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Show SPORTS AFIELD By TED XESTING , The chief difference between the angler who catches fish and the one who doesn't is that the former covers every bit of possibly pos-sibly productive water, and the latter doesn't. The skilled stream fisherman, for instance, will start piactically at his feet and work out from there, handling each cast and its drift to cover every square foot of water. And next to persistance (which implies careful, thorough fishing and patience), experience is most important in catching fish.' You ran read as many articles as you wish and it won't do a bit of good unless you put the suggestions Into personal experience. But you can draw upon the experience of others for some things, so here are some do's and don't contributed contrib-uted by Bill Wolf, who knows fish and fishing from coast to coast. Don'ts Don't fall to clean your fish soon after they are caught and don't pack them in damp cloth, grass or ferns. Don't ex-poet ex-poet to catch a fish every" cast. Don't stand up to cast in narrow boats or canoes. Shout or swear, but don't bump the bottom of the boat. Don't have more than two reople cast from a small boat at a time. Time of day Fish may feed at any hour, but day in and out ru'll get your best fishing in the two hours before sunset and at night. The big ones feed at night. If you like night fishing, try the shallows; surface lures work well then. Try large dry flies (really huge onesi; use slow moving or noisy surface lures for bass. And at night, the darker the lure the better. Tlug casting Get the best reel you can afford, a light line and a fairly long rod. Small fine wire leaders with snaps at the end are ideal for quickly changing chang-ing underwater plugs, spoons and oihers lures; don't use them with floating plugs. Whether fishing a surface plug or an underwater lure, vary your retrieve. Your tackle tac-kle box should contain some un-uYiwaler, un-uYiwaler, semisurface and surface sur-face lures. Bait Other than the worm, which is good anywhere, anytime there is no "best bait", so consult con-sult local fishermen. Only a few generalities are possible here. Minnows, crawfish, worms and hel.gammites are the big four among baits-dependable, usually plentiful. One the four is certain cer-tain to appeal to almost any fish. However, don't overlook beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, ca-talpa ca-talpa worms and other caterpll-lurs caterpll-lurs or anything else small enough. Bass-bugs A sturdy fly rod. level line and a short leader ork best here. The leader should N about four feet long and sttong. The one absolute neces-uty neces-uty Is a well greased line. The ork. balsa wood or deer hair lure ihoutd lift easily off the water. The subject of flies Is so big, ve decided to devote all of our rent column to It alone. |