Bob Gwizdz

No-Sweat Smallmouths

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

Bass fishing is an action sport that has developed into a game played with
225-horsepower metal-flake hydrofoils capable of skimming a lake's surface at 80 miles an hour. Bass anglers regularly race into an area, rush up to the front deck, cast, cast, cast and then zoom off
to the next honey hole. These guys use baits that spell action in large capital
letters. Spinnerbaits with moving blades and gyrating skirts, buzzbaits that squeak and spin, topwaters that dance and spit and crankbaits that vibrate and bounce off obstructions. Action, action, action.

Amid the fast-paced, cast-a-minute crews, however, is a crowd that has adopted a technique that flies in the face of conventional bass-fishing wisdom. These anglers have found that sometimes the best action for bass-especially smallmouths-is no action at all. The technique is deadsticking.

A Trick for Shy Bass

The drill is simple: Toss out a soft-plastic lure and
let it sit. After a while, move it a hair. Then let it sit some more. That's it-no practice required. Most veteran smallmouth bass anglers have learned to incorporate deadsticking into their repertoire.

"All the pros are doing it," says Kevin VanDam, who won the Citgo Bassmaster Classic for the second time in July. "Deadsticking is especially effective when you're fishing in deep water and there's twenty or thirty feet of really clear water. The important thing is that the fish have to see the bait."

VanDam says the do-nothing approach is best suited to when the bass bite is tough, when the post-cold-front skies are high, the barometer is stationary and fish are sulking. The tactic works in waters
that regularly receive significant pressure. VanDam learned the finer points of deadsticking by watching how bass react to his baits in various situations.

"I've watched fish go over and look at a bait," says the Michigan pro. "You'll see them edge up to it, get a little close and just sort of study it. Then sometimes, when you pop it or work the lure or jiggle it a little bit, they back off. It's like it spooks them or something. So you just throw the bait out there so you know they can see it and let it sit. You just let their own natural curiosity get the best of them."

Do-Nothing Baits

VanDam swears by tube baits for deadsticking because they have a built-in action, even when they're lying dead still on the bottom.

"Tubes are best because those tiny tentacles move a little bit all the time by themselves," he says. "That in itself gets a lot of fish to bite. But you want a
quality tube bait with a well-shredded skirt so the tails move around with no action at all."
When VanDam decides deadsticking is the only way to catch bass, he'll generally toss a bait out and let it sit for about 30 seconds, then twitch it slightly. If that doesn't trigger an immediate strike, he'll let it sit for another 30 seconds before bringing it in and casting to a different spot.

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Drift and Drag

Jeff Snyder, a well-known smallmouth specialist from Ohio who fishes Lake Erie, uses a do-nothing approach when fishing isolated humps and reefs that rarely see other anglers. Snyder calls his approach "drift and drag." Cast out a tube, a curly-tailed grub, a spider jig
or even a Carolina-rigged plastic worm and then hold on. Snyder lets the wind do most of the work, using his trolling motor and sonar equipment only to stay over the structure he wants to fish. Sometimes he goes a full five minutes between casts as he lets the bait sit.
Only when there is no wave action
or current is deadsticking unlikely to work. Snyder says that's because bass rise up in the water column off the bottom under such conditions.

Lure Options

Deadstickers attempt to match forage in size, color and shape with their baits. For the most part, however, tubes, grubs and spider jigs will do the job.

Use only as much weight as is needed to get a bait to the bottom, advises Snyder. Finding the proper leadhead jig is a matter of trial and error, with more weight necessary in deeper water or heavier seas. For the most part, a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce jig will perform properly.

Some anglers prefer to use more weight because it keeps them in better contact with the bait or because they're fishing deep water where a fast fall is desired to get the bait to the bottom quickly and also to attract the attention of smallmouths.

Timing Is Everything

According to VanDam and other pros, deadsticking usually works best in cold water, when bass are in the metabolic doldrums. But it might work just as well in the post-spawn, or during the hottest part of summer when bass are also in a negative feeding mode.

"There are going to be those days when bass are very active and want the bait moving and hopping erratically," says VanDam. "If you're fishing on those days, you might catch a lot of bass in a hurry. On the slow days, though, deadsticking is definitely the way to go, especially if you're fishing clear water for smallmouths."

