The Structure Cafe: January 2016

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January 2016

01/28/2016

Factors that Create Big Bass

by Dr. Mike S. Allen

Excerpt from BASS Times

"The fish behavior hypothesis. This is one hypothesis where we have very little scientific work to lean on, but it’s an interesting one in my view. This hypothesis suggests that some fish tend to inhabit areas and/or feed on prey where they are unlikely to be caught by an angler. Because of this “rare” behavior, these fish are free to grow to large sizes with little chance of being caught. Pond studies in Texas have shown that some individual fish are likely to be caught repeatedly, whereas other fish are never caught despite a substantial amount of fishing for them.

As another example, I once met an angler at a Florida lake that used spoonplugs (invented by the famous Buck Perry). He would troll these lures in the middle of a large Florida lake, with no cover or noticeable depth change, and he would find some very large bass residing hundreds of yards away from any noticeable feature. So, it is certainly plausible that some bass live in areas where they are unlikely to be captured, creating some of the largest fish in the lake."

Posted at 09:51 AM in Everything Else, Spoonplugging/Buck Perry | Permalink | Comments (1)

01/21/2016

Bill Binkelman and Zebco

Here are a few photos of Bill Binkelman from the book, "'How to Fish' River Walleye" by Dan Gapen. The book was published in 1987, so these pictures were probably taken a few years before then. I've spoken with Dan a couple times and he has told me that he and Bill were great friends, the two of them taking Canadian fishing trips together in Bill's later years. Dan's company also manufactured jigs for Bill for a time.

Of particular interest to me was the last photo. Look closely at the outfit Bill is fishing and you might recognize it as a Zebco underspin reel, a particular favorite of Bill's from what I've been able to gather. It is most likely a Zebco 44, a model that came out in the mid- to late 1950s, about the same time as the Model 33. I used to own and fish with a 144 XL underspin "back in the day"myself, and caught quite a few bass with it.

Posted at 08:52 PM in Bill Binkelman, Everything Else | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/16/2016

Bill Binkelman "Slim Jim" Jigs

These are some old "Slim Jim" jigs that were sold by Bill Binkelman in his catalogs. Bill had these locally tied in Wisconsin for him. They were made with Dynel synthetic fiber. A little history on that from Wikipedia:

[Union Carbide] A registered trademark for a synthetic modacrylic fiber composed of 40% acrylonitrile and 60% vinyl chloride copolymer. Dynel® was first introduced in 1951. Its fibers are wet spun from an acetone solution; this produced irregular ribbon shaped filaments. The thermoplastic fibers were easily dyed and had good chemical resistance. Dynel® fibers were also resistant to clothes moths larvae, to carpet beetles and to mildew and fungus. The fibers were sensitive to heat and could only be ironed at the lowest setting. Pleats could be permanently set with heat. Dynel® was used in knitted and woven fabrics for apparel and household furnishing. It was also used to make fake fur, wigs and doll hair. The production of Dynel® has been discontinued.

The "original" Slim Jim jig was a product of Wapsi Fly Co. from what I can tell, likely named after Jim Stone who did much of their research and designing. Bill also sold the originals via his catalogs back in the 1970s.

Posted at 03:56 PM in Bill Binkelman, Everything Else, Memorabilia | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/10/2016

Nightcrawler Secrets - Bill Binkelman; 1966

The book that arguably started and defined live bait fishing with nightcrawlers, practically turning it into an art form. In combination with the Lindy Rig being created and promoted shortly thereafter (1968) by Al and Ron Lindner of Lindy Tackle, live bait anglers could proudly stake their claim and presence in the angling world. It has also been argued that this book was at the forefront of defining and promoting "finesse" fishing, a concept of fishing still very prevalent in the world of angling today. Even Buck Perry stated that a fish will feed (as opposed to strike) about 5% of the time, and that live bait had its place then, as well as with certain slow species or when speed control must be close to zero.

Posted at 12:38 PM in Bill Binkelman, Books, In' Fisherman/Al & Ron Lindner, Nightcrawler Secrets | Permalink | Comments (0)

01/03/2016

Walleye and Structure: Lake Erie

"Nowadays on Lake Erie, Robertson noted, you fish little pods of walleye on individual or isolated structure. 'I fish transitions -- mud to rock, dropoffs, hard mud to soft mud. It's more predictable. Out here fish move, so if you can work with a constant that holds fish, like structure, it helps. It is the easiest way to put a [successful] pattern together.'"

- Toledo pro troller Ross Robertson

Posted at 12:14 PM in Everything Else | Permalink | Comments (0)

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