Sad but true 90% of our stream trout are hatchery raised. They are always fed some liver in the hatchery and never forget the smell and taste of liver. As a bait for stream trout liver is excellent. Rubbing a piece of liver on wet flies makes stream trout take them when they would’nt approach the fly without the liver smell. A pound or two of ground up liver chum gets trout in a feeding mood. They then will take most any wet fly or nymph with a liver odor dropped into the pool.

Although crappies & bluegill are’nt familiar with liver they will also strike wet flies that have been rubbed with liver concentrating them in the area quickly and holding them there.

FLUORESCENT RED ORANGE BAIT HOOKS
Orange-red enameled fluorescent bait hooks will produce 5 fish compared to nickel, gold or bronze hooks. The red orange color can be seen for great distances and combined with the bait on them fish tend to associate the red orange fluorescent color with blood, making them strike.

These same hooks work wonders on salmon, stream trout, crappies, walleyes, northern pike & muskies. In salt water they work wonders on fish such as striped bass, snook, yellow-tails, seatrout, tarpon, tuna, etc.

PORKRIND TRICK FOR CASTING, SPINNING & TROLLING
Without question, one of the best fishing methods of all time is using a cloth or natural pork rind in front of a fishing lure. It gives the impression that the lure is chasing the bait. I’ve spent the better part of 2 years under water studying fish and have discovered that fish will strike from jealousy more than from anything else. I have watched countless times as a school of fish stared at a lure going by or a bait dangling in front of them without making a move for it. None of the fish even seemed excited about the bait. Suddenly one fish would make a slight move in the direction of the bait or lure often just by accident. Suddenly several fish would rush in and strike the lure or bait to make sure that the fish that moved would not get it. Whether the fish a full stomach or not, it made no difference at all. Jealousy of another fish getting the lure or bait made them strike without hesitation.

To make fish jealous and to make them strike under all conditions you have to have your lure chasing a bait or baits.

In spinning take a cloth preferably, or pig hide pork rind in spinning size and make a small hole in it with a pin or nail and thread your line through the hole, then tie on your leader and put your lure on the end of your leader. Do not put your line through the regular slot that comes in a cloth or pig skin pork rind as the slot is so large that it will allow the pork rind to slip over your leader and down to your lure. The pork rind must be at least 6″ ahead of your lure and preferably 12″.

In bait casting put the pork rind on in the same way and use a spinning size pork rind also.
In trolling put at least one pork rind just ahead of your leader. If you take and put six or more pork rinds on your line about twelve inches apart ahead of your leader, you will have fabulous trolling with such a troller. The pork rinds give the impression that your lure is madly chasing a school of minnows. Attach pork rinds to your line by putting three small holes in the head of the rind with a needle or sharp nail in a length-wise position and weave your line through the three holes. Do not tie the pork rind to your line with knots since knots will weaken the line.
This pork rind trick works on fresh water fish such as crappies, black bass, perch, walleyed pike, muskies, northern pike, white perch, stream trout, lake trout and on salt water fish such as salmon, striped bass, snook, sea trout, sea bass, yellowtail, tuna, sailfish and marlin.

Vary the size of the pork rind with the size of lure that you use but always keep the pork rind about half the size of your lure or smaller.

BEST WALLEYED PIKE FALL LURE
In the fall of walleyes come to shallow water to feed. A small fly rod size thinfish or Lazy Iver cast and retrieved near the bottom gets these fish to strike often. Best colors are orange, red fluorescent or purple.

RUBBER LINE INSERT MOST EFFECTIVE FOR TROLLING
The West Coast commercial salmon trollers developed and proved that the rubber line insert was by far the best method for trolling and boating the most fish. The line inserts they use are 18 inches long and about 6/16 of an inch in diameter. They take fish of over one hundred and fifty pounds with no trouble at all. The rubber line insert has a swivel on one end and a snap on the other. Put it about 25 to 100 feet ahead of your line. Simply fasten your line to each end of it.

A rubber trolling line insert has just enough stretch and pullback to set a hook perfectly once a fish is hooked he just cannot get a solid direct pull making the hook hold well. Until you’ve used a rubber insert for trolling you can’t imagine how effective they are. A 3/16 inch rubber leader is strong enough for walleyes, lake trouts and pike. Even walleyed pike with their horny mouth can’t throw a hook with a rubber insert in your line. The 6/16 inch in diameter holds sailfish and marlin with no problem & lets you land them on featherweight lines.

USE WOODEN PAIL TO KEEP SALT WATER SPOONS FROM TARNISHING
When salt water trolling always use spoons that are half gold or brass colored and half nickel or silver colored or all gold or brass colored. Commercial fishing records of the past 50 years have shown that gold & nickel or all gold spoons the most effective for salt water use by far.

