sports

outdoors with Lou Rodta

Strange Things Make Good Fishing Lures

Truth is stranger than fiction. If you doubt that, look at some of the crazy lures which catch fish. And. further, look at some of the things which have been adapted as fish catchers. The Hopkins lure is no more and no less than a manufactured counterpart of a knife handle, if you stop and take a good look at it. Many of the spoons which are so effective in salt and fresh water came about when a carpenter many years ago was eating lunch beside a lake. He leaned over to rinse off a spoon from his lunch pail, the story goes, and when it dropped into the water he saw a fish hit it. The next day the carpenter, who was also a fisherman, was at the lake with a spoon with the handle sawed off. He had drilled holes in each end of the - spoon, affixed a hook on one end and the line in the other hole. The result — a fishing spoon was perfected from an eating spoon.

WAY BACK when the wooden clothes pin was the in thing for the laundry, the wooden pins made into excellent toy soldiers. They also made excellent' lures. Shape them a little'1 with a coping saw. weight them with some lead. A little artistry with a paint brush and the commercial Clothes Pin Lure is perfected. It was and still is a great lure for jigging fish. At the same time, imaginative fishermen began to create all kinds of fresh and salt water lures from clothes pins. If we dig enough, our files will produce a book written by one enterprising fisherman. This book details the art of making a wide assortment of clothes pin lures. The skin from a pig. which is a waste by-prod-uct in the slaughter house, has been used for footballs and a host of other items. Someone discovered that the pork rind, if kept in a saline solution, remained pliable, could be dyed an assortment of colors, and could be cut into a myriad

assortment of shapes. Lo and behold, the pork rind bait was developed. While there are scores of plastic imitations, the real pork rind bait still is a top seller. MONOFILAMENT line was perfected originally as a synthetic fiber during the years of World War II. It soon got a flying start as a substitute for the cloth which was made from natural fibers. Before long the researchers were playing with the staff on their lunch hour at Brandywine Creek and it came quickly that DuPont and a number of other companies now extrude monofilament line for fishing. In one of those chicken and egg questions, was it someone way back in the days of the aborigine who affixed some deer hair or bird feathers to a bone hook? Did someone play around with some natural fibers and when they saw a fish strike it, did they then attach a line and some form of weight to send the lure' away from shore? WE HAVE to confess to starting our fishing so far back that the plastic bobber had yet to be invented. Our first bobbers came from my grandfather's wine cellar. Naturally, we had unlimited access to some of the best home made wine in the world back then and our only interest was in the corks. Now, when we really might appreciate the wine and can get all the bobbers we need or want elsewhere, there is no more wine cellar to explore.

i In our fishing experience I we have used the shot from a shotgun shell to add weight to a lure ; have vandalized a L22 cal. shell to get the projectile loose from the case so we could insert it into the Jail of a plug we wanted to alter to improve the action, and more than once, got you-know-what for .swiping a bottle of fingernail polish to paint the wrappings on bucktails and streamer flies. SPARK PLUGS (used ones which had been discarded, of course) became sinkers for jetty fishing for tautc^. fWe also weighted crab trap lines with discarded nuts and bolts from farm equipment. We have pirated scores of sets of Nieads from flea markets and yard sales to turn them into fitting lures of all kinds. Someof our most productive bliiefish trolling-jures are fabricated from copper fittings and webbing from beach chairs. More than one fish has fallen to a lure we fashioned from a dowel rod we turned in the drill press, using a rasp and sand paper to create the shape. We have made beach bags to carry our lures from army surplus gas mask bags and made^p plug carriers from silverware trays (plastic) sawed in half and taped together with a thin sheet of plywood in betiween. Way back when we first ventired into the tackle business (now being operated by my middle brother and family) we sold fishing rods which were actually made from k rejected blanks from a pool cue factory We defy any of our readers to remember that far back. WE HAVE MADE snubbers for our handlines from . old inner tube rubber. Some of our first efforts at using tubing for lures were made by utilizing the outer ' covering from electric wire; the rubber tubes which stick out of the bottom of the commercial mik dispensers, and from drug store-bought tubing from the surgical department. We fished artificial squids made from fingers from rubber gloves. We have also dressed out eels winch we had strung with hooks for trolling for stripers and marlin by slipping finger stalls over the wire leader and over the /'snout of the eel. Finger stalls, by the way, are

those rubber gadgets which are used to help count money or separate papers. All stationery stores sell them. A garage filled with an accumulation of saving junk for a lifetime makes it easy to go out into the labyrinth on occasion and sort through a box of junk to see what is good for something which can be used for fishing. IN THIS AGE of recycling, look over what you toss out. It may well be the best fishing lure you ever made. Reports of fishing were sketchy at best this week. Some of the boats are concentrating op fluke and weakfish, along with bluefish while others are making or have made the switch to wreck fishing. There are lots of fish around and should be through fall. Keep fishing. A phone

