By Joe Cermele

The photo below entered into our ongoing vintage tackle contest by Jim McKee is definitely one of the more unique pieces of old gear we've seen so far. What makes this particular item so cool is its military ties. Jim wrote: 

I found this item in the bottom of my father’s tackle box....I suspect that this is the civilian version of an item that was placed in survival kits for pilots in the Pacific theatre during WWII .I just finished reading " Unbroken", a novel about a WWII aviator who survived 50 + days in a life raft and years in a Japanese prison camp. The author mentioned that the U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S Navy began including more items in their life raft survival kits and this looks like a suitable tool for catching fish.

By Joe Cermele

I was 22 years old when I caught my first striper over 40 pounds. I knew I was into the biggest bass I'd ever hooked, but when it finally came up to the surface, its massive tail sweeping, my heart never beat so fast. In fact, seeing that I'm a Northeast native and stripers are my favorite local target, I can honestly say my heart never beat as fast for any other fish since. This past Saturday, I sort of got to relive that when 9-year-old Alex Dorris, the son of my good friend Darren, landed his first 40-pounder on my boat.

By John Merwin

While traveling in the Florida Keys last week and not catching tarpon*, I encountered the signs shown in the photo. They were in a bar (where else?) at a waterfront joint called Wahoo’s where my wife and I stopped for lunch.

“Ah-ha!” I said to myself at the time. “I can blog about those.” Which is just as well because I had no fish that I might have blogged about otherwise. For example, if you have to “Drink til she’s cute,” as the sign proclaims, I think you have a big problem that drinking won’t solve. And for those of equal-opportunity mindsets, you could also “Drink til he’s cute,” which won’t solve your problem either.

Then there’s the beer thing. I get the dancing part. There was a time when ample beer consumption helped me on the dance floor, too. But what about 1843?

As far as I can tell, bottled beer has been around since at least the 16th century in Europe. I have been unable to find the significance of the year 1843 in brewing history. So maybe you can help. Anybody got an answer?

By Joe Cermele

Check out the photo at left, which was recently submitted into our ongoing vintage tackle contest by Timothy Owen. It might be hard to believe, but I guess you could say this is a super-early predecessor of lures with incredibly realistic finishes, such as those made by Live Target and Yo-Zuri today. I know, it doesn't look like much, so I'll let vintage tackle expert Dr. Todd Larson of The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog explain exactly what Mr. Owen found in an old tackle box he picked up at a flea market:

"What's more real than an actual minnow? How about one dipped in plastic. Preserved baits had already been around for over 50 years when on August 15, 1939, Englishman F.J. Nevison patented a method for "preserving fish, frogs, etc." in cellulose, an early plastic.