Fishing 201 -- Learning the Lures Traditional Cache
Hidden : 9/7/2008
Difficulty:
3.5 out of 5
Terrain:
4 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Welcome to your second lesson in fishing. This cache is located at the public fishing area near the intersections of North Line Road; Maple Ave. and Rock City Rd. just outside Ballston Spa on the Kayaderosseras Creek.

Your next lesson in fishing brings us to another fishing hole where you will be looking for a plastic rectangular container about 1.5"x3"x.5", containing a log book, pencil, and FTF prize. There isn't much room in here unless someone wants to try leaving something like a geocoin, but generally this is a 'sign and go' style cache.

For your own safety we feel we should tell you that there is no need to put yourself in any kind of danger from automobile traffic to obtain this cache.

 Now onto your lesson, today you will learn a bit about some fishing lures and baits:

Artificial:
Type of synthetic bait rejected by a finicky fish because it is too large or too small, or because it has the wrong shape, bears the wrong coloration, or makes the wrong motions in the water. See Natural.

Dry Flies:
Fly-fishing lure designed to float on the surface of the water. There are hundreds of different kinds, and they are hard to tell apart, but they all fit into one of six basic categories: Mashed, Bent, Slimy, Hairless, Hookless and Hopeless.

Earthworm:
There are probably as many different lures as there are fishermen, but none is more universally effective in catching fresh-water fish than that old stand-by, the earthworm. Worms can be bought from bait shops in most fishing areas, but many anglers prefer to raise their own to assure themselves of a plentiful and virtually cost-free supply. This is not difficult to do. Worms are easily collected from a garden after a heavy rain, and may be stored for long periods in a cool, dark place in a box filled with damp shredded newspaper, moistened leaves, wet moss, or some similar bedding material, with a little corn meal or powdered milk thrown in for food. But a word of warning: anglers are by nature sweet-tempered and sensitive, and they often go overboard, constructing elaborate houses with individual beds for their night crawlers and naming favorite worms. This is not a good idea, for when the time comes to pop Maria, Constance, and Esmeralda into a bait can or slip a hook through Reginald, the tearful fisherman may find that he simply lacks the heart to bid farewell to his wriggling friends.

Hook
Irritating but highly reliable device used to quickly locate the
position of one's thumb at the bottom of a tackle box.

Inchworm:
Tiny moth larva favored as food by trout and as bait by trout fishermen, who, from force of deep-rooted habits, invariably refer to them as foot-and-a-halfworms

Jig:
Crude but effective artificial lure made up of a metal head and some form of dressing designed not to imitate a particular food favored by fish, but to attract their attention through its motions in the water. Jigs are the simplest and most ancient of fishing lures, and in fact, the oldest known evidence of angling is a carved elk horn jig mounted on a bone hook found deeply embedded in a petrified log near the remains of a remarkably well-preserved, 14,000 year old Swiss lake village. Interestingly enough, next to it were the sharply broken remains of a rough-hewn oak pole and a small woven reed basket containing the bones of three tiny, long-extinct minnows.

Leader:
Short length of nylon or wire that connects a snagged lure to a tangled line.

Lure:
Anything used to attract fish. There are basically two kinds:
those fishermen swear by, and those they swear at.

Minnow:
1 Informal term for any very small fish.
2 Embryonic stage of a large fib.

Mummichog:
1 Coastal fish useful as bait and as a predator of mosquito larva.
2 Disappointing sound made by outboard motor on the thirty-first through the five hundredth try.

Natural:
Type of organic bait rejected by a finicky fish because it is too large or too small, or because it has the wrong shape, bears the wrong coloration, or makes the wrong motions in the water. See Artificial.

Plastic Lures:
Lifelike and effective plastic imitations of worms, frogs, squid, and other favorite fish foods are widely used, but many anglers are unaware of other equally convincing and useful stream-side accouterments, including the unbelievably realistic 23-food Vinylmouth, a snake which -- when placed in a highly visible spot -- can reliably clear a mile or two of stream of competing anglers in less than a minute, and the radio-controlled Mesmerizers, a pair of totally believable rubber decoys (either the 19-inch rainbow trout or the 22-inch largemouth bass) that are capable of executing up to 4o different preprogrammed teasing maneuvers designed to keep dozens of potentially bothersome fellow fishermen glued to a worthless downstream pool or a barren stretch of lake shore for hours on end.

Plug:
Plastic or wooden lure designed to imitate various species of bait fish. Typically, they produce a popping noise or a provocative motion as they are pulled through the water that is intended either to attract the attention of fish or to annoy them into striking. In the latter category of effects, the most elaborate plug is the costly, but lethal Raspberry, which uses a small waterproof cassette recorder and an underwater loudspeaker to make a variety of hisses, boos, hoots and catcalls, interspersed with prerecorded gibes like, "Hey, minnow-breath, are you going to bite me or just sit there like a pile of silt and make bubbles?" and, "You know why fish live in the water? Because they're all wet! Har, har, har".

Sinker:
Lead weight attached to the end of length of fishing line to facilitate the speedy disposal of unwanted lures.

Spinner:
Fishing lure consisting of a metal blade with a hole in it which spins freely on a swivel or shaft. The most common spinner shapes are the Willowleaf, the Indiana, the Colorado, and the Idaho, but some new ones have been introduced recently, including the Texas, which is a solid silver disk the size of a hubcap; the New Jersey, which is made of a durable alloy that will not dissolve in waters with a high chemical content; the Canada, or Mapleleaf, which is actually just an Indiana with the words 'spinner/spinneur' engraved on it; and the New York, which is basically a flat slab of lead designed to stun fish on the cast.

Spoon:
Type of metal fishing lure popular on backwoods fishing trips since if it is unsuccessful in attracting fish, it may be used to consume the contents of a can of Dinty Moore beef stew.

Definitions taken from "Fishing: An Angler's Dictionary", by Henry
Beard and Roy McKie.

And that concludes today's lesson in fishing bait and lures,
please join us next time for a two part lesson in fish species...

For reference:
Fishing 101 -- Learning the Basics

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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