by Joe Cermele

Anyone who follows this blog or my "Hook Shots" video series knows that muskies hate me. They really do. Though I have tried repeatedly to catch one, and come very close by way of follows that didn't turn into strikes, muskies are my bane. So when it came time to hit the trail for one last "Hook Shots" adventure in 2011, I took the easy road and decided to chase...muskies...in December. Now, you can clearly see without playing the video that at least one muskie was plucked from the Allegheny River in PA, but you'll have to watch the episode to find out if I was the lucky angler. All I'll tell you ahead of time is that I only rolled the dice because Red Childress, who is one of the best if not the best muskie guide in the Northeast, told me there was a chance we'd hook up. No guts, no glory. In any case, I'd like to thank you all very much for watching this season of "Hook Shots." It's been a blast, and I'm pumped to kick off season 4 just after the start of 2012. And of course, there's one more "Hook Shots" episode quiz left this year, which you can take here for a chance to win some cool stuff.

by Bob Marshall

Any sportsman who has followed habitat fights over the years knows this: Fish and wildlife always pay a price for fossil fuel extraction -- and if sportsmen are not involved in setting policies at the front end, disaster will almost surely follow for fishing and hunting.

The latest example is the current rush to riches unleashed across the nation by the revolution in shale gas extraction. The general population sees this as a godsend in supplying a fuel source that is domestic and friendlier to the atmosphere than oil -- and is creating jobs and millionaires in the process.

But the Philadelphia Enquirer recently reported sportsmen in Pennsylvania are finding out that, like most gold rushes, this one can trample their woods and waters. Construction of a trench for a 50-mile gas pipeline in Lycoming County left open to the elements "sent mud sliding down hillsides, fouling a stream." Now, "environmentalists and sportsmen have been raising alarms about the effects on the landscape. They worry about construction mud clogging waters and disrupting fish spawning, and about pipeline rights-of-way cutting swaths through forests, destroying treetop canopies."

By Joe Cermele

Technically I suppose this should be my Christmas blog, but Will Ferrell and Old Milwaukee beer are funnier. So if you want something to get you in the Christmas spirit you'll have to find that 24-hour Yule Log TV channel. If you like cheap, all-American beer, check this out.

by Bob Marshall

New Mercury Rules Good News for Fish, Wildlife and People

The Environmental Protection Agency this week issued the long-delayed and debated "Mercury and Air Toxics Standards(MATS)" for power plants. The standards will require reductions of air emissions of mercury and air toxins harmful to humans as well as fish and wildlife habitat. It means that 40 percent of the nation's 1,100 coal fired power plants not using advanced pollution controls, will be required to upgrade to meet the new standards over the next three to four years.

Power plants are the largest remaining source of toxic air pollutants (mercury, arsenic, cyanide) and are responsible for half of the mercury and 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States. When fully enforced, the new rules could reduce the presence of those air pollutants by 90 percent.