The Loca-Scope

Before there was GPS, before there was sonar, there was the Loca-Scope, a short-lived device that was used to mark great fishing holes through triangulation. The device, manufactured in the 1940s by a Minnesota
company named National Manufacturing Inc., had a black plastic body and was equipped with a prism-mirror system.

The user held the Loca-Scope at chest level, looked down into the top opening and saw reflections of distant objects 180 degrees from each other. The theory was that an angler who found a hot fishing hole could take landmark bearings that would help him find it again.

There were a couple of problems with that, however. It presupposed that the user would be able to see any landmarks. If he was fishing a few miles offshore in Lake Erie, for instance, the Loca-Scope would be useless. Also, the angler would have to employ a compass to position himself exactly in the original spot and take into account the distance between the two objects he was using for landmarks. Finally, there's the question of why the angler would need a Loca-Scope if it was possible for him to line up two or more landmarks in the first place. Originally the device sold for a few dollars; now it has a collector's value of about $15 to $20. -Colin Moore

Go Deep for Muskies

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

Jon Bondy and I were prospecting for muskellunge, jigging in water more than 20 feet deep with baits the size of the fish many people catch. By the time we finished our short afternoon trip on the Detroit River, we'd boated two specimens that any muskie angler would have been tickled to hook.

Bondy, an Ontario fishing guide, has found that he can catch more and bigger muskies with an unusual method of his own invention. The deep-jigging technique he came up with was born out of his frustration with typical fishing approaches for muskies. While presentations such as casting topwaters, jerkbaits and bucktail spinners in the vicinity of weed beds work in low-light conditions, Bondy concluded that they were all but useless after the sun rose high in the sky and muskies moved offshore.

Where Midday Muskies Live

Bondy's attempt to find a deepwater muskie pattern followed a logical progression of ideas. The guide first reflected on the results of previous fishing trips. Every spring, his customers caught a half dozen or so muskies from the river while fishing the bottom for walleyes. Some of his clients even boated a few muskies on hot summer days while fishing tubes or skirted grubs for smallmouth bass at Lake St. Clair. On several occasions, Bondy had seen muskies rush in and kill bass hooked by his customers in deep water. Which led him to wonder: If muskies inhabit deep water at least part of the time, why not fish for them there?

Bondy decided to start spending the noon hours of his muskie fishing days exploring the deeper water beyond shoreline weed beds and past the river's drop-offs. At first he plumbed the depths with such lures as big bucktail jigs. Next he switched to the largest soft-plastics he could find. He caught a few fish, then
tried a homemade soft-plastic lure equipped with two large treble hooks and a tailspinner. That's when he hit the jackpot.

"Last spring I caught eight thirty-pounders during the first two weeks of the season, and they all came from jigging my lure," says Bondy, whose fishing technique for big muskies in 20 to 30 feet of water has become the talk of the Midwest. "I'm convinced this technique will work anywhere there are big muskies-
the St. Lawrence, the Niagara, in running water or in lakes."

His fishing approach is simple: Working along the drops outside productive shallow-water areas, Bondy lowers his 7-ounce "Bondy Bait"
to the bottom. He then snaps the bait up 2 or 3 feet and allows it to sink again in a controlled descent. Because of the size of the muskies he's likely to hook, and the fact that the lures are huge, Bondy favors an 8-foot All Star Big Game Series bait-casting rod and matching Pflueger reel loaded with 80-pound-test braided line and a wire leader.

Bondy's hand-poured Bondy Bait is fish-shaped and designed to mimic a freshwater drum (sheepshead), one of the top prey fish in the Great Lakes muskie diet. The baits measure slightly more than 8 inches in length, and although they're large enough to entice the biggest brutes, they sometimes catch undersize muskies. Bondy has even boated a
number of walleyes weighing up to 7 pounds on his homemade lures.

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Strikes are often jarring. Ninety percent of the time when a muskie gobbles the lure, it takes the bait on the fall, according to Bondy. Usually the fish stays deep and bulldogs on the bottom until it wears out. Some times a muskie will hit the lure as it's being reeled to the surface.

Deepwater jigging seems most productive when the fish are in transition, either moving back out to the depths after spawning or being pushed to deeper water by colder temperatures in the fall or hotter weather in the summer. Bondy says he's had his best fishing the first month of the season (which opens
in early June in Michigan and Ontario) and then again from October through December as the water gets cold inshore. He's coonvinced the tactic will produce strikes any time muskies are in their open-water haunts near the bottom.

