The Gambling Peak

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SKIPJACKS AT MELDHAL My brother drove us up to Meldhal dam to get some Skipjacks for catfish bait. It took about 40 minutes to reach the Kentucky side of the dam. There were a number of guys already fishing for skipjacks as we walked down the hill. Some of them were up on top the dead wall. Four or five were at the corner of the bank and wall. It was too crowded there so we walked down to the rocky area to try our luck.

The back eddy current from the dam had that area all messed up with drift material. We tried fishing at that spot for around 30 minutes. I then noticed some of the guys on the dead wall were leaving.. The guys in the corner area had been catching some skipjacks as I was watching them. The schools of skipjacks would come in and jump all over for about 10 to 15 minutes, then move out. During the lull, I moved up to the top of the dead wall. On top of the dead wall you get a great view of the fish moving around chasing the Shad. The water was much clearer in the corner section than down by the rocks.

Right next to the dam gate wall a guy by the name of Dennis was fishing from his chair. I kept casting time after time with no hits. Dennis was catching a skipjack or 2 about every third cast whenever the schools of fish were in that area. He gave me his catch instead of throwing them backing the river. I was amazed by the size of those fish. They were averaging over 12 inches. The longer ones went 14 1/2 to 15 inches long.

I noticed my brother had moved closer to the wall. He did finally catch a few skipjacks. I did NOT catch one fish with all my efforts of trying all different lures and rigging. In the mean time Dennis just kept on pulling them in. His rig was a string of 4-5 1/8 oz. jigs with white grub tail. I did not have such a rig in my fishing bag.

My brother finally came up by us and he did catch a few skipjacks. Then we finally packed it in for the day. When we got home, the total was around 30 fish. I would say Dennis gave us over 20 of them. I cleaned 6 of them in to chunks for catfish bait. I only had space in my freezer for that much bait.

I did use a small package of the skipjacks the next morning. Caught one blue cat that weighed in at 5.4 pounds. Also had 2 very hard bait clicking runs, one got my line wrapped around a snag and lost him. The second dropped the bait and just did not come back for it.

Odds are once the Ohio River settles back down, my brother & I will be back at Meldahl. I will also get those rigs that Dennis had in my fishing bag when I cast my line up there again. Tight lines to all.

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We learn a lot from just watching and observing the pros and by doing so it is easy to pick up valuable tips for golf that can help our own golf game.

And make no mistake about it, to pick the really valuable tips for golf from the professionals; you will need to be very observant and keen. Many times you will need to watch and listen keenly, if you are watching them on Television or arrive at the venue very early if you are watching the action live.

One of the things the pros never do is arrive late and find that their tee time has arrived and they hurriedly have to take their positions.

Such a situation means that the golfer starts the game with stiff muscles and also having not gotten a feel of the ball or the green before the start of the game.

Of all the tips for golf you will ever receive, this is the most critical because it helps you perform at your best. Your skills gained from hours of practice and all the other tips for golf in the world, will be of little use if you start a game without any sort of warm up.

Among the other important tips for golf you will get from professionals is that a warm up should involve first warming up your muscles and then stretching them, especially the golf-specific ones that you will strain during your golf swing.

Once the exercise part is done, you can then move on to the ball and hit 20 or 30 balls as you continue loosen up slowly. Start with a short iron and progress up the longer clubs. Try and see if you can get a feel for your swing.

Any amateur who tries out these tips for golf from the professionals will find that their game will improve dramatically and they will avoid sore muscles the next morning after a hard game the previous day.

Making core skills fun. Improving the core skills is important to player and team. But players, however motivated, will need some new ways of approaching the core skill to add variety to the practices. Here are some different ways of adding an element of fun to handling activities.

Variety

Practice normal passing and then change to an unusual form of passing before returning to the core pass being examined. For instance when looking at offloads, make the players try one handed back flicks in the tackle for a couple of rounds of the drill.

Time trials

After going through some of the drills, try putting a time limit on achieving a certain target, e.g. five passes in one area followed by fives passes in another in 30 seconds. The element of pressure builds a certain amount of tension, but also can lead to players enjoying the success. If they can beat their times or other group’s times, they will enjoy the task even more.

Unusual areas

Don’t just practice in boxes or circles, use different shapes set out by cones to force players to think in different ways. Some coaches set out a snake like shape with differing widths in which players must progress up the pitch.

Also try handling on a sharper incline, or in long grass.

Different size balls

With all the different types of promotional balls, as well as age group balls, there are at least five separate sizes of rugby ball out there. Don’t just practice with one size, get the players to handle using all shapes and sizes in one practice. The variety of shapes will challenge players to change the way they may take and give a pass.

Different balls

And one should not just think of different rugby balls, but also try using tennis balls (see issue 10), footballs (have you ever tried spinning one of these?) or even beach balls. All could add an element of fun, if not enhance your players understanding of ball handling.

Resistance running and passing

Resistance running is where another player holds onto a player’s shirt or shorts as they try to run forward. The idea is to let the player make some progress but making them work significantly harder than they would do normally. Have you tried this technique with ball handing? Players do not always have the luxury of passing unhindered.

Cones as distracters

In passing drills, make a player carry a cone in one hand. They are allowed to use the cone and other hand to catch the ball, but they must release or pass the ball using the hand without the cone. Once they have made right hand passes, then get them to change hands. Move on to getting players to take passes one-handed – replicating the times in the game when they need to take contact with the other arm. One handed pass to one-handed catcher is not going to move the ball quickly across the field, but it might be very useful in a tight situation. For more articles on Rugby Coaching or to sign up for a free Rugby Coaching newsletter please visit www.betterrugbycoaching.co.uk