The other day, Joe Cermele did a post about turning his new truck into a fishing machine, which got me thinking about what might be the ultimate fish car.

That might mean fastest, of course, and the Bugatti Veyron as the world’s fastest production car might qualify. Or it would have until I saw this online video of a new $2 million Bugatti being hauled out of a shallow lagoon in Texas a couple of day ago.

Seems the driver swerved to avoid a low-flying pelican. What a tragedy! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this, but I do know that my ultimate fish car--whatever it is--would (a) have been able to simply drive free of this predicament, and (b) wouldn’t cost $2 million in the first place. So a Bugatti is out.

But how about a ...

... special Field & Stream edition Lincoln Town Car. I mean take your basic cushy Lincoln and give it camo paint plus a 6-inch lift and big tires. Then add something like a Quigley 4WD conversion and electronically locking differentials (front and rear). Add surf-rod racks to the top, and I’d be good to go in high style.

Or for those on a budget, we could modify a little clapped-out Ford Escort station wagon, a P.O.S. car I once owned back in the day. We could add a snorkel-type intake for traversing shallow water--given a fast enough start. Suitably rusted, it would be almost invisible when parked along the river. I could use its extra spark plugs for sinkers. The tattered gray carpeting, meanwhile, might offer a perfect dubbing material for the bodies of Adams dry flies.

Dream on, buddy. Like most people who fantasize about exotic cars once in a while, I eventually confront this reality: The ultimate fish car is whatever I happen to be driving at the time.

Every baitcaster gets a backlash once in while. Untangling the line can be a real pain, and many resort to a knife or scissors to cut away the tangle in frustration. No more. This quick video tip for clearing backlash snarls will help.

Reeling forward slightly while pressing on the tangled line with your thumb smooths the snarl and pushes those overlapping line loops free. It’s not a new idea. I first heard of this in an article by bass pro Shaw Grigsby maybe 10 years ago. But the video here by Maryland bass-blogger Kevin Scarselli is the first live demonstration I’ve seen.

Yes, it works. At least it works most of the time. The main thing in clearing a backlash by this or any other method is ... ... patience. If you get angry and frustrated and start yanking on the line willy-nilly, you’ll just be making things worse.

If things are so bad that you do have to resort to cutting the line to clear a tangle, then be careful of this one thing: Make sure after cutting the tangle free that the remaining line is not wound under itself on the spool. Sometimes the newly cleared line end gets tucked under a slack coil on the reel. If this happens--and it can be hard to notice--line won’t pay freely off the reel, and you might be creating another tangle worse than the one you had in the first place.

So I’ve recently become a pick-up truck owner. I've only had SUVs in the past, but given the nature of my hobbies, I finally decided that a pick-up was more practical in many ways. I only had one problem: I couldn’t stand laying rods in the bed with them hanging over the tailgate. I’ve just seen too many sticks get snapped or lose guides that way. So I began to tinker.

Not many pick-ups have roof racks, but Thule makes crossbars and ski holders for just about every vehicle under the sun. I can hold (and lock) seven rods on my roof, and I use this primarily for freshwater outfits and fly rods. But is that enough rod storage? Heavens no. I also splurged on a custom 7-rod rocket launcher that clamps into the bed made by a local aluminum welder. Each tube even has a removable pin that allows me to schlep offshore rods with gimbal-lock butts without them swinging. That’s 14 rods total I can tote anywhere without a single one lying in the bed. 

My last SUV was leased, and I learned the hard way that dealerships don’t take kindly to rugs full of sand and river mud. Since I own the new truck, a set of WeatherTech mats became priority. Now there’s nothing my waders can track in that a hose can’t blast out (vacuum sand all you want, you never get it all). To keep my coolers and boxes in place, I also picked up a cheap ratcheting cargo bar for the bed. This in and of itself is unexciting. But the little holes that the ratchet’s cog grab make excellent lure hangers.

Perhaps I’ve gone overboard, but I’ve seen plenty of tricks and projects online regarding pick-ups and fishing. There’s lots of PVC, milk crates, and two-by-fours involved. Have you rigged your ride for fishing in any way? I’d love to hear about some of your modifications. – JC

I clearly remember my first taste of cannibalism in the fish world. I was maybe 7 and reeling in a small bluefish when all of a sudden a bluefish five times the size of the one on my hook pounced on my catch and severed my line. This happens all the time. Big pike eat little pike. Giant brown trout eat little browns. So how big is a great white shark that cuts a 10-foot great white in half in two bites?

Apparently about 20-feet long. Here's a bit of the story from the New York Daily News:

Swimmers were warned that a "monster shark" was prowling off a popular Australian beach, one that nearly bit a 10-foot great white shark in half last week...

Based on the bite marks, experts say the larger shark must be twice its victim's size...

The smaller - relatively speaking - great white was hooked on a baited drum line when it was attacked, and was still alive when it was hauled onto a boat off north Stradbroke Island in Queensland.

In reality, a 20-footer isn't abnormally large for an adult white, but it's impressive none the less. I put a lot of stock in baby bass imitations and rainbow trout-colored stickbaits for bigger trout, but I've never thought of using a shark for a shark. If we're talking flyfishing, it would take a hell of a lot of bucktail to tie up that imitation.

Do you have a good tale of fish cannibalism? Ever lose an average fish to its granddaddy? Did grandaddy make it to the net? - JC