"The important thing about
deepwater muskies is that everybody's missing them," Bondy says. "Nobody's out there in thirty feet of water looking for muskies on the bottom. They're up on the flats casting or, if they're trolling, they're running their baits way over the fish."

Going After the Loafers

Indeed, most muskie trollers generally work fairly high in the water column with shallow-running baits. But even if they use in-line weights or wire line to get down, as many trollers do, they still depend on the fish to come up after the lure. That might work fine for aggressive fish, but Bondy's technique also covers fish that are merely loafing near the bottom. His big baits produce reaction strikes from neutral fish that just can't seem to pass up an easy meal.

Bondy focuses on steep drops to gradual slopes, giving extra attention to structural elements such as points or river bends. But because he believes muskies are almost always on the move, Bondy thinks it's more important to cover a lot of water than to home in on specific spots. So he drifts, using the trolling motor to stay on the structure, and keeps his bait rising and falling just off bottom.

The biggest challenge Bondy faces these days is getting his new clients to buy into the technique. "I get some strange looks at first," he says, "but after a while they see."

Tell me about it. I was leery myself until I saw a 4-foot-long muskie at the end of my fishing
line wearing one of Bondy's lures
in the corner of its toothy maw.

It made a believer out of me.

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Handle Muskies with Care!

More often than not, muskellunge anglers-especially those on guided trips-release their fish after the battle. Additionally, most states and provinces have established length limits designed to protect the breeding stock, which mandate the safe release of undersize muskies. Companies such as Frabill and Beckman offer a variety of big nets that will
handle the biggest fish.

Muskies present a special problem for catch-and-release techniques, however, as the fish are large and strong and have formidable teeth. You have to handle them with care in order to get them back into the water in good condition and still keep all of your fingers.

Although you don't want to land a muskie that's still green, you also don't want it to kill itself during the battle. Use a large landing net. Muskies regularly exceed 4 feet in length, and leading a lively specimen into a net head-first is not a given. Once the fish is boated, set the net on the deck and remove the bait. You might need to use a mouth-gripper tool or large pair of fish pliers to gain enough leverage to get the hooks out. Work quickly to minimize the amount of time the fish is out of water. Tools such as a Boga Grip or a Berkley Lip Grip Scale, which are easy to find in tackle stores or catalog outlets, will come in handy to hold a muskie's head still while you're getting the hooks out of its maw.

When removing a muskie from the net, it's best to use a fish-handling glove to get a firm grip near the fish's tail. After pictures or measurements, slide the muskie into the water, but hold on near the tail until the fish has recovered its equilibrium. You might have to move the fish gently back and forth under the water, as anglers often do with stream trout. You'll know when the fish recovers its strength. Let go of its tail and it should swim away, safe and sound.

Go Deep for Muskies

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

Where Midday Muskies Live

Going After the Loafers

Handle Muskies with Care!

Lakers at the Rock

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

There might not be any more secret fishing holes, but there are still a few that are so remote they seem unchanged by time. One such place is Stannard Rock, an upswelling in Lake Superior more than 40 miles from the nearest port.

Marked by a lighthouse, Stannard Rock is about a two-hour trip by charter boat (less in a high-powered bass or walleye boat)
out of Marquette or Big Bay in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's big water with no place to hide; attention to marine weather forecasts is mandatory.

Although trolling is the main technique for chasing lake trout
in the Great Lakes, jigging is the
preferred approach at Stannard Rock. Fish can be found from the tops of the underwater rocks in, say, 20 feet of water, to their bases in more than 100 feet. Stiff rods with low-stretch line are standard tackle. One-ounce or heavier jigs are usually tipped with cut bait.

Anglers generally drift with the wind, keeping contact with the bottom, working over and around the often house-sized boulders. Level-wind reels are preferred, as anglers can use their thumbs to adjust depth rather than messing with the bail on spinning reels.

Lakers weighing in double digits are common, 20-pound-plus fish are by no means rare and there's always a chance of hooking a certifiable giant.

Get the Lead Out

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:36 -0400

The increased water clarity of the Great Lakes caused by zebra mussels has inspired anglers to return to an old method of getting baits deep-leadcore line. By using leadcore, anglers not only keep cables and downrigger weights out of the water but are able to trail their offers farther behind their boats.
Expect to pay $10 to $12 for 100 yards of line. Here are three tips for using leadcore line for salmon, lake trout or walleyes.

