Lake Trout Recipes

Biting fishing line/sinkers a sure recipe for chipped and broken teeth

I’m afraid if I don’t change my ways it’s going to happen sooner or later.

With my luck, probably sooner.

I’m talking about chipping or breaking off a part of one my front teeth from constantly biting my fishing line or while putting on sinkers.

I’ve been doing it for years. It’s one of those bad habits I picked up from my father. I’ve tried to stop myself. I’m just too lazy.

Making matters worse is that I keep running into anglers who’ve suffered the consequences.

Two weeks ago, Michael Kost, my brother-in-law from South Carolina, chipped his front tooth biting his line while on a fishing trip up to Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks.

John Warakomski, of Skaneateles, who took me out last week during the brown drake hatch on Skaneateles Lake, told me how he how he broke his front tooth “vertically” while biting on a split shot sinker. His dentist used the remaining part of the tooth to put on a cap.

Warakomski, who goes by the alias “JW Trout” said he didn’t learn his lesson.

“About three months later, I tried biting a split shot again on my bad tooth and the cap broke off,” he said.

Warakowski said the dentist put in a fiber post to hold an artificial tooth in place. Several months later, that tooth broke and fell out. He’s since had a “heavy-duty metal” post put in to hold his fake front tooth in place. All these procedures involved hundreds of dollars in dental bills.

The lesson learned?

“Use snippers to cut your line, and forceps to put on your sinkers,” he said.

Bass angler Ken Golub, of Pittsford, who I fished with this spring on Conesus Lake, told me then how he chipped his front tooth during a fishing tournament on Oneida Lake. Golub says he’s been a long-time line biter and remains proud of it.

In fact, he instructed his dentist to file his tooth to sharpen it, enabling him to bite his line more easily.

My dentist, P. Gard Lorey, of Skaneateles, says he sees “fishing line victims” all the time.

“It’s not a good thing,” he said. “The structure of your teeth makes them very susceptible to fracturing when you bite on things like fishing line.”

Lorey said as you grow older your teeth experience more wear and tear.

“Ask all those fishermen to please not do that,” he concluded.

Lake Superior Fish Recipe Contest | Minnesota Sea Grant News

Lake Superior Fish Recipe Contest

Lake herring pâtè, anyone? Minnesota Sea Grant wants your best hors d'oeuvre recipe involving commercially caught fish from Lake Superior. These fish include whitefish, lake herring, ciscoes or lake trout. Enter online or send a copy of your fish hors d'oeuvre recipe to:

Spilly's Lake Superior Recipe Contest Duluth, MN 55812

Photographs are encouraged. This contest is open to people who are not involved in the preparation of food or recipes for pay. Employees of the University of Minnesota Sea Grant Program and members of their households are also ineligible. Recipes must incorporate at least one ingredient derived from whitefish, lake herring, ciscoes, or lake trout. Recipes must reflect hors d'oeuvre portioning. All entries must be received electronically or postmarked by Monday, August 22, 2011.

A full set of guidelines is available online or by request. Prizes will be awarded to the top five contestants. A People's Choice Award will be given to the recipe that receives the most online votes during the months of September and October.

Spilly's Lake Superior Recipe Contest is being conducted in honor of Sea Grant Founder, Professor Athelstan Spilhaus and Lake Superior's commercial fisheries. Dr. Spilhaus would have celebrated his hundredth birthday this November. He felt strongly about using Earth's oceans and inland seas in a sustainable way.

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