call to your favorite tackle shop or party boat skipper will keep you alerted as to sailing schedules, fish availability and the latest developments. V'Ball League Meets Thurs. COURT HOUSE - An organizational meeting for the Middle Township Recreation Department's men's volleyball league will be held 7 p.m. Thursday in the township Middle School Gymnasium. Interested team captains and players should attend this meeting as rosters and rule changes will be discussed. For additional ^ information, call the Recreation Office at 465-3520.

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Golf Tourney Winners Told The New- Miami Inn held its first golf tournament Monday, Oct. 8, with Wayne Smith finishing first in the low net division and Don Snyder taking first in low gross. Other winners were: lownet, second, • Bob McDonald; third, Keith Pew; in low gross, Marty Tudles, second, and Jerry Mackey, third. ¥

League Top Spots Crowded in Darts

Competition is tight in the Lower Cape Dart League, with three teams deadlocked in first position and three others sharing second place. Pirate's Den 1 is in firsts place with Crest Tavern l and Grande's Cafe-1. Huddled together in second are: Miami Inn 1. Moose l. and Moose 2. LEADING the individual scording race is Skip Shenberger of Moose 2, with a 48.6 average, (perfect score is 81), followed by Lew Ross. Crest Tavern, l,; Jim Rossell, Moose 1; Tom Donahue, Pirate's Den 1; , Jack Worrell, Moose 2; Bob Lampman. Moose 2: Herb

Hudson. Moose 1; Keith Bove, Pirate's Den 2; Jack Cundiff, Herald's Inn. and Ed Sheppard, VFW I. Standings of Oct. 2. after Jj two weeks of competition. - are: Team Pirate's Den 1 Crest Tavern 1 Grande's Cafe 1 MUunUgn Moose Moose Herald's Inn Grande's 2 Villas VFW 2 Villas VFW 1 Crest Tavern 2 Miami Inn 2 Knights of Columbus Pirate's Den 2

Cape May County _ SALMANAC > OCTOBER -

MOON PHASES/POSITIONS The Moon'i affect on the rid* u greatest when closest to Earth (in perigee) and when in direct alignment with Sun t earth (full * new moon phases) On and about these dates, low pressure systems and/or strong wind* (depending upon direction) may result in flooding, and extremely low tide* Moon Phase* First Quarter ij| Full Moon Last Quarter |7 New Moon 24 Perigee 23 Apogee -v I TIDE TABLE Computed for Cope M ay City beachfront, for other areas, see Correction Times. DATE HIGH LOW p.m. a.m. a.ar ' 17 Wed I:l»- 1:35 6:41- *fi6 18 Thu 2:24— 2:42 8:12-/5 27 IB Fri 3:26— 3:56 9:32-/i0:24 20 Sat 4:44- 5:04 10:38-/lll8 21 Sun 5:44- 6:04 11:36 j22 Mon 6:40- 6:58 12:8^-12:32 23 Tue 7:22- 7:47 U&- 1 27 M Wed 8:14- 8:33 l.-fc- 2:18 Wh / ) C« V \ /

CORRECTION TIMES Compute approximate times of high 8 low water for your yf area by adding or subtracting the following number of minutes for each tide phase in the Tide TobJe LOW HIGH Great Egg Harbor Inlet Minus 12 plus 10 Ocean City 19th St. Briifee) plus 35 plus 22 Corson Inlet (bridge) plus 21 — " r pim 7 / Sea UJe City /Ludiam Thoro Bridge) P»U*66 plus 43 \ Sea Isle City Beach mii|us2 minus 21 j Towns«>d InJet phf 21 plus 4 \ Seven Mile Beach • . ' PW15 0 — J Stone Harbor (Great Channel Bridge) plus 43 plus 40 Hereford Inlet (Angleaee) plus 18 J 0 Wildwwf Beach T Mmus2 ) minus 17 WeatJAldwood ' (Grassy ChanneJBritfge ) plus 46 tS plus 43 Cppd May Harbor __ph« 1 f \ minus 4 ^.Ftve Fathom Bank ptel ph»« r pkmU 'McCne Shoal ( ptea 'J Deloware Bay L- feayshore Channel 1 /Bay -Canal J unction > Jfr"1 plus 36 Miami Beach plus 75 ( phmTl \ Dennis Creek Entrance plus 64 •Brandywine Shoal Light plus 32 — V