Ready to Go?

WHAT ARE YOU SITTING THERE READING FOR?

Ready, set, go!

What the heck do you mean you’re not ready yet?

There you sit, reading this when you should be getting down to fishing.

Have you written down a list of everything you need to start fishing, down to a tube of crazy glue? Have you thrown out the kid’s ice cream and your old ladies veggies from the freezer to make room for chum and bait?

The mackerel are running right now off shore, and you can go fish for them, but I don’t consider that fishing. All you have to do is find them by asking around the bait and tackle shops, then go out there and using a handline, put a three hook mackerel rig, drop it in the water and gig it – wiggle it around until you feel three fish on it and you lift it onto the boat, straight into the fish box. Unhook them and drop the lid. You can get from fifty to a couple hundred in less than an hour if you time yourself and do it right. Fill your freezer up with them because you can always use it later for bait. You can use the mackerel they’re getting in Cape May right now as chum or as bait for flounder, blue fish, weakfish and stripers. It’s also excellent if cooked right – preferably smoked.

The herring are more important right now than mackerel. They’re in all the rivers right now. Billions of them. They’re good live bait for striped bass and also excellent smoked. You catch the herring with a tiny, gold hook or build yourself a herring trap out of wire. But I’m not going to tell you how because it would take a whole column.

But I’ll tell you the best way to build a smoker. Take an old refrigerator or ice box, douse it with gasoline and set it on fire to burn off all the plastic and rubber stuff. Then reseal the door with chimney putty. Shoot the bottom full of bullet holes to vent the thing. You can use the refrigerator racks to cook on.

In the mean time, before you do any serious fishing, you got to get your gear together. Did you cut back on your kid’s allowance so that you have fresh line on your reels? Have you swiped your old ladies’ cotton balls to run through your guides to check for cracks? Are your reels lubed, oiled and tuned like a brand new jig? Is your boat in the water? Is it ready to hit the water? How about an inspection of all the wires you never see unless there’s a problem?

How about fuel tanks? If you left your tank full or empty your probably okay. A full tank of gas will give you more trouble than a day of jet skis. Get rid of stale gas. Siphon it into approved containers, store the containers in a safe place, and wait until your drunk brother in law comes around to borrow ten bucks for gas so he can go find another job. Give it to him.

Big stiper bass are being caught right now and you’re still sitting there reading about it?