Posts: 3870
| Heyooooooo,
I collect all kinds of books on fishing and not long ago I picked up a reprint of a 1937 title called, "How to Catch Game Fish" by Jack Lamb. What a gem.
This passage begins with Mr. Lamb at the start of a bass fishng trip in deep, wooded swamps of Louisiana. Pole in hand at water's edge, he's eager to begin but he's puzzeled because the locals are still sitting around waiting for...what? He asks a local and he's told...
"See them big spiders on the tree trunks?.....Waal, it's like this. Them spiders is sittin' down close to the water, ain't they? That's the way they catch food. They git down close to the water and grab little insects as they float by. But a spider tastes mighty good to a big bass, you know, and when Old Mr. Bass gets hungry, he makes them spiders get high and dry. You'll know it when the spiders get high and dry. You'll know when the bass begins to strike, fer the spiders will run up the trees, and stay there 'till it's all over. There ain't no use to fish when the spiders are low, and we don't start until they run up the trees."
Here's Mr. Lamb's reflective and humble comment..."At any rate I took lessons in observation from a nestor in the swamp land, and materially added to my fishing knowledge thereby."
Now, when I lived in MI's UP, I spent most of my fishing time on water that was chock full of standing timber. There were PLENTY of SCARY BIG spiders on those trees, too. The gin-clear waters were full of bass. I could often easily see if the bass were or were not interested in my muskie baits and after many outings I began to believe that "If the bass chase it then the muskies will chase it." and conversly, "If the bass show no interest then the muskies won't either." Hmmm.... Next time I go back I'm going to watch the spiders, too. Maybe I was all wrong - maybe the bass/muskies simply chased the baits when they felt like it and I should have been alerted to an openeing feeding window by watching the behavior of the spiders.
So, Ziggy Stardust, next time(s) you're in flooded timber give the Spider Theory a try.
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