I’ve often asserted that this blog may offer more advice on what not to do on a homestead than what to do. Case in point: flubbing a fishing cast badly enough to destroy the lure.
I love my Buzzbomb® lures. They reliably attract fish. I have to treat them carefully, though, as they’re fairly fragile (see A Fish Dinner on the Homestead). The lead diamond doesn’t take kindly to rough treatment, like a bad cast on the rocks.
This one will not fish again (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
For me, casting represents one of the sublime moments in the fishing process. Next to the hard strike of a good sized fish, and landing it, executing a proper cast brings me the most joy. Conversely, a bad cast feels rather awful.
Generally, for me, a bad cast comes when I fail to release the line, loose and pinned by a thumb, at the apex of the casting arc. When that happens, the lure plunges into the water at my feet. Or, worse, it slams into the rocks I stand on!
The latest lure I broke, I really did a number on it. I whipped it smartly into the rock with such force that I blew two of the barbs of the treble hook, and drove the small rubber ring “bumper” down the shaft of the hook. This all came in addition to shattering the lead diamond into many pieces. As you may have read in the post linked above, I’ll often continue to use broken Buzzbombs, but this one broke into too many pieces. It might still work, but I risk cutting my line on the sharp, broken edges. I kept it long enough to take a photo, then threw it away.
I replaced it as quickly as I could. Fishing has been pretty good lately, if not always for me. One afternoon, I stood and watched a couple of sea lions catching and eating amazingly large Dolly Varden char, just beyond the outer limit of my casting range. They enjoyed full sun beyond the shadow of the ridge that afternoon, and their prey shone bright, silver, and inviting in the afternoon sun. What mental torture!
The salmon should begin passing by our rocks any day now. Hopefully, my luck—if not my casting form—will improve soon!