by Joe Cermele

First, check out this video from ABC 7 News in Virginia. It seems angler Juan Duran may have set a new world record for snakehead right here on American soil. This week, Duran wrenched an 18-pound monster out of the Potomac River near Washington D.C. The current world-record snakehead weighed just over 17 pounds and was caught in Japan...right where these fish belong in the first place. If you think a snakehead that size in our rivers is mildly freightening, check out video number two.

by Joe Cermele

A few weeks ago I was cleaning some old junk out of the basement at my mom's place, and amid the clutter was a pile of rods wedged in the corner. Most them were beaten to death, missing guides, and not worth saving. But in the cluster were four I just had to keep, because they all represent milestones in my fishing history. There was my first spinning rod (1), an Olympic 2000 that, if memory serves correctly, my dad cut down for 7-year-old me. It only has three guides. Then there's my first fly rod (2), an Eagle Claw Feather Light. I got the rod in 6th grade, and used it until my sophomore year of high school. That Christmas Santa brought me a G. Loomis 5-weight.

by John Merwin

Yesterday morning in about two hours, I caught more large brown trout than ever before in one day of fishing. It was just crazy. In addition to the 7-pounder I’m holding in the photo, we also caught and released a brown of 8.5 pounds and a third that weighed in at 5 pounds.

I guess that’s bragging of a sort, but mostly I share all this so I can then explain just how it was done. In a nutshell: Free-lining live-bait minnows.

So here was the deal. A small local lake had become infested with alewives, a non-native species introduced by accident. Some years back, the state started stocking brown trout here, hoping the browns would help to control the invasive alewives.

by Joe Cermele

I don't know about you, but I've had the grill out and fired up a bunch already this spring. It's barbecue season and I couldn't be happier! Now, if you're looking for a little change from normal burgers and brats this year, may I suggest Asian carp dogs. That's right, Schafer's Fisheries in Fulton, IL, is turning the fish we all love to hate into the foods we all love to eat.