Food Source Lures

Eric Sharp: Cool times to hook fish during hot summer days

The dog days of summer, which run from mid-July to mid-August, get their name from the constellation Canis Major, the Big Dog. It includes the brightest star in the sky, Sirius (nicknamed the Dog Star), which at this time of year rises about 6 a.m.

In ancient Greek times, it rose even earlier (the sky has changed a bit in the past 3,000 years) and seemed to be very close to the sun, so Sirius was blamed for the hot weather that seemed to accompany the morning appearance of this star.

The star also was blamed for, among other things, souring milk, making people surly and driving dogs mad. Yet the dog days aren't necessarily bad for fishermen if they keep in mind that most fish don't like the noonday sun.

Fish will make a liar out of you every time.

It's 2 p.m. under a blazing sun with the temperature above 90, conditions under which, as I've been pontificating to my fishing partner, we're extremely unlikely to have much success.

"Big trout don't make their living coming out in broad daylight in warm water to eat something less than a half-inch long," I say dogmatically. "All we can expect are some dinks and a little exercise."

The words are barely out of my mouth when there's a huge splash as something strikes the No. 16 elk hair caddis I've been casting upstream on the Manistee River to match for the few flies we see flitting over the water.

If I'd been paying attention instead of running my mouth, I'd have been able to react faster, but I'm too slow in raising the rod tip and don't get a good hook set. A brown trout at least 18 inches long surfaces twice about 30 feet away, then spits the fly and is gone.

It's quiet for a few seconds, then Steve Medak, the friend from Chicago, says, "I guess nobody told that fish." He makes no effort to hide a smirk.

But the fish that didn't get the word aside, the dog days of summer are when we should be fishing for most species during the first couple of hours after daylight and the last couple of hours before dark.

That lesson was brought home again on a recent bass trip to Cass Lake in Oakland County. During the afternoon, I could see fish on the fish finder that I figured were largemouths, but they were all deeper than 15 feet and ignored everything I tried to drop on them.

Six hours later, just before 8 p.m., a lot of the fish had moved into 8 feet or less and happily took a 6-inch watermelon worm hopped along the bottom, with 10- to 20-second pauses between two or three hops.

Ecological Impact of Plastic Lures: Fishing Responsibly by Using ...

It is a matter of course that fishing involves the use of sinkers and lures. The toxic effects of lead in the environment are well documented, but the use of soft plastic fishing lures has not widely been considered a source of marine debris. The American Sportfishing Association documented expenditures by recreational fishers in 2006 for lures, flies, and artificial baits totaled $902.7 million. Some projections claim 25 million soft plastic lures are lost in the field each year.

Plastic is one of the chief culprits in problems associated with marine debris. It is long lived in the environment and takes hundreds of years to degrade. Soft plastic fishing lures are designed to attract fish, and they break into small, easy to ingest pieces with time.

Another environmental issue tied to use of soft plastic lures is their composition. A plasticizer, comprising a large percentage of the lure's weight is used to keep it soft and pliable. Most soft lures are made of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that use substances called phthalates as plasticizers. Phthalates have been associated with public health risks.

There are several ways environmentally concerned anglers can address the use of soft bait lures. Two leading examples come out of public university technology partnerships with private industry sponsors. One effort comes from the University of Wisconsin focused on reinforced plastics, and the other was development of biodegradable lures at Auburn University

Researchers and students at the University of Wisconsin worked in concert with entrepreneur Ben Hobbins to develop a series of reusable soft plastic fishing lures. The University's School of Business, Polymer Engineering Center, Innovation Service Center, and Extension Wisconsin Entrepreneur's Network all participated in the effort. By reinforcing the soft plastic with microfibers, the resulting lure was nearly unbreakable and reduces the amount of plastic entering the aquatic environment. Hobbins is branding the new lures as " IronClads " and they have been well received by the sportfishing industry.

A Birmingham, Alabama corporation collaborated with a group of Auburn University fisheries and food researchers to produce a fishing lure made of consumable fish food branded as " FoodSource Lures ". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the ingredients used to make the lures for use in animal feeds. Not only are the lures biodegradable, they are nutrient rich for fish and don't cause harm when they are lost. The lures breakdown and biodegrade in the environment after about three weeks.

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