I was contacted a while back by my good friend Greg Alred. He expressed an interest in his young son Baylor furthering his education by taking a short course this summer in Puffology.
Knowing that Baylor recently graduated from Kindergarten I had to act quickly to pull together a classroom, my materials and a proper faculty to get this important class under Baylor’s belt before he entered the grueling requirements and expectations of First Grade. Would I be able to pull this off in just a few days and still hold to the highest standards of Carpin’ with the Captain? Could I put together a team and a venue that would do justice to the almost reverent topic of “Puffology”? Would young Baylor be able to digest the importance of this class well enough to put a Carp on the mat? I thought you’d never ask…………..
First of all, I needed a classroom. For this I contacted my good friend Mr. Bill Ashworth in Centre, Ala. Bill not only provided the classroom. He also agreed to take part in the class as well!! Bill is a fine Southern gentleman and a joy to be around. One fact that impressed me about him was he married his lovely bride in March of 1952!!! That was before I was born and I am 58 years old!!!!
It is approximately 70 miles from the Captain’s Quarters to Bill’s dock on Lake Weiss in Centre, Alabama.
So now, I had two students and a classroom. The next step was to gather my faculty. This part was going to be easy!! I first contacted Dr. Maximus Relaximus (the Ultimate Carp Hound)
I knew that with his background in Stress Management he would be an asset to our team! You may not believe this (and surely you won’t) but Dr. Relaximus recently received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in L&R (Lick & Release) from Oral Roberts University!!
My other two colleagues were none other than L-R, Dr “Cool Dad” Gill and Dr “Bigbird” Strickland!!
Dr. Gill received his degree from the School of Hard Knocks. He is known world wide because of his research with the (Dare I say it?) Plug of Perfection. Although Dr Gill refuses to use anything other than a Hair Rig, I still thought his vast background in Photography and Net Usage would be an asset to this Seminar.
Dr. Strickland received a degree as well several knots, bruises and scratches while working in the Emory Primate Center here in Atlanta. He has been known to give lengthy and very informative dissertations as he “holds court” across our great nation!!
So now we have our classroom, our students and our faculty! Our next step is materials!! I recently contacted Tony Crawford at Midway lakes 2 in Kings Mountain, NC concerning some pretied rigs suitable for fishing puffs. As it turned out, they arrived yesterday just hours before class!!
I am not an expert but I know what works for me. Here is the simple rig including sliding sinker, bead, swivel and attached pretied rig:
Next is the Puff. Arrowhead Mills Corn Puffs (pictured) seem to be the choice of many who practice “Puffology”:
After that is the “Packbait”. In this case, we were using a Strawberry Grits Recipe given to me by Billy “Coweta Carper” Walden:
The packbait is packed firmly around the Puff in a slender, streamlined fashion. The bait will dissolve or “Break” thus exposing sweet chum and a Puff.
The hope is that Mr. Carp will come along & while vacuuming up the freebies, he will also inhale the puff as well as the hook!
Well, as always, the proof is in the Pudding!! Please look below to see some of the Success of Puffology 101 as it was taught this week in the Centre of Alabama!!!
You may find that you want to learn more about Puffology or even the Plug of Perfection. If that is the case then Come see us!!!
Edited by Ol Captain, 22 July 2011 - 05:45 PM.