1. Load your various reels with different lengths of leadcore line. That way your presentation will cover more of the water column.

2. Leadcore takes lures down 5 feet per colored 10-yard segment, depending on the lure and trolling speed. For maximum depth, use heavy spoons and troll slowly.

3. Use at least 10 yards of monofilament leader and an additional length of fluorocarbon line at the end of the leadcore in front of your lure. Add a drop of Super Glue to your knot joining the leadcore to the leader. Ball-bearing swivels are best for connecting the fluoro to the mono.

5 Tips for Dirty-Water 'Eyes

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:35 -0400

Muddy water is an occupational hardship for walleye anglers, especially in the spring, when erratic weather patterns are more the rule than the exception. Although dirty water is almost never a preferred situation for walleye anglers, there are a handful of simple tricks that can reduce the negative effects.

1. Find the Clearest Water

Dirty water proceeds in stages. It generally begins in part of the waterway (on the windward shoreline, for instance, or along muddy banks after a rain) and spreads across a lake or down a river. Water clears in the same way. Look for those places at wind or current breaks, behind long points on lakes or behind wing dams of other structures that project off riverbanks. These clearer-water areas might not be large, but anywhere the water transitions from muddy to less dirty is a good place to start fishing.

Generally, by heading upstream or into the wind you'll find the first areas to clear. Anything that filters the water, such as submerged vegetation or zebra mussels, will clear up the water more quickly. Areas directly downstream of clear feeder creeks often provide fishable water. Concentrate first on the edges where the clearer water mixes with dirtier water, then progress into the clearer water.

2. Jazz Up the Bait

Presenting a bait or lure to walleyes is more difficult when there's low visibility. Adding rattles to jigs or using crankbaits with sound chambers increases the odds the fish will zero in on the lure. So will increasing its size: If you fish with spinner rigs or crawler harnesses, use larger spinners. Hammered metallic blades work well if it's sunny; otherwise, use brightly colored blades. If you fish with jigs and bait trailers, a plastic curlytail grub body will add bulk. Bright colors, either fluorescent or multihued, are an added attraction, as are glow-in-the-dark jigheads. Scent (either scent-impregnated baits or a spray-on product) is helpful.

3. Cover More Area

Dirty water is often associated with spring floods and traditional approaches, such as vertical jigging in deep water. Consider trolling instead-the slower, the better. In rivers or reservoirs, that generally means crawling crosscurrent upstream to keep the bait working in the strike zone as long as possible. Work close to the bottom, either with a three-way rig with a heavy weight off a dropper, in-line weights or bottom bouncers. Work the rig back and forth over the structure you're targeting, making sure the bait stays on the bottom. Forget about
trying to catch any suspended fish; they're too much of a crapshoot in low-visibility conditions.

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4. Be Ready To Strike

If there's a positive to dirty water, it's that walleyes are rarely as finicky about taking a bait or lure as they can be when it's clear. If you feel so much as a tick on your line, set the hook. In dirty water, you don't usually have to worry about short strikes. Once they find the bait, they generally grab the whole thing. Don't give a walleye time enough to spit it out.

5. Fish Shallower

Muddy water in a river is often associated with heavier current due to spring runoff, so head for the bank. River walleyes are not trout or salmon; they're not comfortable fighting current and will likely move to quieter water when the current increases. Go shallow. You'll often find fish on the shallow flats of muddy rivers that photosensitive walleyes would otherwise avoid during daylight hours. Fish slowly, covering an area thoroughly before giving up on it.

I once rescued an opening-day trip from failure by concentrating on the original shoreline of the flooded river. I dabbled jigs and minnows around the trees and brush along the bank, hauling walleyes out of water barely deep enough to cover their backs. The same approach works on lakes where reeds or other emergent vegetation might not hold fish in cclear water.

Rig It Right for Under the Ice

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:35 -0400

1. Live Minnow Rig

This rig works well for lake trout and pike. Because pike anglers let the fish run until it stops before setting the hook (to give the fish time to get the bait in its mouth), and because lake trout are targeted deep, a no-stretch, 30-pound-test braided line is the best choice for the main line. Attach a swivel and a couple feet of monofilament as a leader (use 6- to
8-pound-test for trout, 14- to 20-pound-test for pike) and crimp on a split shot to keep the minnow down. Finish the rig with a treble hook. Keep the bait near bottom for lakers and just above weed beds for pike.

