Weird bait

[Matador]

This is a true story. Many years ago I made a quick run up to Silver Lake at Brighton. I started to fish where the water leaves the lake. It is more like a river there and there was a deep hole. I already had an old double Renegade on my line, so I tried that just for kicks. I started catching some fish and letting them go. After a few fish like that, the fly was in tatters. But it was still catching fish until finally about all that was left on the hook was a remnant of the peacock herl from the fly. At that point it was obvious the fish were stacked in that hole like a fish hatchery. So I thought I would have some fun. I scrounged around on the ground and found a cigarette butt, and put it on the hook. By golly I caught a fish with it, no kidding. But in the process I lost the cigarette butt. I looked around and found another, and caught a fish with it. It wasn't long until I was out of cigarette butts. By now I was up to probably 10 fish that I had caught and released. Then I found a piece of tinfoil off of a piece of candy. That caught fish as well. But I soon lost it too. Then I found a twist tie off of bread sack, and twisted it around the bend of the hook, and got several more with it. I looked up and saw someone from the DWR coming. My first thought was, oh no, I am in trouble. But by the time the guy walked over to me I couldn't think of anything I would be in trouble about. I don't think there are any laws against using cigarette butts, tinfoil, or twist ties for bait. It turns out it wasn't an enforcement officer, it was just someone doing a survey. He asked me how many fish I caught and I told him about 25, but that I had released them all unharmed. He said oh man, that's pretty good, what were you using for bait? I will admit that it was really embarrassing to tell him what I had been using. But that is a true story.
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