Pinardville resident, Dave Donnelly, is a believer.
He holds up a catch of white perch that came in
over the sounds of the Irish Rovers.

"When I feel their location, I cast my line in front of them. My line no sooner breaks the water when a fat bass hit’s it with a fury. I hoot and holler and squeal with delight as I reel in a plump largemouth from below," Sherry told me. Any bass angler would be delighted to master Sherry Dunham’s highly successful technique of psychic fishing because he or she could throw away all those rubber worms they use and pay so much for. Spinner baits? Who needs them? Just talk to the bass and they will respond. Care to give it a try? According to Sherry, her husband "doesn’t seem to have mastered the secret. He always gets skunked."

There really may be something to Sherry’s method. You see, I too have a fishing secret. Several years ago, a friend and I were intently fishing aboard my 16 foot Sea Nymph Fishing Machine on Lake Massabesic. It’s a nice boat with a live-well, depth-finder, VHF marine radio and an AM-FM radio and cassette tape player. It even has a compass so you don’t get lost on the lake. The only thing missing at the time was a name for my boat.

It was one of those "iffy" type days with gray clouds overhead and a frontal system fast approaching. The moon phase was full and the wind was blowing out of the East. As the ‘old salts’ say, "When the wind is from the East, the fish bite least". Ha!

We were trolling. Two hours time had elapsed and not one bite did we have. "We are doomed to failure today, Bob," my friend Andy proclaimed. And, then it hit me. What better way to stir things up and aggravate the fish, and perhaps other anglers too, than playing a wee bit of lively Irish music? I grabbed my cassette case and rummaged through a number of tapes. Being part Irish that I am, I popped in a tape of Irish jigs and cranked up the volume to full blast. "No, no!" my friend Andy exclaimed. "Not Irish jigs! Turn it off, please," he begged.

Just then, both of our rods began bouncing lively, and not in time with the music either. A pair of fat white perch were soon in the live-well. Andy silently re-baited his hook. Before the lively Irish number was finished, the two down-rigger rods popped and started bouncing with active fish. We scrambled to get two more hefty white perch aboard. Then the second Irish jig began to play. There were no further complaints from Andy. Occupants in other nearby boats stared as Andy, stepped lively to the Irish music, when three of our four rods suddenly bounced into action. We now had three more fish, two nice rainbow trout and another fat white perch. When rain finally arrived, we called it a day with 31 white perch and two hefty-size rainbow trout to our credit. Oh, I almost forgot. We also came away with a name for my boat. From that day on, nothing else would do but, "Luck O’ the Irish".

So, take your luck as you find it. Get psychic, get Irish, get a rabbit’s foot or dawn your lucky shirt or hat. Just grab that fishing rod and get fishing. And, take a kid fishing with you, too. Tight lines, good luck and have a wonderful fishing season.