flap to cut or disrupt it. Two large blood vessels located in the throat should open and gush out blood. Let the fish bleed out for a while before removing its guts, cleaning it, and icing it.
Percussive stunning is commonly used when dealing with strong, large, and potentially dangerous fish like halibut, mackerel, tuna, sharks, and such. Usually, several blows may be required. It can also be used for salmon and trout.
However, it may not be effective for fish species with hard skulls or those that are significantly different regarding anatomy. For these fish, you may need to adjust the position so that you can strike nearest to the brain or use a different method.
To know more about this method, please check out this video:
Cutting or destroying the spinal cord of the fish also renders it dead immediately and so it can also be the best way to kill a fish.
To do this, you should first identify the part of the fish called the throat latch. It is located between and under its gills.
Then, holding it with both hands, bend the fish’s head back sharply using a swift movement. This breaks the spine and severs the spinal cord.Not only does this method kill the fish instantly but also lets it bleed out thoroughly without doing another extra step.
While this method can be very effective especially when handling smaller species, it requires some skill and guts to do it. Sometimes, it can also be messy and nerve-wracking to perform.
Iki jime is a Japanese technique also known as spiking or pithing. It involves piercing and destroying the fish’s brain using a sharp metal object such as a screwdriver or knife. There are also specialized iki jime tools that you can buy from some tackle shops.
Iki jime is a precise process and requires some skill. But, if mastered, it can be the a good method to kill a fish because it causes the least amount of stress to the fish and improves its value as food.
The first thing you need to do is to find a soft area of the skull close to the brain (Refer to the figure below for salmon and trout). Remember that this may vary among different species.
Then, using your chosen spiking tool, quickly and firmly pierce the area. Next, wiggle the tool around. When done properly, this should destroy the brain, and the body of the fish should limp instantly. This indicates that it is dead or unconscious.
After pithing, you can now clean and ice your fish. Afterwards, it is ready to be skinned, filleted, or cut.
Depending on the fish species, your skills, and personal preference, these three different methods may be considered as the best way to kill a fish. However, in real life, a combination of two or all of these is used for optimum results.
Percussive stunning is quick and efficient but requires extreme strength. Severing the spinal cord and iki jime, on the other hand, requires special skills and guts to perform such as find fish brain location for instance. Future, they may have to be performed differently or may not work at all for every fish species.
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In the cold month especially during winter, fish like the sheepshead fish are plenty and thus, easier to catch. It’s the perfect time to start sheepshead fishing for a fun recreational activity and probably even a healthy and sumptuous dinner. If you’re a beginner, this article will help you learn the equipment and tips on how to catch sheepshead fish!
Members of the porgy family, sheepshead fish, have a set of large protruding molar teeth that are very similar to that of sheep and other mammals, thus their name. They also have thick, flattened bodies with characteristic black and white or grayish stripes, gaining them the nickname “convict fish”.
These fish have heavy, sharp spines on their anal and dorsal fins. Their sweet, juicy, and tender make a very nice meal. They also grow from 2 pounds up to 20 pounds in weight, but the usual catch consists of 2 to 5-pound fish. With the right tools and skills, sheepshead fish are fairly easy and fun to catch.
Many may think that fishing is an easy task from the looks of it. However, the knowledge and skills it takes to achieve a successful fishing trip may vary depending on which type of fish you’re aiming to catch. Also, there are different ways of fishing that you can learn and master. Catching shads, for example, is tricky. You must combine your core skills and learned techniques if you’re aiming for a great fishing expedition. If you want to acquire these tips and tricks on how to catch shad, stick around as we will give you more details about them.
Knowing how to catch grass carp requires you to also know the necessary equipment for catching this type of fish. The Grass Carp is a type of fish commonly used to control the vegetation population in ponds and lakes.
In places like Missouri, the Grass Carp is practically stocked in these lakes and ponds with the aforementioned need being the main intent for the stocking. The Grass Carp is an Asian minnow that can grow up to the length of four feet and weigh up to about 100 pounds. There comes a time when you really need to catch the grass carps.
If you didn’t know, catching a grass carp can prove to be a tall order when you fish using a line and pole. This is because this fish breed is very cautious and reclusive, with its feeding preference being in places and times when it is not disturbed or observed.
Such complications makes it mandatory for you to know how to catch grass carp as guess work won’t work for you.
Are you a catfish lover? Facing issues to pick the best bait for them? Anglers are in love with the different kinds of fishes and they tend to become very specific while fishing. Many anglers have their favorite list topped by catfishes and they can go that extra mile to catch them.
This article will let you know what is the best bait for catfish and will help you in your angling sessions.
Love redfishes but facing difficulties to catch them? Like most of the creatures on earth, redfish also have specific habits. These habits can prove to be extremely beneficial for the anglers to catch them. The more you know about the species the maximum are the chances for you to trap them.
If you know about the habits of these fishes and the kind of environment they dwell in you can highly enhance your chances to catch them. This article will help you learn how to catch redfish with minimum efforts.
Bass Fishing refers to fish for the freshwater fishes. Anglers all around the world spend hours and days to catch these game fishes. Spawning refers to the time when the fishes become aggressive and come out openly in the shallow waters and it becomes easy for the anglers to catch them.
Hence this article will help you know when do bass spawn and you can plan your fishing excursions accordingly.
Do you want to start using a spinnerbait for catching your fishes? Are you facing problem in productivity despite using perfect spinnerbait? Perhaps, you are not tying the bait appropriately to the monofilament fishing lines. If you want to know how to tie a spinnerbait to your line, this guide is perfect for you. Before we go into the instructions, let us know what exactly a spinnerbait is.
It is one of the widely used and popular types of fishing lure. It is made up of a hook which is attached to a head, frilled skirt, and attractive blades. It is popularly used for its ability to catch versatile fishes and is available in different colors. If you are struggling to tie a spinnerbait perfectly, this guide is your perfect read.
Did you catch a trout for tonight’s dinner? Do you want to know how to gut and clean a trout in the most simplified manner? Well, trout is a delicious fish with soft flesh and by acquiring skills like gutting the trout; it becomes extremely easy to remove the unwanted portion from the abdomen. Are you wondering why it is important to gut a trout?
First of all, being a fish lover, there is immense satisfaction in eating a trout that is freshly caught and cleaned properly. It is of vital importance to clean the fish and remove the gut portion to avoid the risk of diseases and the fish tasting like crap. If you have ever wondered how to gut a trout, the process is very simple but need a little bit of precision.