THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410130191
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 30 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ford Reid
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
You have heard, of course, of fishing with the lure called a spoon.
But how about fishing with a knife or a fork?
I have often said that when the bluefish are thick, you could put a hook on your car keys and catch fish. Recently, I met a fellow from Vermont who puts his money where my mouth is.
Donald Friend takes a lot of friends and relatives surf fishing and many of these people are inexperienced, to say the least. They are not very good casters, as likely to snap off a lure as they are to toss it toward the fish.
Tiring of having them lose his five and six dollar lures by the dozens, he came up with an alternative.
He shops yard sales, looking for stainless steel table ware. With a drill press, he makes a hole in either end and adds a hook with a split ring. Bingo! He's got a lure.
``The spoons are especially good,'' he said. ``They turn in the water as they are retrieved and flash beautifully. But the knives and forks are very effective, too.
``I'm not sure exactly what they look like to a fish, but something to eat, I guess.''
Through experience, Donald has come up with the ideal ways of fishing his tableware. They catch about as many fish, he reckons, as anything else in his tackle box.
You will not find an eight-inch lure that casts any better than a table knife.
The weight is about right and there is very little wind resistance.
The story goes that the first Hopkins lure was the handle of a table knife, pounded with a ball peen hammer to make the metal flash in the water. It worked so well that the rest is fishing history.
So, really, Donald has simply stepped back in the time, gone back to the source.
Sometimes we forget that people were catching fish long before graphite rods, high retrieve ratio spinning reels, monofilament line and artificial baits that do everything short of sending the fish engraved invitations.
A friend's father died recently and left him four tackle boxes full of gear. The old man really took care of his stuff and some of the lures must be nearly fifty years old.
He let me have half a dozen plugs, ancient things with faded paint and sad eyes.
I replaced the hooks and fished with them. So far, three of the six have caught fish.
I have read about natives in a South American country who caught all of the snook that they wanted using only a piece of rag for bait. The writer said those people were surprised that anglers thought you needed anything more than that.
Sometimes, I suppose, it matters which lure you use. I have seen days when a blue plug caught one fish after another while a white one of the same size and design always came up empty.
More often, though, it is not what you use, it is the way that you use it. by CNB