A good method to keep spoons from tarnishing in salt water is to keep them in a wooden or plastic bucket of sea water when not in use. If you put them in a galvanized pail they will tarnish immediately or if you put them in fresh water they will tarnish.

STRING OF BAT MINNOWS TRICK FOR TROLLING

This technique began in Newfoundland to land tuna but works well on all fresh or salt water fish that you troll for. Take 10 or more bait minnows. Take a large sewing needle and a length of fishing line from three to twenty feet long depending upon the size of the minnows that you are using. Sew the minnows to the line by the lips. Sew them through the lips at least four times so that they will remain in position on the line. Space them so that there is a gap between their bodies of at least three to twelve inches depending upon the size of the minnows. Put a metal wire lure spreader onto your line. Run one line off from your spreader with your plug, spoon or bait on it. Run the string of bait minnows off from the other end of the spreader so that it is about 4′ ahead of your lure or bait. Make sure that the lure or bait is at least twice as large as your bait minnows. That gives the impression that the lure is chasing a whole school of minnows.

In salt water fishing for such fish as tuna, sailfish, marlin, etc. where your lure is fished relatively close to the boat run a separate line out behind the boat with the bait minnows sewed onto it and run your lure or bait on a separate line. You can see your lure or bait from the boat and adjust the line with the minnows on it so that they are off to the side a bit and the right distance ahead of your lure or bait.

HOW TO FISH STEELHEADS OR RAINBOWS WITH SALMON EGGS

Tie a regular salmon egg hook on your leader. Next tie a small loop in your leader right above the eye of the hook. Take a small tassel of orange red fluorescent yarn about a half inch long and put it in the loop and tighten the loop on it. Then put your salmon egg or eggs on the hook. The combination of the little orange red fluorescent wool yarn tassel and the salmon eggs works much better than just the salmon eggs alone.
LIVER AN EXCELLENT ALL AROUND FRESH AND SALT WATER BAIT
The liver of such domesticated animals as pigs, cows, and sheep and the liver of birds and wild animals make a fine bait for both salt and freshwater fish.Barracudas bite very well on about a 2″ chunk of liver on a hook. Red snappers, striped bass, all happily strike at strips of liver on a nook like a worm or bunch of worms.

Black bass, stream trout, bluegills, northern pike all hit strips of liver very well. Cut the liver into worm like strips or in pork rind like strips.
In winter fishing through the ice for bluegills and trout they hit liver many times when they will take nothing else.

USING GROUND LIVER TO CHUM BLACK BASS
Two or three pounds of ground liver will concentrate black bass in an area and will make them bite any fly or streamer that has been rubbed in liver and has a liver odor. Just scatter the liver over areas that bass are known to inhabit.

ATTRACTING FISH TO AN AREA WITH GROUND LIVER
For winter ice fishing try hanging a cloth sack of finely ground liver down through the hole in the ice. It will attract every fish in the area to your spot.
In summer still fishing for such fish as crappies, bluegills, catfish, black bass, hang a cloth sack with several pounds of ground liver in it over the side of the boat. It will attract every fish in the area.

SPORTSMAN SHOW TROUT POND TRICK
For wet fly fishing and nymph fishing rub sliced liver on your flies and nymphs. Trout as well as pan-fish strike them savagely when they won’t go near them without the liver smell. Rubbing wet flies and nymphs in liver is in many cases the sole reason most guides and old time fishermen can so readily out fish novice fishermen.
At sportsmen’s shows where they have artificial ponds of trout to catch with flies if you rub liver on the flies you can catch them as fast as you put the fly in the water. Without the liver smell these fish will rarely take a fly at all.

SOY BEAN MEAL WILL ATTRACT FISH TO AN AREA
To attract fish with soy bean meal proceed as follows. Take a sack of soy bean meal in any size from twenty five to one hundred pounds. Be sure that the sack is a gunny sack. If a tight woven sack, punch a few holes in it with a lead pencil. Tie a heavy rock onto the end of the sack and sink it in the area that you desire to fish in. Soy bean meal is very light and floats, it takes a real heavy rock to sink it. After twenty four hours start fishing the area. The soy bean meal will gradually seep out of the sack and attract small feed fish and insects which will in turn attract larger fish. Crappies, bluegills, blackbass, walleyed pike, northern pike, striped bass and stream trout will congregate in the area of the sack.

