Fishing for necessity so now Mr. Whiskers is in deep trouble

Jerkbait comparison -- Yo-Zuri 3DB (top) vs Lucky Craft Pointer.
Which is best at putting fish to table?  Read below.

Because of this Covid-19 thing, the Maryland DNR has ruled with an iron fist that there is to be no recreational hunting, fishing or boating.  If you participate in any of those activities, you must be doing so because you want to put food on your table.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Jesus H. Christ

It's OK to gather in masses to walk, run and bike and other essential activities on trails next to a river, but if you're fishing by yourself with nobody in sight along that same river, you better be fishing for food.

So that's what I did today.  Showed up at 7:30 a.m. before anybody reported for essential activities like biking and jogging and walking.  I picked out the best corner-parking space to suit up with a quickness and hit the river.

I've caught plenty of smallmouth bass on this river but I've also hooked catfish, trout and sunfish.  Those would certainly be tasty -- I've wanted to slap a catfish on the smoker for awhile.  Gut it, fill its innards with spices, onions, peppers, etc., and roll coal!

My dilemma is that I don't know how to fish for catfish.  From what I've read on the internet, chicken livers are great for enticing them.  But in these dire times, it doesn't make sense to use food to catch food.  Considering I have an arsenal of lures that have caught catfish (and trout and panfish) in the past, why not use those.

Where all the catfish hang out.  Or maybe not.

Where do catfish hang out?  On a recent fishing show, the presenters sought out logs and other river debris where the catfish parked waiting for chicken livers and other baitfish.  I found an ideal spot this morning where a downed tree created a dam that looked like a good spot for Mr. Whiskers (or maybe trout and sunfish that taste good and are by no means recreational to catch).

Catfish are bottom feeders, and with that in mind, I started off with a Z-Man Finesse TRD worm in chicken liver brown.  I made a few casts, snagged the lure, changed to another Z-man worm that was a purplish chicken liver brown.  Mr. Whiskers was being deceptively clever.

Soon it became apparent Mr. Whiskers (and delicious sunfish and trout) were not going to cooperate in this area with my quest to put un-recreational food on the table, so I moved to another spot.

And another.

And another.

And another.

Some fish nudged the lures (literally watched a fish do this that I didn't feel through the rod) and had a few bites.

Dang illegal (sub 12 inches) bit a Z-man worm.

I switched lures and tried just about everything but a topwater (even though Mr. Whiskers does in fact enjoy smashing topwater lures on occasion), but the fish must have caught on to the social distancing.

(Side note:  I should learn from my friends Kirk and Adam how to use a bow to hunt essential deer.  I saw two does this morning that stood there ripe for the pickings.)

(Side note 2: Also, ducks.)

(Side note 3: Also, geese.)

Eventually after a few hours, I meandered back upriver to a spot, tossed a Z-man worm in a greenish chicken liver color and a fish hit!!  Oh man, dinner for tonight!  Fire up the smoker!!

Unfortunately, it was just a smallmouth bass that wasn't even legal to keep.  It was my first fish of the year, though.

This is the same picture from the top of the page.  My DINFOS
training tells me to "break up the text" to make it more readable.
And here we are.  Yo-Zuri on top, Pointer on bottom.

The day was kind of productive in that I can write about Part 2 of my 10-part installment on jerkbaits.   You might remember last time about the Bomber Long A.  Today I packed a Lucky Craft Pointer 78 in a chicken-liver-flavored minnow pattern, and a Yo-Zuri 3DB with perch coloring and a hint of chicken liver.

The Pointer 78 runs shallow and has a slow rise. The action is good and not erratic --- it's close to a Rapala Shadow Rap, but is slightly shorter and has a more rounded body.  One of those lures to keep along with the Rapala -- sometimes it will work better, or the other one will tempt the fish.

Next was the Yo-Zuri.  It is similar in size to the Rapala Shadow Rap but has a fancy mylar tinsel tail on the rear treble hook.  It runs deeper than the Pointer 78 and suspends wherever it ends up in the water column.  The lure immediately went down and just stayed there. It could almost be worked like a jig -- especially in this shallow river -- scraping the bottom while not floating toward the surface.