By Joe Cermele

Though this spoon, entered into the vintage tackle contest by Niki Christopher, isn't any different from a modern Dardevle, I really dug the story that came with it. It's a bit long, but I think many of you probably have similar stories, and this one was rather touching. Niki writes:

This spoon is one of three of a set I gave my dad for Father’s Day when I was somewhere between 5 and 10 years old. To get the set, I had to send in labels from Brylcreem hair tonic. My dad didn’t use it, so I enlisted the help of my uncle and a neighbor who did. After dad died in 1979, I ended up with some of his fishing tackle, and found two of the Brylcreem Royal Spoons in his tackle box. I carried them in my tackle box for years and used them occasionally. My young daughter steadfastly refused to use them, for fear she would lose a family treasure, but I continued to use one now and then to honor my dad. I lost one of them on my last spin-fishing trip to Colorado, and decided to retire the last one remaining. I keep it on my fly-tying desk now. I realize this isn’t a pristine antique lure in “new-in-box” condition, but it is an heirloom to me: a warm reminder of the daddy who taught me how to fish.

By Joe Cermele

You may have heard whispers or seen a snippet over the weekend of a 600-pound black marlin jumping into the cockpit of the Little Audrey, a sportfisherman out of Cairns, Australia. Well, today I stumbled upon the longer footage taken by the crew. Apparently they had four cameras running and captured the aerial assault from multiple angles. It's some pretty wicked stuff. Two things I'd like to point out on a personal note: 1.) Though I've only gotten to experience it a few times, there is no bigger rush in fishing than when a big boat is backing down hard on a marlin and the cockpit is filling with water. You feel like you need to hold your chest so your heart doesn't blow out. 2.) Kudos to the crew on the music choice. I couldn't have picked it better myself.

By Joe Cermele

We've been seeing a lot of lures lately in the vintage tackle contest, so here's a nice little change-up. This Castglo King Automatic Float was submitted by Harvey Velix, who picked up the odd-ball item at a flea market for one dollar. To get the back story on this piece, Dr. Todd Larson of the The Whitefish Press and "Fishing For History" blog called in some big guns. Dr. Todd wrote: This neat bobber came in the very week I was reviewing a pre-press copy of the definitive history of angling floats, written by British collector Jeff Della Mura. I contacted Jeff so he could give you the "royal treatment," so to speak. 

By Joe Cermele

That guy in the photo is Andrew Metzger, better known to frequent F&S.com readers as Koldcut. Andrew lives in Colorado, but he's originally from eastern Pennsylvania. For the last few years all I've been hearing from Andrew is, "the next time I'm in PA we have to fish." Well, he was in PA last week and we fished. And he got a righteous taste of what us Northeast saltwater guys deal with all fall: Wind when no wind is forecast, the fish you want being non-existent even though they were everywhere the day before, and bluefish (a.k.a. lemonade). Only Andrew's tall glass of lemonade came with a twist.