2. Single Egg Rig

A single salmon egg is a top bait for trout and whitefish, but it's tricky to present. Use a Carolina-style rig. Slide an egg sinker (size depends on the depth, but don't hesitate to use an ounce) onto the main line (10- to 14-pound-test monofilament or braided line), then tie on a swivel. Use 8 to 12 inches of 4- to 6-pound-test mono for a leader and finish it with a small single hook. Let the sinker sit on the bottom, but keep the main line tight.

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3. Jigging Rig

Jigging is the preferred method when
targeting walleyes through the ice. The rigging is
simple. Attach a swivel to prevent line twist and add a 12-inch leader. Both the main line and the leader should be 6- to 8-pound-test monofilament. Use a spoon, a jig or a swimming jig bait (such as a jigging Rapala) baited with a minnow. Jerk the bait up a
couple of feet, but keep a tight line as the bait falls-that's when most bites occur.

4. Double Teardrop Rig

Perhaps the best rig for panfish is the simplest. Tie a tiny lure (a teardrop or an ice fly) 10 to 12 inches above the tag end and another at the end of the 2- to 4-pound-test monofilament. Bait them with insect larvae (spikes, mousies, wax worms or wigglers) and fish near the bottom, raising the bait until you find where the fish are holding. Once you determine holding depth, add a bobber or otherwise mark the line (a piece of rubber band works well) to make sure you can return to the appropriate depth. In deep water, replace the bottom teardrop with a small spoon or a jig for additional weight to get to the bottom.

Cruising for Coasters

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:34 -0400

When my buddy Bob Gregg called me with a challenge, I thought he was putting me on. If I'd fish hard with him for two days, he said, he guaranteed I'd catch a 4-pound brook trout.

What made his offer so astounding is that we weren't going to drive to the wilds of Canada or hike for miles to an isolated lake. We'd be fishing within easy walking distance of paved roads.

So I accepted. And within 20 minutes of fishing, I'd accomplished my mission, bringing to hand a gorgeous, hook-jawed speckled trout weighing in the 6-pound range.

Gregg's secret? He's one of very few anglers who take advantage of coasters-brook trout that spend the bulk of their lives in the Great Lakes, but run upstream to spawn in the fall.

Gregg fishes the streams of Michigan's Upper Peninsula in late fall, after the peak of the salmon run and after the bulk of the brown trout and some of the steelhead have hit the rivers. He concentrates on the deep pools, even when other species are on the gravel.

"I've never seen these brookies on gravel. In fact, only once have I ever seen one moving in shallow water," he says. "They must do all their moving at night. They make spawning beds at the tail end of pools at least five feet deep, but the deeper the better."

Find Them Deep

Gregg fishes almost exclusively with spinners when he targets coasters. He likes heavy, big-bladed baits that he can get down to the bottom. He generally casts quartering upstream and retrieves as slowly as he can while keeping the blade turning, bumping bottom if possible. He uses heavy spinning gear with heavy line because it isn't unusual to hook into a late-running king salmon over the course of a day's fishing.

"Ninety percent of the fish I catch are males," says Gregg. "They're more aggressive during the spawn than the females." Gregg has a 7-pound 6-ounce female brook trout on his wall, though. But the bulk of the big fish-including his personal best, an 8-pounder-have been bulls.

"These are the biggest brook trout I've ever seen," says Gregg, who regularly fishes Labrador and northern Quebec, where he catches 4- and 5-pounders.

Heads Down

Coaster fishing starts in early November and peaks during the last half of the month, during Michigan's firearms deer season, Gregg says.

"I usually wear blaze orange when I fish because the only other people out there are hunters," he says.
Coaster fishing can be slow. Gregg averages about one brook trout a day and has never caught more than three on any given outing. But he also catches other trout and salmon-
including a fair number of splake (brook trout/lake trout hybrids)-and occasionally some hefty pike that drift in from the big lakes.

Although Lake Superior is better-known for producing coasters, Gregg fishes Lake Michigan tributaries. He recommends the Ford, Cedar, Bark, Days and Manistique rivers.

