Harold Blaisdell - Tricks That Take Fish: The Definitive Guide to Catching Freshwater Gamefish on Bait Lures and Flies

TRICKS THAT

TAKE FISH

TRICKS THAT

TAKE FISH

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO CATCHING FRESHWATER GAMEFISH ON BAIT, LURES, AND FLIES

HAROLD BLAISDELL

FOREWORD BY H. G. TAPPLY INTRODUCTION BY JAY CASSELL

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 2012 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-61608-695-4

Illustrations by Walter Dower

Printed in China

Contents

Foreword

Several years ago I started a collection of tricks that had helped me to take fish when orthodox methods failed. The collection took the form of scribbled memos like Rubber strip on tail hook of bass plug and Live nymph on No.-14 hook, good low water. These I tucked away in a large Manila envelope, my intent at the time being to gather such pearls of angling wisdom until I had enough for a magazine article. This I planned to title Tricks That Take Fish and to sell for cash.

But alas, my collection grew slowly, and I had all but abandoned it when, three trout seasons ago, I started fishing with Harold Blaisdell. Immediately the Manila envelope began to fatten at a prodigious rate with newly discovered tricks that took fish. Soon I had enough for a major magazine feature. Before I could write it I had enough for two. As I scribbled notes after an especially rewarding day on the Battenkill with Blaisdell, I dared think I might soon have enough tricks for a book.

So one day I began sorting them out. At first I felt greatly cheered to find I had scores of proven, practical fish-taking tricks that fishermen everywhere could use with profit on almost every game fish that inhabits fresh water. Then, as I continued my inventory, my cheer turned to dismay. Of all these fish-taking tricks, barely half a dozen were mine. The rest were Blaisdells. Night fishing for big trout with a skinned minnow, that was his. Fishing with whips for winter walleyes, that was his, too. The notes betrayed my perfidy, and in my own handwriting, too. I still didnt have enough tricks of my own to get beyond six paragraphs of a magazine article.

It so happens that Harold Blaisdell is as capable of writing a book as I, and quite probably more so. His stories of fishing and gunning have delighted the readers of all the countrys leading outdoor magazines. He writes with the same grace and skill with which he handles a fishing rod. Were this not so, I should have written this book myself and given him credit in the Foreword for the many ideas which he contributed to my literary effort.

But since Harold possesses both the time and talent for book-writing and since the ideas herein contained are his except for my meager half-dozen, I feel it only fair to divide the project thusly: Harold to write the book and I the Foreword.

Just remember, though, that sticking a strip of rubber on the tail hook of a bass plug was my idea.

H. G. Tapply

Introduction

A number of years ago, I picked up a book at a sporting-goods store near my home. Titled The Art of Fishing with Worms and Other Live Bait, the books subtitle promised that this was A modern guide to the oldest form of fishinga first resort for some anglers, a last resort for others, but seldom practiced by anyone with the skills revealed by Harold F. Blaisdell.

A book primarily on worm fishing? Youre kidding, I thought to myself. Everybody knows how to fish with worms, dont they? The more I thought about it, though, and as I thumbed through the books pages, the more I realized that there are subtleties to worm and bait fishing, just as there are subtle-ties to fly fishing, spin fishing, and bait casting (with plugs). I bought the bookhey, maybe Id learn something. And if I didnt, I didnt.

I didbig time. As I read through that book, I learned more about worm fishing than I thought was possible. How to properly impale a nightcrawler onto a hook, how to weight the bait properly, how to cast in stream or lake, where to cast, how to deal with clear water, or turbid water. It was all thereand I have to say, coming away from that book, I knew I was a better angler, because the author taught me to look at things differently, to think like a trout (or bass, or panfish), to analyze everything before even wetting a line. What I especially liked about that book was Blaisdells easy-to-read, no-nonsense style.