JACK WOLLITZ Top 10 mysteries of the angling world

Great mysteries exist in nature that cannot by explained despite the fact our collective knowledge expands exponentially more rapidly with each passing year.
We can send rockets beyond our solar system and look deep into an atom, but sometimes the simplest things elude our understanding.
Like why, sometimes, do fish play "here today, gone tomorrow?" I've been an angler since before my school days, and a serious one for 25 years. On average, I spend 75 days on the water each year. I read magazines, scour the internet and absorb vicarious experience from the TV fishing shows.
Still, I have more questions than answers.
I wonder. I look for explanations. I seek understanding about angling mysteries as deep as the oceans.
So let's have a bit of fun. Here, along with some personal observations, are my top 10 questions about fish and fishing (thank you, David Letterman, for developing an interesting format for such a list):
Jumping fish: 10. Why do carp jump? I suspect they want to trick us anglers into thinking they are bass.
9. What about a maggot is so irresistible to a crappie or bluegill? After all, flies don't lay their eggs under water.
8. What possible reason would provoke a six-inch smallmouth into striking a seven-inch jerkbait? If little bass actually could swallow such meals, there's no telling how dangerous the water would be if it were populated by 20-inch smallies.
The buzz: 7. Why do fish try to eat buzzbaits? A friend once told me he thinks the fish believe buzzers are baby bass boats and want to kill as many as they can before the little vessels grow large enough to carry fishermen.
6. Why do bank fishermen cast out into the lake as far as they can while boaters pitch their lures tight to the shoreline cover? I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
5. What about garlic and WD40 makes fish think they smell like minnows or crustaceans? Maybe Emeril Lagasse has an underwater shad and crawdad cooking show. Regardless, I'm not spraying penetrating oil into my spaghetti sauce.
4. How can a one-pound bass break 20-pound line? It's obvious they now have scissors.
Heron query: 3. Why do blue herons, renowned for their ability to see, try to spear three-pound bass? Probably for the same reason six-inch bass hit seven-inch lures; call it the oops factor.
2. What makes a fish strike a rattling lure one day and then avoid the noise makers the next? It must be nature's way of keeping us anglers humble. Just when we think we've figured them out, we get a surprise.
1. My number one question is this: OK, I get the chartreuse thing, but what about hot pink? Nothing in the fishes' world is that color naturally, but then again, we humans eat blue cotton candy.
I doubt I've covered all of angling's great mysteries. Perhaps you have questions, too.
Email me the fishing issues that perplex you and we'll discuss them in this column soon.
Until then, think about this one: If trout are so smart, why do they eat bugs?
jwollitz@shermanassoc.com