Saving Superior's Coasters

Lake Superior produced the world-record brook trout in 1915 and the Nipigon Bay/
Nipigon River area of the lake is legendary for big coasters. But those stocks have fallen on hard times and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission-a consortium of federal, state, provincial and tribal fish-management agencies-is working to rehabilitate the fishery.

Ontario, which recognized the problem years ago, has instituted a one-fish daily creel limit with a minimum length of 20 inches in the Nipigon area and plans to implement a one-fish, 22-inch minimum length rule that would apply to all of Lake Superior and its tributaries. In addition, a water management plan is in place to make sure hydroelectric dams operate in a manner that will maximize brook trout reproduction.

Brook trout fishing closes on Labor Day in the Nipigon River. Although fishing is allowed in the Nipigon River after Labor Day, brook trout must be immediately released.

Plug in to River Trout

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:33 -0400

I saw the fish dart out from under the deadfall before it struck, but it happened too quickly for me to react. That's a good thing. The only possible reaction I could have had-once I saw the size of the fish-would have been to stop my retrieve. And that would have been the exact wrong thing to do. Instead, I felt the bait stop dead in the water, so I set the hook and became one with a thick-bodied, 20-inch-plus brown trout.
I was fishing on one of Michigan's most popular trout streams, on a stretch that had no doubt seen a whole bait shop's worth of night crawlers, dry flies, streamers and spinners over the previous month. But there's a good chance the fish I caught was completely unfamiliar with the
5-inch-long floating/diving balsa wood minnow I had just presented.

Not Your First Choice?

Start ticking off popular trout offerings and you'll be well down the list before you arrive at plugs. Yet except for those times when the fly hatches are so thick the fish merely have to open their mouths to feed, there are few offerings more dependable for catching trout-especially big trout-than plugs.

Plugs offer anglers the opportunity to show trout something that's worth their while to chase. Many big trout come out of their hiding places to feed only at night. They're not going to show themselves-or use the energy it takes to chase down prey-unless the reward is commensurate with the
effort. And frankly, trout don't get to be bragging size by eating only midges. Big fish eat smaller fish, and nothing imitates smaller fish better than plugs.

The pattern is simple. Move along (upstream if you're wading, downstream if you're floating), throwing at the bank, making casts anywhere from quartering in front of you to perpendicular with the bank. Cast at anything that looks fishy-logjams, brush piles, boulders, dark holes. Try particularly good-looking water more than once. And stay with the cast; the strike can come anywhere from right against the bank to right at the rod tip.

Floating/diving crankbaits are more versatile than sinking models. You can cast them upstream of objects (such as sweepers) that prevent you from getting to the bank, then allow the bait to float downstream before you begin your retrieve. And when you bang into underwater snags, you have a better chance of retrieving a floating lure than one that sinks. Make no mistake-if you're fishing properly, you will hang up.

For that reason, I prefer at least
10-pound-test and the no-stretch
superlines. I like a rod with enough tip action that the relatively light baits can load it for casting, but one with enough backbone to haul a 5-pounder out of a brush pile: something between a stiff worm rod and a spinnerbait rod.

You'll find the biggest fish tucked away in the kinds of places where you can't roll a spawn bag along the bottom or drift a dry fly across the top.

There may be times-during a heavy hatch, for instance, or when the water is high and roily-when other offerings will out-produce crankbaits. For consistent big-trout action, it's hard to argue against plugging into trout.

Lay Out for Divers

outdoorlife-editor — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 12:26:30 -0400

Ask any experienced wing-shooter from the Great Lakes and he'll tell you there are two kinds of duck hunting: ordinary duck hunting and layout shooting.

Ordinary duck hunting is in itself pretty extraordinary. It is an amalgamation of sights and sounds that not only overwhelms the senses, but makes for a downright enjoyable pastime. Layout shooting shares many of these thrills but is more extreme.

Layout shooting is a game played on a different court, sometimes a mile or more from land, where the usual hostile conditions of duck hunting, like wind and precipitation, are multiplied. Layout shooters regularly operate in water deeper than many duck hunters ever even cross, hunting from barely emerged boats that look like a cross between a canoe and a coffin.

Layout boats, available in one- and two-man models, are generally painted a flat, winter-water gray so they disappear into the environment. The profile of the boat rests just inches above the waterline. The hunters lay out in the bottom of the rig, which is anchored just upwind of a hundred or more
decoys, sitting up to shoot as the birds barrel by. It can be fast, frustrating and fantastic-often all in the course of the same hunt.

