Back To the Basics

In our never ending efforts to present cutting edge home made fishing technologies, the MFN Department of Aesthetics and Do-It-Yourself-ism, would like to present the following awards:

#1:  For sheer aesthetic beauty, excellence of design, and eco-friendly recyclability, this crab snare by bay area artist and crab man par exellence, Morgan Raimond wins first prize.

       A thing of great beauty. 

#2.  For sheer volume of production, not to mention excellence of design, how about these rockfish jigs by legendary bay area fisherman (and recent nightsmelt bag-man) Loren Wilson:

 

Loren's bars and jigs. 

#3.  I see a lot of ghost shrimp pumps, but every now and then when I see a really nice one (or two), I have to stop and take a photo.  This guy had the best pumps of winter 2010.  Dude didn't speak much English so I didn't get his name... looked at me like I was a lunatic for wanting pix of his ghost shrimp pumps.  Anyway... here they are... dig the copper tubing:
 

  Best ghost shrimp pumps, Winter 2010
 

#4.  I think I have made it fairly clear over the course of this blog how I feel about that pesky, worm ridden, distant, distant, distant cousin of the true smelts: the jack smelt, (aka: "basura fish"). Nevertheless, I tip my hat to those who have perfected the art of catching them.  And I have noticed a new(ish) trend amongst the jack smelt pier contingent:  mooching rigs.  In the past, the usual manner of fishing for these guys was the old float-sabiki-sparkplug rig.  But lately, everyone is mooching. Meaning, throwing out a sinker and then sliding the sabiki down on the float, or awkwardly casting the whole mess out at once.  Anyway, the first people I saw doing this in 2010 were Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen, on a pier in the great south bay. They were evidently tired of having their bobbers blown around by the wind--something that does not happen so much with a 2-4 ounce sinker anchored in the mud.  (I realize the Nguyens did not invent this technique--though it's at least nominally possible someone with their surname did--nevertheless, they seem to have popularized it of late, and everyone is using their set up.  So here it is):

  

  The Nguyen Jack Smelt Destroyer, notice hand-carved styrofoam.

How Not To Make A Fishing Video:

 

 

(Two Smelt or Too Smelt?)

So I haven't made a video in a while... and if you watch this one you'll see why.  Frankly, it's been a matter of content--or the lack thereof.  By which I mean to say I've been exploring all the different avenues and intricacies of skunkhood... don't believe me?  Check it out:

Woops, forgot to credit the greatest rawk band of them all:  Ween.  From the title track of their epic 1997 release:  The Mollusk.

  

I think maybe my rap name should be, Two Smelt (or Too Smelt?).  

And that's going to do it... sitting here at 4:00am because something tells me this lovely downpour is spring's last breath--and I wanted to sit here and meditate on it... Anyhoo... tune in next time for bigger fishes (Yes, I finally got my halibut!) 

From the cold, clammy storehouse of a tiny, flavorful mollusk, this is Lombard Of The Intertidal, signing out.

Comments

[George Nicholson]

I REALLY enjoy your posts. As a former home grown resident of the City, the Sunset, to be precise, I used to fish up and down the Great Highway -- and Muni pier.
As a young teen, my buddies and I would ride the streetcar and bus from the avenues down Van Ness to fish for whatever we could catch. Riding muni back, we'd be given lots of room on the bus. Guess it was the ground in shrimp on the backs of our Levis.

Keep the posts coming ---

G

[Scott Parker]

I have to agree with the above comment! Love all of your posts, of course there are some that are destined to become the stuff of legend, but even the others are still well worth reading. You have just the right mix of information, education, and entertainment in them... even and especially the videos. But then, of course, watching a video of you catching two smelt in a cast net or digging up throwback littlenecks is a great break, nay, even a vital escape, from the alternative dreary mundanity (can mundane be conjugated like that?) of another day as a plant in a cubicle farm, sallow cast from artificial lights and senses dulled from canned and filtered atmosphere, during the long hours of which the memories of natural light and fresh air fade into the recesses of the imagination in the realm of myth and fable and the natural state of existence seems to perpetually be located somewhere deep within the long dark tea time of the soul. I've said too much but really hate the thought of deleting what I wrote so lets just pretend that it's all crossed out and was simply replaced with "Love your blog posts! They keep me sane during hectic days!" :)

[monkeyface]

Jesus, Scott. That was like the most wonderfully stream of consciousness blog comment ever... thanks.

[Scott Parker]

Heh. I'm glad you liked it. I'm pretty sure that it's gramatically correct too, although I don't have much call to write anything so complex in my dayjob. :)

[John L..]

It doesn't get any better than the Monkey Faced News...I savor every posting Kirk. Keep up the fine work !

[Behrouz Farsi]

Got this dumb-smile on my face, heart lit up and a gleam in my eye and it's 2 freaking 30am on a Sunday - thanks again for another go Kirk. Your creative spirit is legendary... will keep flipping through the blog, still got a few hours before day break...