Fishing and the Solar flares.

Avid fishermen like myself are always looking for reasons to exlain unusual fish behavior. With my scientific curiousity, let me throw this one out. The gigantic solar flares that have been occuring for the last week or so have had an effect on the fish bite, and it has been a negative effect. I know, most of you will now certify me as crazy, but I want to be the first one to throw this one out there for consideration. 50 years from now when some scientist finds this to be true, it may make me famous.
I have been on the water nearly every day for the last two weeks doing some testing that you will hear about in the future.Fishing has been pretty good every day until this weekend when the bite suddenly stopped. I don't know why, all other normal things that bother the fish were OK and certainly there was nothing wrong with the fisherman. Then I read about the huge solar flares that are taking place. They started on friday and have been occuring each day since. Thats the same period of the light bite of the Bass.

We know that in 2012 the Sun will be approaching its peak on its 11 year cycle, called the Solar Maximum. Scientists expect higher than normal flares during this period. We know that the earth is protected from the energy emitted by the flares by  the earths gravity system, so flares are nothing unusual and certainly nothing to get excited about. Not unless the flares are effecting the fish bite. Neuro Scientists believe that solar flares have an effect on the moods of humans, sometimes expanding depression periods. Thats enough for me, I'm convinced. Perhaps its time to apply for a government grant to study this possibility. For those of you that have read my books you know that I believe that the Sun has more effect on fish behavior than any other single factor. I never thought about the aspect of solar flares. Think about it.

Big Cold Water Bass

Once again, Lou Mintzer, fishing with me on a beautiful January day and 50 degree water, snagged this three pound plus Spotted Bass, trolling with medium shiners. More important that this fish, Lou was also trolling deep near the bottom when his rod hit the water like it was snagged. When he grebbed the rod he thought that he had hook a monster Catfish. The line was not snagged on the bottom so I grabbed the net and readied myself for a big fish. Much to Lou's amazement, what he hooked was a rod and $300 reel that he had lost over a year ago in this area. I don't know if Lou was more happy with the big Bass that he had caught or the $300 reel that he recovered. The reel and rod were both in fairly good shape.

Cold Weather Catfish Catch

Mac Byrum and I weathered the 21 degrees temperatures this morning and using Mac's secret formula garlic soaked chicken meat as bait, and anchoring over one of his favorite humps on Lake Norman, he landed this 20 pound Blue Catfish shortly after we started fishing. Nice technique Mac.

Check my recent article in ODU magazine

ODU magazine is an internet magazine dedicated to the outdoor subjects. The winter issue has an article that I wrote about our North Dakota fishing experience using frogs as bait for the big Channel Catfish. Go to http://www.odumagazine.com/ and leaf through the winter issue.

Ethanol is Still Your Enemy

This is the time of the year that boat owners need to be more aware of the problem with ethanol fuel additives. Any gasline that has been blended with ethanol has a shelf life of about 60 days. This means that if you have an ethanol blend in your boat fuel tank, and you do not use the boat for two month, you will have a big problem when you try to use the boat again. The ethanol in the fuel absorbes water through the venting system on your boat. In some older fuel tanks, it will even begin to eat away at the resins that hold the fiberglass together, eventually ruining your tank. Since boats are normally on the water where moisture content in the air is at its highest, significant amounts of water can be absorbed in a relatively short time. The photo below shows fuel that I took from one of my tanks. You can clearly see that more than 20% of the liquid in the bottle has turned to a waste mixture. What is not so clear in this photo is the thick layer of gunk, between the water layer and the fuel. This is from the disolved resin on my fuel tank.

Since this material sinks to the bottom of the tank, your motor will simply quit when it begins to suck fuel from the bottom of the tank.
There is no solution for this problem, only preventive measures. Once water has gathered in your tank, there is no additive that will remove it. if you find that this has happened, you most drain the tank and get rid of the bad fuel. As a preventive measure you can still buy fuel without ethanol added in some marinas and at some gas stations. This is your best bet. If you use ethanol fuel, keep your tanks topped off at all times after every use. If you want to use an additive, make sure you use one that has no alcohol in it, there are very few of this type but there are some. Also make sure that you add the additive when you add fuel, if you add it afterwards, it will do no good.