MAKING A FALSE HATCH
Jacques P. Herter and I fished brook trout in Quebec one summer. I was having very bad luck and Jacques was taking all the fish he wanted to. The streams were small to medium in size and had been pretty well worked over. We were both fishing separate streams and did’nt see each other until we returned at night to our small motel. I was having such bad luck that I eventually went over to the stream Jacques was fishing on to watch him fish. I sneaked up on him and learned how to really make a false hatch. Jacques would locate a pool that he knew held some fish. He would carefully walk up stream a hundred feet and scatter the entire surface of the water with mixed natural colors of wild duck breast feathers. Then he would quickly go down to the pool and wait for the feathers to arrive. When the feathers came to the pool he began tapping the water rapidly with a nymph. After about five or six taps he would let it sink and a trout would hit it every time. I watched him for several hours then went back to our model and waited for him to come in. When he came in I told him he better get me a supply of wild duck breast feathers for the next day too. It turned out he had gotten them from a pillow that belonged to one of the many very beautiful girls in the area. I am too old to go to such ends to catch trout.

USING UNDERWATER LIGHTS TO ATTRACT FISH
Nearly all fresh water game fish as well as saltwater fish are attracted by underwater lights. Yellow, orange, and red lights work like magic. White lights not at all or very poorly. In order to get light under water you must use a gas and waterproof type of electric light fixture such as used in showers or in paint spray booths. The cord letting the light down into the water must be waterproof rubberized cord and all connections to the fixture must be carefully covered with waterproof rubber tape. You can use batteries or a small generator for the power source in your boat.
Japanese commercial fishermen now use underwater colored lights almost entirely to attract and congregate salt water fish of all kinds including salmon in areas for netting.

Colored lights quickly concentrate such fresh water fish as walleyed pike, black bass, northern pike, crappies, bluegills, perch, stream trout and lake trout and practically all salt water fish including tarpon, yellowtail, striped bass, grouper, snook, sailfish and marlin.

WHEN THE ICE BEGINS TO LEAVE LAKES IN THE SPRING
When the ice begins to thaw out of the shallow bays of lakes in bluegill areas you will have wonderful fishing using wet flies or worms. Get your boat or canoe out into the bays just as soon as there is enough open water to float it.

In lakes with rainbow trout you will catch rainbows in the first open patch of water you can get your boat or canoe into. In Alaska I have had some wonderful rainbow fishing in small strips of open water between the ice in ice bound lakes.

FIRST DAY LAKES FREEZE OVER YOU CAN TAKE BASS AND BLUE GILLS WITHOUT FISHING
In countries where lakes freeze over solidly, the first day the lake freezes over lowers the water temperature quite suddenly. Some fish caught in shallow water will float on their sides for a day right up against the ice. Take a hatchet or an ice chisel and chop a hole just ahead of them. Reach in the hole and grab them. We used to do this in Minnesota to lay in an early winter supply of fish for eating.

FRESH WATER CLAM EXCELLENT BLUEGILL AND BREAM BAIT
If bluegills or bream will not take flies, which is rarely the case, use the following bait. Go along a sandy beach early in the morning and you will see lines in the sand under the water. These are fresh water clam trails. Follow a line until it disappears then dig down in the sand and you will have a fresh water clam. Open it up and cut out a small wormshaped piece from the yellow tough part of the clam. Use this piece for bluegill bait. Vibrate it slightly on your hook. Pieces of clam will catch more bluegills winter or summer than red worms, grubworms or angle worms.

For winter fishing through the ice freeze clams in your deep freezer in the summer. Thaw them out in the winter when you need to use them.

CANNED SHRIMP AS BAIT
Canned shrimp aren’t cheap but they make excellent bait for fresh and saltwater fish. Get the smallest kind and in broken pieces if available since broken ones are less expensive and work just as well. For winter fishing through ice use small pieces of canned shrimp for bluegills, whitefish, perch, and walleyes, blackbass and trout. In salt water fishing canned shrimp are very good for almost any kind of bottom or rock fish.
It’s a smart idea to keep a can of canned shrimp in your tackle box to use if fresh baits are not available.

TAKING RAINBOWS AND DOLLY VARDEN’S ON SALMON EGG CLUSTERS
If at all possible use fresh or frozen salmon eggs as they will catch ten fish to one over canned salmon eggs. Use a treble hook instead of a single hook if allowed in your state. A treble hook holds the egg cluster much better than a single hook. Take a piece of orange red fluorescent yarn and tie it onto your line just above the egg cluster. Trim off the ends of the yarn so that they are about an inch long.