"All duck hunting's pretty good, but one nice thing is when you're out on the open water, you can see things develop at a distance," says Jerry Martz, a long-time layout shooter who spent 20-plus years as the waterfowl specialist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. "And when you've got seventy-five birds coming in at top speed, it blows your mind. The shooting is sometimes difficult-that business of sitting up and shooting can be frustrating. It's tough for a right-
hander to shoot to the right, for instance.

"But once you've got some experience with it and if the birds are doing everything right, you can shoot doubles, and good shots pull off triples."

If your duck-hunting experience is limited to dabblers, your first exposure to laying out will be eye-opening. These birds generally don't lock up on high, circle and fall in gracefully. Divers come zipping in, often low over the water like a fighter pilot approaching an aircraft carrier. If they do decide to fall in, they simply stick out their wings and hit the air brakes, crashing in with all the finesse of a fullback hitting the line on fourth and inches.

Often as not, though, they'll just keep on going at speeds that'll make you wonder how you ever missed a mallard or teal, especially one dropping into the decoys.

Setting Decoy Rigs

Layout hunting takes advantage of the diving ducks' habit of rafting up in huge numbers-by the hundreds and sometimes by the thousands-in open water. Competing with those live
decoys is nearly impossible. Big sets of decoys-a hundred should be considered a starter set and two hundred is not uncommon-are de rigueur. Some hunters scatter them haphazardly, but most rig decoys on mother lines and string them out in lines downwind of the boat.

A standard setup includes a dozen strings with 10 decoys each, set from either side of the boat. The strings should be a boat-width apart, with an opening in the middle where ducks can land. Using two boats and sets of several hundred decoys helps to compete with the big rafts of divers.

Layout shooting is an equipment-
intensive game. It takes a minimum
of two boats-one to tow or carry the layout, set decoys and pick up fallen ducks, and another to shoot from. Many outfitters have three, using a large craft as a mother ship and a smaller outboard as a tender.

If you use just two, the tender must be
sizable. Not only must it carry the hunting party and enough decoys to fill a sporting-goods store, but it must be seaworthy. Weather changes can develop quickly on the big water.

Even when everything's working, layout shooting can be a challenge. The best hunting, of cose, generally occurs on the days that duck hunters hope for: overcast with a strong north wind, maybe with a little rain or snow and a good chop on the water to keep the blocks moving. The shooting is from the seat of your pants, rocking in sometimes heavy seas.

Diving ducks, so named because they dive to feed rather than tip up (or dabble), are often low on the list of preferred sporting species, trailing well behind mallards and pintails. But redheads and canvasbacks are true trophy ducks. Even the less popular species-goldeneyes, buffleheads, bluebills-that are collectively known as "black-and-whites," range from handsome to gorgeous, with iridescent purple and green feathers highlighting their drab heads. Layout shooting is a terrific
option for collectors who want to add unusual species, like oldsquaw, scoters and eiders, to their displays.
They taste good, too. Given a bad rap by some wild-game aficionados because they consume mollusks, divers typically feed on wild celery and other aquatic vegetation. Redheads and
canvasbacks were the prime targets of market hunters because they are quite pleasing to the palate.

A Team Sport

Layout shooting is a team sport; you cannot do it alone. Four guys with a two-man rig make a perfect combination. Pairs alternate between time in the layout and a turn operating the chase boat. Generally, the chase boat anchors more than a quarter-mile away. It's especially helpful to work in pairs when you have to chase crippled birds. They can be hard to spot, tough to pin down-often diving when
approached only to resurface at a
great distance-and difficult to kill while on the water.

Although it is most closely associated with big water-the Great Lakes region and the Eastern seaboard-there is a debate about where the layout technique developed. Certainly it has been with us a long time; layout shooting was employed by market hunters who tried to take out whole flocks at once. The technique, though, is suitable to any expanse of open water. Martz, for instance, occasionally trailers his rig to Louisiana for some exceptional shooting on Lake Pontchartrain. The wide-open lower ends of many reservoirs are perfect for divers and typically offer little competition, since most hunters are targeting puddle ducks in the marshes.

