| Bass fishing usually requires a fishing pole, but | | | | and lifted it up for Bruce to take. Just barely legal |
| there are other ways, and that is what this story | | | | - or at least it would have been if it weren't for |
| is about. A warning though: The techniques | | | | the trees. Then again, maybe a fishing pole is a |
| described here are almost certainly illegal | | | | legal requirement. Bruce threw it in the bucket and |
| wherever you go fishing. They were fun when | | | | I went back down for more. |
| we were kids though... | | | | Perch Fishing By Hand |
| Bass Fishing From A Raft | | | | The little creek that enters the bay was |
| Wilsey Bay in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is known | | | | occasionally stopped by the sand that built up |
| for its good smallmouth bass fishing. The | | | | during storms. Then the water would build up |
| swimming isn't that bad either, which was why | | | | behind the sand for days until it broke loose and |
| we built the raft. My friend Bruce was probably | | | | opened up the stream again. We didn't always |
| the oldest at the time, about twelve-years-old. It | | | | wait, however. Once there was sufficient water |
| was probably his idea to use the oil barrels for | | | | pressure, a simple channel dug through the sand |
| flotation. Four of them, topped by some wooden | | | | by hand, from the dammed creek to the bay, |
| pallets and plywood nailed together, made a raft | | | | was enough to get it going. It would start out |
| that could support seven or eight people. | | | | slowly, and then, within an hour the creek would |
| We anchored it in the middle of the bay. It is a | | | | be gushing out into the bay, twenty-feet across |
| shallow bay, so the middle was still only six feet | | | | where our three-inch channel had been. |
| deep or so. This would be our swimming area, but | | | | Since the creek rarely flowed this fast normally, |
| more than that. We started to bring small trees | | | | other things happened that weren't normal. The |
| out and sink them with milk jugs full of sand and | | | | fish that had been in the creek behind the dam |
| pieces of cinder blocks. Of course, we didn't know | | | | would all get flushed out, for example. The day of |
| that it was illegal to build an artificial environment | | | | the "perch flush" the creek had opened up almost |
| for fish. In fact, we didn't know that this was | | | | thirty-feet wide, but only a few inches deep. As |
| what we were doing. We built walls of rocks | | | | the perch came out, we grabbed them by hand |
| underwater as well. | | | | until we had a couple dozen in a bucket. We built a |
| Within a few weeks there were schools of fish | | | | pond on the beach for these, since it was too |
| hanging out below our raft in the racks and tree | | | | many to eat all at once. |
| branches. There were some perch, but most of | | | | Other Childish Fishing Techniques |
| them were smallmouth bass. As we watched | | | | We caught smelt one at a time by hand with a |
| then swimming below us, and then as we | | | | flashlight, as many as forty in a hour or two. We |
| watched them next to us during our dives. I had | | | | shamelessly clubbed suckers in the creek ad |
| an idea. Who needs a fishing pole when you can | | | | brought them to the neighbor. She would |
| get this close to the fish? | | | | pressure-cook them with ketchup, and they came |
| Bruce kept the bucket ready in the boat, which | | | | out looking and tasting almost like canned salmon. |
| was tied to the raft. I had one fishhook and three | | | | Half for herself - that was the charge for cooking |
| feet of line. I tied the hook to one end of the line | | | | them for us. |
| and tied the other end to my finger. I treaded | | | | Whether bass fishing without a pole or clubbing |
| water while Bruce baited the hook with half of a | | | | suckers, these are probably not techniques you'll |
| worm. He threw the line over the edge of the | | | | want to try unless you want to meet the local |
| boat. | | | | game warden. And I do have to warn you that |
| Swimming by the trees, I simply let the baited | | | | the last time I tried using just a hook and a piece |
| hook float alongside me, trying to hold it out from | | | | of line, the fish bit my thumb and drew blood. |
| my body a couple feet. I could only hold my | | | | Yes, I may be the only person to ever had blood |
| breath for a minute or less, but by the second | | | | drawn by the bite of a smallmouth bass. But it is |
| dive a ten-inch bass darted out of the tree | | | | fun to remember how much fun childhood fishing |
| branches and took the bait. I swam to the boat | | | | could be. |