SECRET OF BULLHEAD AND CATFISH COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN
Get a piece of old fashioned black stick type liquorice candy. Cut off pieces of it a half to an inch long and put it on your hook like a worm. It often pulls bullheads much better than other baits. Using other baits such as worms, etc., it can also increase your bullhead catch. For catfish use a 1″ piece of liquorice on the hook plus your other bait. The liquorice can increase your catfish catch about 10 times. This is an old bullhead and catfish trick of commercial fishermen and the 1st time ever revealed.

NYLON STOCKING CHUMMER
For both fresh and salt water fishing an old nylon stocking filled with a can or two of cat food or ground up fish entrails works great. Hang the stocking off the side of the boat down in the water at the proper depth. The water dissolves the chum giving you a good chum slick. Works wonders on such salt water fish as blues, and weak-fish and on fresh water fish such as bluegills & perch.

BEST CHUM FOR SALT WATER FISH, SUCH AS TUNA
The best live chum for salt water fish when fishing from a boat for albacore and other tuna is anchovies. They tend to stay close to the hull of the boat and do not swim away thus bringing the fish in close to the boat and keeping them in close.

HOW TO CATCH ALBACORE AT NIGHT
West coast albacore are one of the few salt water fish that like to feed in the beams of an artificial flood light at night. You can easily find feeding schools of Albacore at night with a flood light on your boat. Go right up to the school and hold the flood light on the school and chum them with live anchovies. You can catch them all night long if you want to.

LOCATING FISHING SPOTS BY NIGHT
Black bass fishing is often better at night than during the day. Crappies and walleyes are also good biters after dark along with bollheads and catfish. Finding just the right spot to fish at night can be difficult. Stick a mirror or piece of Scotch fluorescent tape to a tree or rock in line with a good spot that you have located in the daytime. Anchor out corked bottles with fluorescent tape on them in the areas you desire to fish in at night. You can spot the mirrors and fluorescent tape easily at night with your flashlight. In weed bed casting for black bass you can mark the outline of the weed beds with anchored corked bottles with fluorescent tape on them and work them just as accurately at night as in the daytime.

CARRYING A WALKING STICK FOR FAST WATER STREAMS
When fishing streams with a very fast current make sure to carry a stout walking stick made from the limb of a good tree. Use it to brace yourself against the current as you fish and to feel your way along on the rocky bottom carefully so that you do not run into any holes or pockets. A swift stream can knock you over drowning you in a matter of seconds.

For example in British Columbia fishing steelhead in the winter you can run into some very bad swift water that requires all of your skill to stay in it and keep right side up.

WEAR POLAROID GLASSES FOR SHALLOW WATER FISHING
Guides and professional fishermen have long used Polaroid glasses to spot fish in shallow rivers and lakes. If you can locate a fish it is much easier of course to get him to strike than when you do not know his exact position. With Polaroid glasses you can see right down into the water and see the fish. With just your eyes or ordinary glasses the reflections on the surface of the water prevent you from seeing down into the water very well.

Using Polaroid glasses to locate fish is a jealously guarded secret by guides and professional fishermen. Polaroid glasses worn over your regular glasses or of course just alone work equally well.

I’ll never forget one trip with Jacques P. Herter fishing Atlantic Salmon in New England. Atlantic salmon in New England are not at all plentiful. Jacques was catching and releasing them one after the other. The other fishermen on the stream just could’nt figure out how he was doing it. They tried to copy the fly he was using with no success, they still could land no fish. Jacques of course had on his pair of Polaroids and would go along the stream until he saw a fish and then put his fly practically in the fish’s mouth enough times so that it would bite it to get rid of it
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FISH TIRE OF SEEING THE SAME LURES
Both salt and freshwater fish in heavily fished areas see the same lures frequently. Many of the larger older fish get so that they will not even bother to look at these frequently seen lures. Try lures that are not used in the area at all and you stand a far better chance of getting some really large old fish.

MAKE UNDERWATER BRUSH PILES FOR SURE FISHING SPOTS
Sunken brush piles in both lakes and rivers not only make good spots to fish but actually increase the fish population of lakes and rivers. Small fish go into the brush piles to protect themselves from large fish. Underwater, nymphs and larvae and algae thrive in the brush piles feeding the small fish. Large fish congregate in the areas of brush piles hoping that the small fish will come out. The large fish are easily caught in such concentrations. When the small fish in the brush piles get large they come out and wait for small fish to come out and can easily be caught. Works in a continuous cycle.

To sink brush piles twist wire to the branches of the brush and put old pieces of iron or cement or rocks onto the end of the wire. Brush won’t rot quickly underwater & a good underwater brush pile can last for over 20 years.
Christmas trees make very good underwater brush piles and can be saved for this worthy purpose.