Part 1

Ever had any experience with angling accessories called Stop Knots or perhaps Bobber Stops?

It’s not at all difficult to remember the first time I saw one of them in action.  I had a friend who had established a reputation as one of the best crappie fishermen in the area where I was living at the time.  I had talked to him several times.  He told me he did almost all of his crappie catching with small curly tailed plastic grubs.

We happened to be on the same lake one day.  I was fishing bass but he was anchored near a rock pile in the middle of the lake.  The rocks were a favorite crappie hangout.  I had fished it a few times myself. 

The bass fishing was slow so I decided to run out to where my friend was anchored to see how he was doing for crappies.  I eased up next to where he was anchored and asked how he was doing.

“Not bad,” he said and then pulled up a stringer full of fish to prove it. 

“What are you catching them on?” I asked.“These grubs I’ve told you about,” he said.  “Today they’re hitting a blue shade better than the white I usually catch ‘em on.”

I watched as my friend prepared to cast.  As he brought his rod up to do so I was surprised to see that right above his blue shaded grub was a float.  He flipped the bobber and grub about 15-feet away from the boat.   They plopped into the water and my friend engaged the bail on his spinning reel and relaxed.

He didn’t relax long.  A half minute later his float started easing off to the right and he set the hook.  “That makes 20,” he said as he hoisted a dandy crappie out of the water and into his boat.

“I didn’t know you were fishing that grub beneath a bobber,” I said, “and how the devil are you getting that grub down where the fish are?  Your bobber was right above your hook when you cast it out there.”

My friend chuckled as he hung the crappie he’d just caught on his stringer.  “I’m using a Bobber Stop,” he said.  Then he showed me what he had attached to his line about 5-feet above his lure.

 “The bobber is right above my lure when I cast,” he explained, “but it floats up the line until it is stopped by the Bobber Stop.  Today I have it attached to my line so my lure drops to a depth of about 5-feet.  That’s where the crappies are holding right now.  Sometimes I have to go considerably deeper and now and then they are fairly shallow.  I can put the Bobber Stop anywhere on my line.  It goes right through my rod guides as I cast or when I reel in.  I love these things for crappie fishing.”

That, as I’ve mentioned, was my introduction to a Stop Knot.  It happened more than a half century ago.  These accessories were new at the time.  They are used a whole lot more by knowledgeable anglers today than they were then---and with good reason.  Sometimes using these handy little accessories can make the difference between catching fish or going home skunked.

Mack's Lure Stop Knots can solve a variety of fishing problems for you.

One of the reasons Stop Knots come to mind right now is because I have been going through the new Mack’s Lure 2010 catalog.  These Mack’s Lure accessories are shown on Page 33 and they are called Stop Knots.  Seeing them in the new catalog didn’t surprise me.  They’ve been there in past Mack’s catalogs.

What seeing them pictured did do was bring to mind some of my own experiences where these handy little rigs are concerned.  They also reminded me of a Mexican fishing adventure where the Mack’s Lure Stop Knots helped put bass in the boat.

Stop Knots are easy to use.  You can adjust them so they fit anywhere on your line or leader.

My fishing partner on that occasion was Bob Schmidt, the soft spoken guy who calls the shots at Mack’s Lure.  While Schmidt is soft spoken he’s also as sharp as a Gamakatsu Hook fresh out of the package.  I watched what he does with his Mack’s Lure Stop Knots on that Mexican fishing trip I mentioned and learned something in the process.

Keep an eye peeled for my next column.  I’ll share some of Schmidt’s Stop Knot tricks for bass fishing.  I’ll also detail exactly why the Stop Knots can be of such importance if you’re a crappie fisherman. 
My next column starts March 15.

-To Be Continued-