JACK WOLLITZ Sharing angler's life lessons

If I were keeping a fishing journal, it would be packed with scribbles about lessons I have learned over a lifetime of on-the-water experiences.
During some quiet time last week, I stopped to reflect on the volume of information assimilated in the 40 years I've been an angler.
Many of those recollections made me smile. All of them make me appreciate the people who have divulged secrets, demonstrated new tactics and just generally made my fishing more fun and productive. I‚ll share a few of the lessons, with acknowledgement to those who passed them my way.
Bluegill fishing with Dad in local strip pits and dragging nightcrawlers for walleyes in the Michigan north woods.
Bass bug bit: The bass bug bit me thanks to Bob and Dale Mullen, of Hubbard. I became acquainted with the father and son while researching a bass article for the old Ohio Fisherman magazine, and immediately was smitten by their fast-paced, go-get-'em style of bassin‚.
Art Lyon of Conneaut taught me about deep-water walleye fishing. Twenty years ago, while everybody else was casting worms and spinners, Lyon was prospecting with steel line for walleyes 50 to 75 feet down in Lake Erie‚s Central Basin. And he was hauling in limits of six- to eight-pound fish.
I thought I was a crappie fisherman until I went to Presque Isle one blustery November day 15 years ago with Eli Danilov of Campbell. He showed me the tricks of catching slabs in the shallow weed beds on a day when most people would be content to hide inside and watch football.
In the past two decades, most of my fishing time has been spent chasing largemouth and smallmouth bass. This area has some excellent bassers. One of them is Dave Williams, a Youngstown police captain who has handcuffed thousands of bass. He proved the value of fishing the windward cover as he plucked bass from Mosquito Creek Reservoir while bobbing on white caps. The tournament we won that day reinforced the lesson.
Converted: Never much inclined to experiment with topwater baits, I saw the error of my ways when Bob Bowman of Youngstown caught fish on his buzzbait. Known then as "Buzzin" Bob, he showed me largemouths will attack an eggbeater on the surface.
From Bob Goricki of Poland I learned that no cover is too thick to fish. He hauls a push pole in his bass boat and is known to forge into the thickest, highest, nastiest cattail patches where he finds unmolested bass.
It was Bruce Rice, a transplanted west sider now residing in Cortland, who showed me the special fish-catching attributes of the then-new Rapala Shad Rap.
More lessons came from Warren brothers George and Nick Prvonozac. Both veterans of the pro BASSMASTER Tournament Trail, the Prvonozacs are a formidable team in local tournaments, where they sling the same lures as most other bass anglers, but seem to catch fish out of sheer willpower.
Tom Ventresco of North Lima taught me that even in the heat of a tournament battle, it‚s good to stop and have fun when fish other than valuable bass are biting. We "wasted" an hour one day on the Ohio River pounding the drum at a power plant discharge. We didn't win the bass tourney, but we caught 100 pounds of fish.
Aging eyes: At my age, the eyes don't focus quite as sharply as they used to, so line-watching can be a challenge. But Ron Learn of Hubbard demonstrated that the more visible fluorescent lines catch plenty of fish in our local waters.
Getting your homework done is important in school and on the water. Dan Mansky of Youngstown proved to me that on-the-water preparation can provide a decided advantage when bassing is tough.
Poland's Steve Zarbaugh is an accomplished soft-plastic jerkbait angler and he's showed me just how versatile the darting lures can be - from the Ohio River to Lake Erie.
My entire list is three times this long. It includes many other highly accomplished local folks who have unselfishly shared information.
You too know people who can help. Watch and listen and you‚ll add more excitement to your fishing trips
jwollitz@shermanassoc.com