I like to fish.

I have fished with lures, with worms, trolling, casting — lots of ways. And I thought I knew, pretty much, how to catch fish.

My brother and I go out on a lake in New York from time to time, and we fish. We catch bass, pike, perch, other stuff, but mostly bass and pike. Some people think pike are a trash fish, but trash or no, it is really fun to pull a 10 pound pike into the boat. Heck, it is fun to pull almost any fish into the boat.

A few years ago (ok more than a few…) I made friends with Gary Senft, who is the bass pro at Bass Proshop in Phoenix, and is also sponsored by Nitro, Lowrance, and a bunch of other bass fishing related companies. Gary has taken me fishing, in Arizona, many times; and we ALWAYS catch a bunch of fish. He knows the lakes, he knows his methods. They work.

So this year we invited him to come stay at our New York place, and, well, do some fishing. Now he did not use lures or plugs or anything like that. In fact, he brought his “tackle box” which consisted solely of a bunch of hooks he uses on Arizona lakes, and a large bag of random rubber worms and stuff. “This will be interesting,” I thought.

At least I thought it until he pulled in some 20 fish in a couple hours on a lake he had never fished before…

Of course, now I think he is spoiled, because while it has been 119 around Phoenix, we were fishing in cloudy to partly cloudy (and sometimes rainy) weather where the high was about 80. Gary showed us, my brother and me, how he fishes in Arizona, and how it works just fine. The bass in New York apparently are the same personality as the ones in Arizona.

He had some locals invite him to compete in a local bass tournament, and I am sure he would have done well, but he had to get back to his Arizona lakes.

So now my brother and I are fishing with rubber worms and funny looking hooks… I miss using a Meps or a Jimmy  Houston weedless spinner.. but I can’t argue with success!

-PLH