As with any hunting endeavor, scouting can be the key to exceptional sport. You have to be where the ducks want to be, and that can change in hours. Just setting up in the middle of a wide expanse of water isn't going to work. Missing a flight path by a hundred yards or so can be as bad as being off by a mile.
Layout shooting is unique in the
waterfowling world. Beginners are befuddled by how often they sit up when the birds are still out of range, or how quickly the ducks are gone if they're tardy getting into shooting position.

Layout Boats

Layout shooting used to be the exclusive sport of those with the skill to build rigs in their garages and barns. Over time, regional cottage industries developed and more waterfowlers soon found serviceable layout boats.

Manufacturers now offer everything from classic pumpkinseed-shaped rigs to more traditionally styled duck boats reworked for layout shooting. A good layout boat combines buoyancy and stability while maintaining the lowest of profiles. Layouts should have rounded edges that melt into the lake's surface and should not cast shadows. There also should be enough boat
behind the hunter for it to ride the waves without water crashing over into the cockpit.

Ron Bankes Marine of Port Rowan, Ontario, has been making layout boats since 1968. The small, one-man Pumpkinseed is 10 feet long with a
4-foot beam, weighs 90 pounds and retails for $995 USD. The one-man Hercules-for bigger hunters and bigger water-measures 14 feet long and 53 inches wide, weighs 200 pounds and sells for $1,795. The 400-pound
two-man Revolution resembles two 14-foot one-man boats joined at the hip. With a 7-foot beam, it features separate cockpits for each shooter and costs $2,995. For more information visit www.bankesboats.com.

The Mighty Layout Boys started making fiberglass layouts three years ago and the boats have received rave reviews. Their 10-foot-long, 50-inch-wide one-man boat weighs 80 pounds and sells for $1,100. The two-man MLB II is a 13-foot 3-inch pumpkinseed-shaped rig with a 73-inch beam; it weighs 210 pounds and retails for $2,495. For more information check www.mightylayoutboys.com.

Lock, Stock and Barrell of Clinton Township, Mich., makes a classic two-man boat, the Whistler. The 131/2-
footer has an 80-inch beam, weighs 230 pounds and retails for $3,195, though a kit is available for $2,195. Owner Lou Tisch also makes a couple of hybrids that he uses for layout and marsh hunts. The South Bay Scooter resembles a sneak boat and can handle a 7.5-horsepower outboard; it retails for $2,795. For more information visit www.lockstockbarrell.com.

If you yearn for an old-fashioned, handmade wooden boat, John Kalash of Moscow, Mich., makes rigs that are considered the Cadillacs of layout boats in the Detroit River and Lake Erie areas. Kalash, who's been building boats for more than 50 years, still turns out five or six of his 12-foot-long, 5-foot-wide, 100-pound boats a year. Available in one- and two-man models, Kalash boats retail for $900 and $1,100 respectively. For information call 517-849-5022.lution resembles two 14-foot one-man boats joined at the hip. With a 7-foot beam, it features separate cockpits for each shooter and costs $2,995. For more information visit www.bankesboats.com.

The Mighty Layout Boys started making fiberglass layouts three years ago and the boats have received rave reviews. Their 10-foot-long, 50-inch-wide one-man boat weighs 80 pounds and sells for $1,100. The two-man MLB II is a 13-foot 3-inch pumpkinseed-shaped rig with a 73-inch beam; it weighs 210 pounds and retails for $2,495. For more information check www.mightylayoutboys.com.

Lock, Stock and Barrell of Clinton Township, Mich., makes a classic two-man boat, the Whistler. The 131/2-
footer has an 80-inch beam, weighs 230 pounds and retails for $3,195, though a kit is available for $2,195. Owner Lou Tisch also makes a couple of hybrids that he uses for layout and marsh hunts. The South Bay Scooter resembles a sneak boat and can handle a 7.5-horsepower outboard; it retails for $2,795. For more information visit www.lockstockbarrell.com.

If you yearn for an old-fashioned, handmade wooden boat, John Kalash of Moscow, Mich., makes rigs that are considered the Cadillacs of layout boats in the Detroit River and Lake Erie areas. Kalash, who's been building boats for more than 50 years, still turns out five or six of his 12-foot-long, 5-foot-wide, 100-pound boats a year. Available in one- and two-man models, Kalash boats retail for $900 and $1,100 respectively. For information call 517-849-5022.