Pond Boss Forums PHOTO GALLERY Image Gallery Success! And something else...

We finished our 2-acre pond last spring (April 2012). A large part of the success of the project goes to this forum, and to the book "Perfect Pond, Want One?" I stocked 200 CC in April 2012 and have spent a good deal of time trying to catch one this year, with no luck. I stocked another 200 this spring, and they regularly show up at the feeder (along with CNBG that I stocked at 2" and are nearly 1 lb. now!). The 200 CC from last spring, however, were no-shows last year and again this year.

I finally caught one today by using noodles with a 6-8' leader of 20 lb. fireline, a size 1 hook, and Gulp bait. She will be delivered to the grease tonight.

Unfortunately, I also learned that one must be extremely careful when throwing these noodles out into the lake. I was throwing them as hard as I could in order to get them out, and on one such throw the hook imbedded in my finger. I threw it so hard that after the hook went in, the noodle kept going and broke the fireline! I was thinking about how strong this line is last night, and when I looked at the picture again this morning, sure enough...it opened the gap on the hook! I think the hook stopped when it hit the bone...I tried pulling it back out using a fishing line trick I'd seen in Field and Stream, but apparently that only works if it is in just a little way. Pushing it the rest of the way through was a real pain!

Cringing!

First time (and hopefully last time) this has ever happened to me. I'm sure each case is different, but in my case it was already in so much pain (especially after trying as hard as I could to yank it back out) that it was almost dull. I went ahead and pushed it through right away. I think it would have hurt a lot more had I waited very long.

I had a tetanus shot about five years ago...am scheduled for a physical in the morning and will let the doc look at it then.

Yowza!!

I once had a single hook of a treble (hooked to a crank bait) in my thumb along with the other hook in an 18" CC. I did not have a tool to snip off the hook so that I could push it through, so it came out backwards. Ouch! However, beer was involved...

My two little brothers went fishing on the farm pond back when we were 10, 8, and 6 years old. Half an hour later they came running back and the youngest had stuck his thumbs together with a tine of treble hook in each one. We had to push both through the skin on each thumb and cut off the barbs. OUCH.

These days whenever I take a kid fishing I only let them use a single hook or trebles with crushed barbs.

P.S. What's a noodle?

OW! My toes are curling.

I still get a qweazy feeling and I have seen this dozens of times.

Bocomo,

I don't have a pic of my noodles (that has to be close to being moderated) but I did add pics from the web. Yesterday was my first time using them, and they worked very well at catching catfish and me. Benefits over rod and reel are that you can throw out a lot of them, they move with the breeze to cover more water, and they don't let the bait get down in the muck.

It is a wierd feeling when you look down and it is in you. For me, it was "I couldn't possibly have been that stupid". Close eyes. Open eyes. "Uh oh, I was that stupid."

I can hardly look at that photo...what did you do? Cut the barb and work back through? Not sure there's enough beer in the cooler to get me to push that hook through the finger. Wow.

Great call on the noodle rigs, never seen jug lines set on floating noodles. Well done!

Are those indicator noodles? That's what we run night fishing, you put a piece of rebar in the PVC when a fish takes it the rebar slides to one end making the jug stand straight up then you wrap the opposite end of the jug with reflective tape so you can see it from afar with a spotlight they work excellent..

That exact set-up was in the NWTF magazine a year or 2 ago and I made a few. They work, but you gotta use heavy line or they'll tangle in brush and break off. 20# mono as a leader won't work as I found out.....

Good tip in the reflective tape!

TJ,

I cut the point off and pulled it back through. I made a lot of people happy yesterday by showing them the video my oldest son took of that process. It doesn't compare to pushing it through, however. One of my friends said "that's when you're glad you use good hooks". I can't imagine how it would have been with one of the slightly rusty hooks I often use.

I didn't put rebar in the tubes, but that sounds like a great idea. These work pretty well for my purpose, as the catfish just starts pulling the tube around the lake and I can cast out with a treble hook, hook the leader, and pull it in. I would concur on 20lb not being heavy enough...I broke off a snapper that had gotten into some small limbs along the shore. I'm also glad I wasn't using more than 20 lb on Sunday.

I also wonder if circle hooks would work well for this...seems they would, and be a lot less dangerous for my particular application?

I worked in morgues before, seeing every known horrific results from almost all aspects of life, but I cannot stop myself from cringing seeing hooks going in and coming out of body parts. OIIIYYY!!

I agree circle hooks would be better in your application. They will still go into a finger tho...

Maybe the circle hook wouldn't go so deep and be easier to push through? I hope to not test it.

BTW... I went to the doc for a scheduled physical this morning and showed him the finger. It has been amazingly quick to heal, with only a small entry rip and what looks like a dot on the exit hole. It was pretty tight and a little painful yesterday, but the swelling is down and it is almost pain-free today. Doc saw that I had a tetanus shot in 2009 and said "no problem".

Good idea on the circle hooks, I agree, you should try it. Less chance for gut hooks, too.

We need to get more pictures uploaded so this one disappears from the forum page!