I went on a 5 mile hike along the American River this weekend. The main trail was about 300 feet elevation above the river. The final 1/4 mile leads down to the river.

At the end of the hike, thinking I could save some time hiking back, I thought I’d follow the river at the river’s edge. This worked good for about ten minutes before I was scaling boulders and wading through waist-deep water. I finally hit canyon walls that forced me to retreat to the trail. But, as luck would have it, I found a 20 to 30 foot hole (a couple of them actually) that was full of beautiful fat rainbows that looked to be 20+ inches. Having no fishing gear with me I began plotting my return.

My guess is this spot has been fished very rarely, if at all. It’s not navigable by boat and only some lunatic who though they could find a shortcut by hiking into a canyon for an hour (me) would have stumbled upon it.

I’ll be heading back real soon with my pole. Any suggestions of what I should use for bait since this is not normally my type of fishing? I’ll report back with better pics.

Well someone on the site swore you stop the pain of the catfish stab by peeing on it. I will tell you personal experience thats Bull Hocky! Don't work! I rubbed my finger on the fishes belly Didn't work either! I washed with Hydrogen Peroxide. Probably cleaned the pee and the belly slime off but I fished thru the pain till I got home. I used hot water and instantly it stopped the pain. I had to hold it in hot running water twice before it didn't hurt anymore. And the little one that got me I threw back. Oh and my girlfriend wouldn't lick it either. Don't know why she didn't want anything to do with it. And the bacon caught all 5 of the cats. 3 only came home with me.

I think that it was in the 1970's when Popiel advertised the heck out of their "Pocket Fisherman". We all thought that it was a joke of an idea, although the concept of having tackle under the car seat just in case you saw some water and had a few spare minutes might not be such a bad thing.

I saw this at a yard sale and bought it for $1, it was such a memory jog that I couldn't pass it up. I took it apart and cleaned and oiled it. Inside the case, it's a spincast mechanism as you'd expect. There's some clever engineering inside, and it's not the worst quality reel I've ever seen. Certainly, it's better quality than the Daiwa AC80 that I just threw out. (I'm not putting Daiwa down, they make some good reels - but the AC80 isn't one of them. I took it out on the front lawn to try it, if functions smoothly and well - although it isn't a rig you'd choose for casting accuracy. I think I'll hang it on the garage wall.

I'm curious though - has anyone here ever used one of these, and what was your experience with it?