This article was originally written to a lure manufacturer whose products I am testing... I thought some of you, who are sportsmen/women, might like to enjoy it, take issue with it, or join me in lamenting the loss of something really wonderful... in our lifetimes. JOHN
You may consider the article to be boring, but it shines a light into my mind and modern America. This is a lure manufacturer who wants me to test out his products, which I will. My thoughts on pollution and decimation are the most important points... which you can, as adults, ignore, but which imply disastrous consequences for the "kids" of our family... whose future I do not envy.
John: October 3, 2006
WHERE THE FISH ARE...
Dear Jack of JLV Lures:
Well, Jack, your kindness blows me away... and yes, I don't know how you can make those margins. Cabella's sells Brad's Mag at about $5.99 but charges $4.00 shipping (or more).
Parenthetically, your web site is fabulous, easy to navigate and fun to browse. I will push your site in my article... the Sierra Mountain Times has about 20,000 readers.
The above address has the most recent issue... however; I did not contribute to it. My next offering will come after the October 18 three day escape to the salmon run... using your lures. And, honestly, I will credit your lure even if it was on a spreader and the fish hit the Silvertron above it... as the co-pilot should get equal credit. Having been in combat in Nam, I can tell you, the guy who crawls out to save the wounded mate twenty feet from the line should get equal credit. Same with spreader lures.
I personally feel that the "more stuff" you can drag in crummy, muddy waters... the better. I would give a year of my life to go if I could, for one week, take my current boat, today's technology and my today smarts and lures and go to the spawn run on the Sacramento River in 1870 (note how I survived the Civil War)... and see how many dozen salmon I could catch...
I have written at length about the effect of hydroelectric dams, hot releases, pumps that grind, PCBs, dioxin, DDT, mercury, lead, oil, mitten crabs from Asia, sewer outputs and over-peoplizing our fishing grounds. I am not a nut Greenie environmentalist at all... I just know what I see as I get older... and that is, the places our great sport is practiced are being
fouled... forever, in my view.
I grew up, summers, on Cape Cod, Mass. and could catch a bucket of porgie, blowfish, and eels in an hour... for dinner, each evening, off the jetty at the end of our street in Harwichport. Five years ago, I took William there and was appalled by oil slicked sand, absence of mussels, tide line sea shells, and got zero fish.
We, as sportsmen, are being blamed for this, and are punished by exorbitant license fees, ridiculous limits for game fish and graft and stealing of license $$ which is supposed to go to stocking and hatcheries... going to illegal Mexicans and welfare programs. When I was a
kid, "salt water" was not a place where any license was required... it was God's ocean and free.
Monstrous Japanese factory ships operating just out of the US territorial sea line (and often within it) take EVERYTHING in the nets... dolphins, rays, sea lion, salmon, striped bass, rock cod, food chain fish... everything... and grind it up, can it and take it home. Result: declining fisheries on the rivers, and off our coasts. This is an "invasion" equal to that on the border, but
nobody cares... so what... who cares. NOBODY!
Did you know that EVERY striped bass on the West Coast was brought in wine barrels in 1872 on the "new" transcontinental railroad from Rhode Island? They were released... probably about 700 in total, off Martinez, near San Francisco... and within ten years, were a million-pound a year commercial crop. By early 1900s, their decimation prompted a ban on catching them except by "sportsmen". (Factory ships today could care less.) Today, they try to spawn in the mercury and PCB laden waters of the California Delta... and the limit is 2 per day for our $40 license fee. A limit is RARE. I have had two "limits" in four years of hard trying. But fun.
Recently, a 2 mile stretch of the Mokulumne River was dredged and over 500,000 automobile tires were recovered. There were about 2,000 car/boat batteries, discharging acid and lead. Is it any wonder that the Department of Fish and Game in California has declared "striped bass should not be eaten in any quantity by children or pregnant women or people under age 35".
(I love how we seniors are allowed to eat radioactive/lead/PCB/mercury fish... probably so we will die and save Social Security our payouts.)
A full grown 16 pound striper takes almost 13 years to get that big... and so, is a very precious item. Screw up his/her water, kill them young, poison their spawning grounds... and voila... by 2006 you have limits of 2, and days and weeks can go by without catching ONE.
I am very discouraged, having lived (believe it or not, 72 years as of October 27)... and having seen my nation, which I and my fathers fought for, go down the tubes by illegal immigration, selfish overbuilding and pollution/factory ships and destruction. I wrote an article several years ago about deer hunting... noting that 800,000 deer are KILLED every year (Interior Dept Stats) by automobiles... just about 8 times what licensed hunters take.., but there is no outcry. Ban cars... are you crazy? And that article stated 400 humans are KILLED each year by deer/auto collisions: Outcry... never. But..,
We go nuts that 3,000 volunteer GIs have died in four years in Iraq, but nobody is outraged that California kills 1,000 teen aged drivers (16-19) EVERY YEAR (and growing)...
Jack... I have strayed from lures, but I thought I would vent on you... I am a real patriot and feel hugely about things that matter. A website that an Aussie Chopper Medivac pilot set up has a place for me: http://iwvpa.net/baldwinjn/index.php
Some of my major speeches are there... and what makes me a sportsman and an American is there... I have lots of flaws as does everyone, but on issues, I stand up.
I appreciate your kindness and will consider your excellent lures the capstone for my birthday... I look forward to using them on the Oct 18 trip and praising them in the forthcoming article.
All Best JOHN...