by Joe Cermele

Look closely. Yup, that's a lure. A 16-inch hand-poured hard plastic, soft plastic, and carbon fiber 'possum to be exact. I have seen everything from duck lures, to giant snake baits, to full-sized rubber sailfish teasers, but never a 'possum until lure maker Clayton Bryant recently added this monster marsupial wake bait to his line up at CL8 Baits. It's a work of art, no doubt, and though muskies might pop into your head, this mega-mammal was designed with largemouths in mind.

by John Merwin

There’s an old fishing quote that goes like this: “No man, having caught a large fish, goes home through an alley.” I don’t know who wrote that originally. It’s most often attributed as anonymous. But bragging rights have doubtless been a part of fishing for as long as fish and fishermen have existed.

Which brings me to the sad tale of Paul Crowder and what was, briefly last week, the Arkansas state-record largemouth bass. It turns out Crowder caught the 16-pound, 5-ounce fish while fishing illegally because he didn’t have a fishing license. So the record was rescinded, and Crowder now faces a court date.

There’s another point here beyond Crowder’s thoughtless stupidity. Just how important is a record fish? For popular species such as largemouths, it seems records have become a very big deal--not just for notoriety, but for money, too.

by Joe Cermele

If you follow trends in the bass world, you've surely heard of the Alabama Rig (left). If you don't, this controversial "lure" is a play on the classic saltwater umbrella trolling rig, simply made compact and castable. A weighted head sprouts five wire arms with snap swivels on each end. To those swivels you can pretty much add any soft-plastic you'd like. Bass pro Paul Elias used an Alabama Rig in a tourney on Lake Guntersville back in October and won. Now, as companies scramble to make and sell their own versions of the rig, B.A.S.S. has taken another look at them and decided, you know what? This isn't going to work for us.

From the B.A.S.S. press release:
Rules Committee members believe the rig eliminates some of the skill that should be required in tournament competition at the highest level. “It doesn’t matter how you work it,” said one of the anglers. “The fish can’t help themselves...”

by John Merwin

Wow, another year is almost over. It seems now as if 2011 went by awfully fast. I’m convinced that the passage of time accelerates as one grows older. At least it seems that way.

So as usual, at this season I’m thinking about the fishing I did in the recent past, and the fishing I hope to do in the coming 12 months. Oddly enough, perhaps, and despite various trips to far-off places, the most plain fun I’ve had in fishing lately has been close to home.

Simpler is better, or so it seems in retrospect. For one thing, fishing close to home is pretty much free of hassles. Whether it’s bass (as in the photo) or trout, pike or panfish, the fishing nearby is generally productive and easy to get to. Airline travel, whether to a fishing destination or for any other reason, has become complex, daunting and expensive. I put my head down when I have to and put up with all the aggravation, but it’s always an ordeal.