Swimming with the fishes

Not that I've ever been there, but I would bet that if you walked into Bob Bohland's home you would find, after pushing your way past heaps of fishing tackle, mountain dew cans, and Minnesota Twins paraphernalia, the walls lined with posters of Frankenstein headed bluegills and black white hub cap slabs in lieu of the obligatory above the bed Pam Anderson poster.  Simply put, Bob is a full fledged panfish pervert and doesn't care who knows it.

A muskie guy myself, I understand the unexplainable and undying love that can only be shared between man and fish.  But Bob takes his love to new heights, above and beyond what anyone might consider normal.  "What has always been tough for people to fight beyond the same old boring image in their mind's eye of targeting panfish solely involving a foam float, hook and minnow". ..Yawn...

Bob's buddies from school

"But that's just not the case", Bob says.  followed by his long contemplative pause.  (I could hear his wheels turning)

"Have you ever been snorkel fishing?", I haven't, but I told him that I would love to give it a shot once I got away from the water moccasin infested waters of Arkansas.

 Snorkel fishing, he explained, is not just a cool way to drop a bait in front of a fish, or a new way to get out and enjoy the company of his piscatorial life partner.  Snorkel fishing is the best way to learn about fishing for bluegills and crappie alike.  You can have a chance to see with your own two eyes the structural features that the fish hang out in, understand how the fish hang in different types of underwater structure.  Bob has even go so far as to bring a waterproof GPS unit under the waves with him to drop marks on spots to return to fish later.

The most important part of it all is how the fish react to your presentation.  "You can learn a ton about what the fish want"  Because you are down there with the fish you can tell what they like and what they don't.  If you are doing everything right but can't get them to commit you just make a quick change and get back down to see what the fish think of the new color, size, or whatever.

The biggest advantage of snorkel fishing is the fact that it will help you catch the targeted fish. "When you're in a boat you never really have a problem finding or catching fish, but they're rarely the fish that you are looking for, they're the immature fish that need to aggressively feed", Bob explained. The same thing that makes these smaller fish aggressively snap up any possible food source that might fit inside their pea sized mouths, is also what keeps them at bay when snorkel fishing he said "The smaller fish are aware that they are prey for larger fish, and are a lot less comfortable with your presence in the water, but the Big ones will usually stick around and stand their ground which gives you a good shot at catching them".

Bob and his friend discuss their forage preferences

Not many people have better touch than Bob does when it comes to panfish.  On the ice he just has a way of coaxing the fish to bite while other guys struggle to turn lookers into biters.  Bob accredits his intuition in Jigging to his time spent under the water studying the cause and effect relation between his movements and the Jig's below. "The fish will tell you what is working and what isn't.  That's the best part about snorkel fishing.  You have a chance to really work on your jigging to see how your wrist's movement correlates to the action of the jig.  It gives me practice time to learn how to get the jig to do certain things, as well as to see how the fish react".

Bluegills are one of the only fish that have the ability to turn their eyes downward.  This ability is very indicative of their reliance on their outstanding eye sight, but is also a fact which has played into Bob's game plan for selecting for larger fish in underwater situations.  He will often times find that dropping his jig below the fish will often trip something in the fish that will get them to bite.  "A lot of guys think that pulling the jig up and up is always the answer, and it works quite a bit, but you can't forget that these fish are used to things swimming down and away, towards cover, as well."

Bohland's preferential jig for snorkel fishing, the Lindy Bug.  An ice fishing jig by design, is what Bob has found to be best in these situations because of its detailed paint schemes and the action that he feels he can impart on the lead.  "Jig's with a faceted back combined with a soft plastic tail really help to control the jig and put a little swim in the action rather than the typical vertical jig presentation.

Got any good fishin' stories? Share them below in the comments section, or if you want to be featured in the next post?  Email me: mcarufel@lindylittlejoe.com




-mc