I ran a marathon race today. I have not worked out hard this year, as I had an operation of my upper jaw. I don't like to excuse, but it was almost off-the-cuff race for me.
My time (net) was awful, 3 hours 49 minutes 51 seconds, which was the personal worst record. I could run from the scratch to 37-38 km more smoothly than I expected, but the rest was hellish. I did have difficulties to keep running due to aching muscles of whole of my legs. I felt happy to be able to finish it, but to tell the truth, I could not fully enjoyed it.
I'll run another race in the end of this year, and I'd like to train a little harder than ever before.
We have a three-day weekend here, as 23 Nov is a holiday. I almost gave up going, but I could go fishing today for the first time in this month.
I thought metal-side reels would be too cold to palm under low temperature conditions, so I picked up one with a plastic side (ABU Ultra Mag II) from my reel case last night. I renewed the line on it, and oiled some parts.
The water was very cold, much colder than last time, and I was afraid fish were slow. I kept fishing with slow and steady method using wood lures such as Heddon Crab Wiggler (this is exactly suitable for this technique). However, I got no reactions from fish at all.
When I fished almost all the shore areas of the pond, I decided to try a Bass Oreno (frog color) for a change before I went home. I cast it, waited for a several seconds, and gave it actions very slowly. Suddenly the water surface blew up, and I saw a big bass punch my lure. I set a hook hard, and started to reel my line. Then, as the fish rushed a few yards, the line stopped. It dived into submerged branches and got stuck. I hoped the fish was still being hooked, but when I started to get close there, I saw the fish swim toward me and yawn openly. It was just like saying 'See you!', and I really felt let down.
All in all, I had second thought that it was good to be able to see a bass during this season of the year. I was thinking today would be my last chance to go bass fishing during this season, but I may not know when to give up.
We were planning to go offshore fishing in the Sea of Japan, but it was canceled because of bad weather. It is so windy that I can't go out for bass fishing, either. I decided to be an armchair fisherman today, and tried to make reel covers by hand.
At first, I was thinking to pick some up from Bass Pro Shop. They're not so expensive and according to my good friend in the US they're well-made. However, when I was in a store near my place, I found a good case named 'Door Knob Reminder Pocket'. It reminded me of the reel cover. The store is so called 100-yen shop (= one dollar store), where you can buy every item for JPY 100 each. I bought some of them.
I cut the case, sewed some ends and Velcro tapes to make it fit my reel. I made two and sewed a small Garcia patch on one of them to tell which reel is inside the cover. It needs some more needlework, but worth trying during off-season.
It's getting colder and colder, but I'd like to have a few more chances to go fishing during this year. I also started off-season routine, listing and organizing my reels, rods, and lures in the boxes and drawers. It is time-consuming, but interesting.
I got some wood lures for starters. I like old wood lures. Some among them are painted very beautifully, I'd rather say graciously, such as old Heddon lures. On the other hand, some are painted roughly ( I mean "simply" ) and have rustic appearance that I also like very much.
These are NIB Gilmore wood lures, Super Jumper, Large Jumper, and Hoodler. Their painting scheme is simple, but looks attractive for me.
Fred Arbogast made some wooden rustic lures, too. These (below) are named 'Scudder'. They're big but I believe good for bass as well. Older ones have dent eyes, while newer ones have plain painted eyes. Of course I like older ones much better.
Today, I received a Wounded Spook in silver shore color. Looks different from other ones? Yes, it has silver scales on the back and belly. It must be one of the transitional Wounded Spooks made during 1970-1971, when the painting method of eyes (black pupils) were changed from hand-stumping to air-spraying. These lures are often called "one-year Heddons" and I haven't seen many of them.
I went fishing in a flat shallow farm pond early in the morning today, but got skunked again. I could get no vital reaction from fish. Nothing, at all. Anyway, the sky was clean, and I saw many typical fall clouds in the sky as well as on the water surface. Lily pads are now dying, suggesting my bass fishing season will soon be over. I'd like to one or two more nice bass before I finish this season.
By the way, I finally found a good chemical product to restore faded plastic parts of my rods and reels. Unpainted black plastic parts often get faded, and turn white or matte across the ages. Fox example, knobs, bodies, and spools of ABU reels, Fuji reel handles, and so on. I had often polished them using compounds, or oiled them, but they were not improved.
This product (cleaning re-conditioner for black parts of cars) is a revolutionary one. I got interested in applying it to many of my old fishing tackle, and I found it can be applicable even on brown plastic. I'm very happy to see my reels and rods look sparkly clean. I should have tried it much earlier.
I hear Heddon used a backward direction bent prop in only a few colors of Wounded Spooks. Unfortunately, all of mine are identical, rotating in the same direction.
Them, while I was replacing lures in my tackle boxes, I found this bait. That reminds me, the front prop of old Wounded Spooks are different! I guess Heddon may have used these dead stock props in later Wounded Spooks.
